* From Julian Bethwaite, Sydney Australia:
The International Moth class, a development class, is deliberating on
possibly restricting development in their class. Though the particular
question at issue isn't important per say, the issue is wing masts.

For what it is worth, it matters not what the rules are, or whose set of
rules you use because the perception of the Moth class has been one that I
believe a great number of sailors who have never sailed a Moth aspire to.
The Moth is in a rarefied field, along with the A class, C class,
International Canoes and a class dear to my heart, which used to belong to
your group, but has dropped out the bottom, - the 18teen.

And this is my point: What the class executive committee is about to do is
make a decision that has very long term effects and will position the Moth
class as either the utopia that we all aspire to, or just another class.

In 1996-7 a gentleman called Antony James Reynolds made what was effectively
a personal attack on me, which set a course of demise of the 18teen to where
it is today rather than where it could have been.

Sorry, it's not a $$$ thing as an I14 is five times the cost of a 49er and
they are doing very well, thank you very much. And obsolescence does not cut
it either. Moths have an ethos of evolution. If you kill that, you kill the
class.

While the JJ Giltinan for the 18teen is still a very worthy trophy to win,
there simply are no new Bruce Farr's, Ben Lexan's, Iain Murray or dare I say
Julian Bethwaite's coming from what used to be called "the Hot House
Flowers" of the sailing world.

We now are looking at the Mac's and the Bora's of this world along with the
Rohan Veal's & Fred Eaton's to show us the future. Hopefully!