There are also some obvious disadvantages to one-design classes, the most 

 important being a lessening of the stimulus toward the development of new 

 and improved designs. Some of the great creative steps forward by yacht 

 designers have come from their efforts to create boats that are different 

 from their predecessors and faster. This, however, has sometimes resulted 

 in freak rule-beaters, such as W. Starling Burgess's Outlook with its tre- 

 mendous overhangs which made waterline length ridiculous as a basis of 

 competition. Thus, creative design efforts had to be brought under control 

 and new sets of rules came into being which would restrict the area within 

 which designers would be allowed free scope for their imagination. Hence, 

 we now have restricted or development classes such as the International 

 14s and the Moths, which allow scope for creative effort but attempt to 

 keep it within practical limitations. 



Sometimes the line between one-design and development classes is closely 

 drawn. For instance, some one-design classes such as the Stars, while keep- 

 ing to the same hulls, have allowed considerable latitude in the development 

 of improved equipment. Other classes have been extremely rigid and when 

 a change is permitted, such as a shift from wooden to fiber-glass hulls, it 

 affects all members of the same class simultaneously. There is little doubt 

 that both one-design and development classes are desirable for the good 

 of yachting. There is no doubt, also, despite the voices of pessimism which 

 predicted that one-design classes would bring about a "killing of a great 

 deal of the enthusiasm for yacht racing," as one man put it, that one-design 

 classes will continue to grow and are largely responsible for the growth in 

 the popularity of sailing. 



16 INTRODUCTION 



