At 22:53 18 September 2010, John Godfrey QT wrote:

So many very good pilots are being excluded from the club competition
simply because of the glider they are flying. Most pilots cannot
afford more than one glider, and once they have saved mightily to get
their prized 27, 29 or whatever are not likely to sell it to get a
club ship. So many very good pilots are being excluded for what
amounts to financial reasons.

Well, they're excluded from the 1-26 Championship, too, aren't they?
That's sort of the point of the 1-26 class, isn't it? Let me admit that
the only competition I've flown is the occasional 1-26 Championship, but I
guess I'm not clear on what the purpose of glider racing is. It begins to
sound like what we all want to do is pick some pilots who can win at the
world competition. I used to have the impression that glider racing was
about getting together with a bunch of like-minded idiots and having fun
flying our gliders. That certainly seems to happen at the 1-26 meets.
Maybe I'm just uninformed.

Jim Beckman