Tami,
Alot of people have mentioned that. However a lot of people involved with the whole Nacra 6.0NA class warn us about being "cut off" from the factory. I certainly don't want to throw the manufacturer out or alienate them. Wouter is correct in saying that the marketplace wont support a new 20 footer - especially since all that needs to happen is the sailplan for the 20 be updated.
You guys make it sound like a conspiracy but it's straight and simple economics. Nacra is building boats on the west coast as fast as they can but they are almost all F18s - that's what people are ordering. For the 20's, as volume goes down, prices go up...I think the mast is a different issue and maybe the other prices have gone up a little more than they should - but it's a minor point and one that Nacra has very little business motivation to deal with since nobody is buying 20s (which started before the price increases).
Soooo what do you do? The only way (only way) classes survive is if you build your fleets and bring in new sailors. You bring in new sailors buying used boats who migrate to new or we buy new and sell down, working the ground, talking it up, and helping people get started. More sailors = more volume = more support from Nacra.
We own the boats so we could definitely open up the sails, the trampolines, rigging, and other soft goods to various manufacturers but we need to ask ourselves if this will help us grow new sailors. How significantly will it also serve to alienate ourselves from the single source of hulls, beams, and masts, etc by making their continued support of the boat even less business effective for them.
I'm not kicking F18 - I really like sailing F18...but as it relates to the 20, it is really the big problem through it's continued success and absorbing a significant amount of the sailor base. As a 20 class, I think we would serve ourselves better by continuing to promote the boat as the "Cadillac of the seas" and the king of distance racing. It does have a niche but I am of the opinion that any drastic changes in the class would only serve to weaken it.
I also don't care that the F18s are faster on some points of sail - so what? I know that when I race you guys in the Tybee that we're all running the same equipment and that I'm not up against Mr Daddy Warbucks, Todd Hart, who might have had a special spinnaker cut for the weather conditions he expected to see that week.
I'm not suggesting inaction - quite the contrary...It will take some energetic people and action, like what Velocity has been doing, to continue the little bit of positive growth the class has seen. Going after the manufacturer only serves to lessen their business motivation to continue support of the class. It's a complex issue.
