Good Morning,
I'm wondering if anybody can point me in the direction of plans for home construction of an F-18, something like the F-16 Blade, but obviously an F-18...
I haven't yet found any...

you mean the blade f18?

Fantastic! I have no idea how I missed that! I will get in contact with Phil, in fact I'd already emailed him about the F16 as a backup option!

Znid,

Good luck! I looked at doing this but realized a few things:

1) Building in plywood, a new homebuilt F18 would be roughly $12K, probably more as the cost of raw materials keeps going up ~5-10% year on year. New rig and new sails set you back $8K. For that you can get a nice used tiger and a little more gets you into a Capricorn or Infusion with good quality sails

2) Building takes time. I guesstimated 300 hours, maybe more maybe less. That is time spent training!

3) Designs available likely won't be competitive out of the box. Blade isn't bad but it's low volume compared with the newer designs (Infusion, C2, Phantom etc.). If if the hull shape is fast, getting the rig tuned and the running rigging set properly is a time consuming process. I know, I did the latter this summer, probably spent 60 hours splicing new lines for the Infusion, they turned out well and it was a skill worth learning but it's time consuming!

If you really want to build, go for it! If you really want to sail and are looking to save money, buy a used boat. Good luck.

I noted this over the past few days when estimating some costs. Is it just me, or is marine plywood costing more per sheet than divinycell H80??? It seriously looks to me as though I could build a cat out of foam (or even honeycomb) like the Lindahl cats for around half the price of a plywood boat. Times have changed...

Plywood was a popular building material even through the 90's. Now it is pretty rare for a new boat to be built in plywood, at least in the U.S. This has made the cost of luan go up while glass/foam stays relatively constant (sans inflation and price of oil) since it has plenty of use outside the marine industry.

Best of luck, see you on the water

Ok, so it turns out that the Blade 18 plans are not yet drawn. Are there any other designs out there for F18 builds? F20 would also work. Failing either, a non class racing style 18-20 foot cat?

By which I mean not f18 or f20 class compliant cat, but similar style racing boat

You have the Tornado as an option.

http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=11015