I agree with i20 completely. The HT is hard to sail well, and too few good sailors bothered to learn how to sail the HT well. So too few good sailors embraced it. The Worrell didnt help either.
I love the HT in medium winds on a flat day. A Newport summer day, mid week, with no powerboat chop and a nice 12 knot seabreeze, the boat just sings. I love it singlehanded in 5-12 knots, especially downwind, its one of the sweetest experiences around, and I wouldnt trade it for anything.
In 18knts and gusty its a handful, and its not very forgiving. In gusty winds over 18kts takes two people who know what they are doing to make the boat go fast. WF and Matt Struble were a perfect example, they were fast, but they were BOTH good sailors.
I've had mine out in 30knts plus -sustained - and the boat was fine, its solid, the mast is solid, and hulls are solid. The daggers and rudders are the weak points. I've also had the rudders fail the first time I sailed it, so some of what is said about the rudders and leaky daggers is true.
The main reason the HT and the HT class failed in my opinion was the Worrell. If the class had grown organically and done mainly windward leeward racing it would still be in existance today. The HT wasnt designed for the Worrell and should have never been selected for that race.
