disclaimer :

of course my comments are all my personal opinions. I compose them simply by looking at a few key economic pointers. Up till now these have been dependable, but they still not garantee anything.

And I also warn against the selfforfilling profecy syndrome. So please fight my facts and assumptions were ever needed or possible. This to get the picture more clear.

end disclaimer.





I said that the FX-one is on the right rope at this time. This class needs something to happen in the next few years or I suspect it will go the way of the Fox. The latter was regarded as a well behaved boat but it failed because it couldn't establish a large enough fleet of sailors economically supporting the class. Basically, even good designs can fail. Of course the fact that it failed to enter the US market sufficiently because it was too slow compared to the US inter-20 contributed, but that still doesn't make it a bad F20 design.

FX-one in the EU is in my opinion not very well established. For several years I looked up the EU championship results and general race results and it doesn't seem to gain much critical mass. For a design that has been launched in 2000 and directly in the EU market by a major boat builder, I think this to be telling. I haven't sensed my of a FX-one class structure. The only recurring activity of the FX-one are the European championships, but these are always held together with the Hobie Tiger EU championships and as such just piggy back along. I think even the Fox still has EU championships this way, but I need to check that.

Also in UK and NL the F16's are directly challenging the FX-one (and I-17's). In the UK the race has been run I'm afraid and in NL were are neck to neck but with the F16 still in her growth phase (launched here in earnest in 2004). And I need to say here that the F16 class in NL is still very small. It is supported and grown by well intending amateurs and only 1 (very modest) agentship. It is striking that such a group can compete directly with a massive builder/dealer network like Hobie. That really shouldn't be happening !

I believe the FX-one is good modern boat, so it is not so much the design itself that is the issue. It is the class structure and the support by the FX-one sailors to that class. This is too weak at this time. This is also largely caused by the fact that no area outside of the EU supports the FX-one at all. The only area outside EU that has FX-one's is the USA and there are only a handful there. I think Aus has 2 or 3 old dealer demo's sailing and apart from that I know of no exported boats.

So my opinion is that the FX-one needs to be heavily promoted by the Hobie company/network or it mirculously needs to grow in other place then NL and Spain or its economic markers will keep pointing downward.

The FX-one has got one thing going for it and that is its role in the hobie product line. It is afterall the ONLY hobie singlehander product in production at this time. Also it is the only modern entry boat by hobie at this time. Apart from the rotomoulded stuff it only has the Hobie 16 and Hobie Tiger as companions. Discontinuing the FX-one is a big loss to such a short "performance oriented" boat listing. The hobie 15 and Hobie dragoon are not really performance boats or entry boats for adults. The Hobie 15 is also a very rare boat, more rare then the FX-one.




It appears that is where the Hobie corp USA is allowing "the bottom line" to push them towards.

It may even be worse for hobie sailors. Eventually they may have to consider changing to a non-hobie class. One that is run more by the passion for catamarans then the suffocating "bottom line".

Eventually, catamaran companies need to accept that no one is getting rich of building performance oriented beach catamarans. Any young business student will strike-out this productline as soon as he sees the ratio between effort and return of investment. In companies employing such managers these products are eternally at risk.

The only way building performance oriented beach catamarans makes business sense (unless you can corner a large market) is as show cases for your skills. Where these high flying products build a public perception of your capabilities that reflects well on their other products which do have a good return of investment. One such example is a combined "boat builder sailmaker" business model like Goodall/AHPC. Apart from that personal passions and person fortunes are the sustaining factors. Were a business owner does it for the love of it while breaking even or making a very modest profit. Hobie at this time does not seem to have either of these concepts enclosed in their business and the FX-one has not achieved a sufficiently large corner of the market yet.


Maybe you also now see the attractiveness of Formula classes to builders and suppliers. The gains from new parts is too small to lead to an arms race, but the eternal modifying and upgrading of boats maintains a market of parts and replacements that earns these companies their profits. In strict OD classes you can only earn on the new boats and the very few replacements for broken parts. In formula classes, there is a market extension because nearly all owners personalize their boats and upgrade every few years (not buying a whole new boat, but upgrading their current boat to the next level). Upgrading by buying a totally new boat is only viable for owners when the boat is easily sold second hand for a very good price and in small classes like the FX-one this is difficult if not very difficult.

As you see there are many angles to this situation.




Well, all kite boats can be sailed well without the spinnakers, so why don't they just agree to race eachother without them ?

Safes you some money as well as a spinnaker does add 1000 bucks to a modern cat retail price.

Wouter