They are inferiour in the way that a boeing 707 jet engine is inferiour when used on a Cessna 4 seater. Either may be fine products in their own right but combining the two in one setup is not. Look for the allowance, in the Inter-17R class rules, to have owners cut down their (F18) daggerboards to 70% to understand what I mean exactly.

I will be a right fool if I lay down 14.500 grant only to be allowed to cut down my spanking new daggerboards to admitted superior dimensions myself.





Lets turn this question around. Why pay the same amount for the design composed out of F18 scraps when you can also have the real optimized thing ?

Why is it that that a bunch of amateurs like the F16 sailors of the first hour can make such a optimized craft economically viable where professionals can't.

Why is economic viability here not used as an explanation but as an excuse ?

And I'll go one step further. I'll tell you where the F16 wants to be in 5 years time. Right at that "challenging" weight of 107 kg while costing the same or less then the "professional" alternatives.

That low weight is not an issue for us, rather it is what sets us "amateurs" apart from the "professionals" !

We are not seeing F17, F104 and other copy-cat operations for nothing. Who would have thought 6 years ago that three complete amateurs, all mediocre sailors without a company, an agent network or any serious resources could achieve economic viability of a superiorly designed craft in every respect were the other builders could not.

What is it that we are doing right ?

Worse still, I think it is actually you who has it the wrong way around. Your pals are getting solidly beating at designing and the marketing game by a bunch of resourceless amateurs who happen to also be mediocre sailors. What will happen when more talented sailors get on board ? No amount of "hot shot" sailing is going to push that dark cloud of the horizon.


Lets also see what you guys have here ? Guys like Bob Curry, Tom Thurlington, Tony Mels and even you are actually coming to the F16 forum to discuss/promote boats like the I-17's and FX-one's. (and they remain welcome to do so) That would certainly not happen if F16's weren't going somewhere. Inter-17's are now F17's and Spitfires/FX-one's are now F104's, their rule sets converging on the same principles encoded in the F16 rules over 6 years ago. Are you beginning to see a trend here ? Lets continue.

F16 has had World Championship with 13 participants from nations as far apart as USA, Europe and Australia. F16 in the past week scored both a 1st and 2nd place overall in the USA and a 2nd place overall in Australia.

FX-one just had their European championships with 4 boats attending. Inter-17 held their US nationals in juli at the single Michigan sailing club that contains 15 boats, 2 more came from other parts of US. Their nationals at Pensacola (not near to that 15 boat club) drew 3 boats 2 years ago.

Inter-17 outside of the US is basically mister Peter Vink at 23rd place on saterday 30 september 2007. And where were the Inter-17's last year when 7 F16 crews had agreed to meet eachother at the Round Tiengemeente race ?


I think we may need to face a harsh truth here.

Let me explain be inverting your own statement.





Be a brave person and tell us all here at this public forum how many nacra I-17's will be racing at Catagolfe this weekend out of those 260 participants. You may include any of the 6 different versions in existance.


...


Forgive me for saying so but you got absolutely nothing and you know it.

Wouter