Well, when the Nacra Infusion was launched in Europe they all broke their daggerboards within something like 6 weeks. Every single one of them. At the end there was not even a replacement daggerboard left in Europe and I think a new batch had to be rushed in. Then they changed the daggerboard design and since then all problems are gone, that must be said too !

However, it shows like nothing else the fallicy of adding minimum weight to class rules to arrive or even garantee at a dependable boat. Not even the 180 kg minimum platform weight and the 3kg/board mimimum daggerboard weight rules of the F18 class were enough to prevent this little situation from happening. And having to replace all those broken parts sure makes no economic sense either when compared to doing it right the first time.

Slack design goals only lead to inferiour products. I've seen that plenty of times in software development and as an engineer. If the designer is not a little bit scared then he will get lazy and careless and more often then not come back with a shitty product.

I once talked to a building contracter and he told me that after 30 years in the business he found out that he made the most money in projects were he had to duck below his intented quotes in order to get the job. Turned out that being scared of losing money on such projects was a great way of focussing his employees in working efficiently.

If we raise our F16 minimum weight to 115 kg or even 125 kg then all Hobie and Nacra will do is bitch that it is still too low compared to their 145 kg products. Basically what they want is for the competition to "go away" by lowering themselves to their level of technology and quality control. As if that is in any way attractive to us. The low minimum weight is actually our biggest selling point together with the proven 1-up/2-up versatility. Why on earth would we consider degrading such an important selling point for a fools hope of attracting Hobie and Nacra to the class ?

I don't think Hobie and Nacra will ever join the F16 class UNLESS they absolutely have too. This irrespectibally of whether we have a 107 kg, 125 kg or even a 145 kg minimum weight rule. I think they are humming the F104 class as well, because then they have to compete directly with the likes of Boulogne who will redesign their boats for maximum performance and to gain an advantage inside the F104 class. I REALLY don't believe that both Nacra and Hobie are interested in having another design, next to their F18's, that needs constant attention in this way. Hell, they never tried to group their 17 footers together before some 3rd party came up with the F104 ! These companies really don't want to subject their 17 foot or singlehander designs to competition from other builders. It will show far too quickly were corners have been cut to maximize profit. And then it become pretty hard to convince a customer that he needs to pay 15000 Euro's or more for their design. Hell even the new SL16 is more expensive then halve the F16's on offer today, despite it being an embarassing low tech glass 16 footer (155 kg !). Even the new upgraded but rotomoulded Dart 16 is breathing down its neck engineering wise and in specs.

Doesn't it strike anybody else as odd that the heavier designs (low tech = cheap ?) are also the most expensive in comparison ? Or that the most challenging rule set (=F16) has lead to the most active fleet the world over between these 3+1 (+1 = SL16) alternatives ? Maybe this is because of the fact that we are "higher" tech (as we are not high tech really) and have a more challenging (=inspiring) rule set ?


Also, I for one refuse to put 25 kg of lead on my mainbeam because Nacra and Hobie can't even outbuild a bunch of (mediocre) amateurs who can build a timber F16 at 120 kg already. Skilled amateurs must be able to acieve a F16 weight of 110-115 kg.

To me both Hobie and Nacra are companies who must come to step up to our level rather then us stepping down to theirs. Because lets face it, their claim that they can't go better then a 115 kg Hobie Wave or a 155 kg SL16 is not very convincing, is it ?

Wouter