You gotta pay to play. R+D ain't cheap, neither is tooling up for a product. Although it is more than I would have guessed.

See I'm habitually stupid, and were I interested in a Blade I would spring for the coloured hulls, kevlar, their own cradles. With a trailer, shipping, and tax's I would have close to $20k into it I bet.

Doug, find yourself a used F17, or a FXone. I payed just over $10k for my boat and its three years old. One sold in Alabama a while back for around $8K a while back, didn't have wings though, but it did have a chute. Not bad considering thats less than half of a new one.