A few boats get a bad rap here with respect to being labled "fragile". The A's primarily and the F16 to a lesser extent.

It is true from the standpoint you can not build lighter without making the skins thinner. (at least with the materials used to fab hulls today) It does not however, take a very large difference in skin thickness to make a huge difference in hull weight, so the relative impact resistance between most brands of boats is not as large as some would have you believe.

The issue with the very light boats is that they are so much easier to lift and move that it is not difficult to take the extra steps to make sure they stay protected. You pay a lot of money for a new boat, so it is a pretty big advantage in my book to be able to more easily take care of that investment. The truth is, that no, cored, round bottom boat is going to take being drug across rocks or banged into docks without some damage, ding or dent.

As far as comparing boats go, the only real way is to arange to get a ride yourself on whatever options you are looking at. There is not any boat that fits everyones needs or desires. There is a pretty good variety of boats avaialble in the 16 footish range, all with a like variety of feel and performance. Forum opinions will be slanted to the boat they own or the most prevalant design in an area. If you race 1 design, you will want whatever is the boat being raced. If performance/feel is the important factor then you need to feel it yourself and let that help decide your path.

I would go ahead and post my view here on boats, but you can probaly already guess <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />