I doubt the dutch have a lot of basements... being below sea level and all!

The elephant in the room is your total avoidance of the central issue... eg.. the total and rapid collapse of the class (people) ... Not the where is waldo game of who has an HT hidden in a garage.

How did the group of sailors who liked that boat disolve?

What happened?

Why?

Most of those guys are still racing cats in other classes!

Was the Mike Worrell Bimare decision to use the 18HT, a boat optimized for buoy racing, in a 1000 mile ocean race the major reason?

Why would that be... The boat is round the can racer. Why did the racing class disolve?