Guys the price of an A in NA is around $20k, and with a N20 being around the same cost where is the better value? I don't think that opening up the sails to 3rd party sailmakers is going to net you anything more than maybe a few hundred dollars savings, and then you will have open the door for a whole bunch of controversy..who is legal, who is going to measure them etc. No I don't think that SMOD is the poorest value for the money. PC has always been reasonable with their prices, and less cost than most but I do agree that the recent price increases are a bit steep. There are solutions to the $11k mast price, it is just a question of time/money to get those solutions to the fleets.

The cost of boats is a direct result of volume, inflation and yes profit margin. You can't compare the price of boats 30 years ago with today since the volume of boats made is a lot less and so the profit margin per boat has to be higher.

Even if somehow magically the cost of a N20 mast came down by $3000 or the cost of a new N20 came down $3000 do you think that more people would jump into the fleet? No I don't think so. But if the price goes up a lot more, say into Tornado territory then yes it will have an impact. I am sure that more people would be sailing Tornados if it weren't for the price.

I don't think that there really is a debate here about the N20 fleets. It is the only game in town for a 20' boat (at a reasonable cost) and it is a fantastic boat so there is (I think) no reason to speculate on its demise. I think the biggest risk is that PC stops building the boat due to no sales volume, and going to 3rd parties to get parts isn't going to look favourably for PC to continue building it. (Just to be clear I don't think there is any reason PC WOULD stop building the boat!) I do think that we need to support PC and not nickel and dime them as cat sailors are apt to do.