I kind of agree here.

I would not question the FX1 but more Hobies reasoning behind making a hopped up version of a boat that was not overy successfull in the first iteration. Maybe they found a buyer group or maybe it is just a last attempt to use the molds they already have in their factory.

I think the FX compares very well with the early F16 - The latest iterations have progressed to surpass it IMO.

Hobie Europe builds a very good product. The beach cat sailors are totaly spoiled when it comes to what boats cost to them when you compare what you get relative to other classes of boats or even other sports.

Manufacturing in low volume composites is expensive. No builder is going to purposely over charge for anything and stay in bussiness. They do however have to cover what it cost to get these boats made. There were some post bitching on the cost for the new Wild Cat. Hobie has a name designer and a team of manufacturing people and a team of sailors who have all been working for over a year if not years on getting this boat delivered. Add in the costs for molds and I am sure some new components and they have to recover a lot of costs. Of course you want the newest sail cuts and materials along with carbo blocks and all high tech lines.

Hell a new H16 is comming up on 11K. There is no harware to speak of on one and the molds and tooling have been long ago paid for. If it was a situation where the company was "overcharging" for this boat, Hobie US would still be making them as there would be profit in them.

I can see where buyers want to get the most bang for thier buck, but I see where ther bigger players would not want to get involved in a class that does not already have momentum as the costs benefit to the builder will never be justified.

The A class is a great example. Performance tried to play and lost their butt. This is a sucessfull class but has always been driven by the backyard devlopers. Bim is sort of the exception, but most of the new ideas and trials are all from guys doing it for their own enjoyment and at their own cost. (Curved boards, and Bens wing sail be 2 of the most publicized recent examples) Successfull ideas get copied and the other die out. The expectation though is the very highest and no production builder with overhead can live off of the slim margin these types of product make at the end of the day.

The F16 seems to be following the A model. With more and more expectations being requested by the users, you can see why Hobie and performance are not jumping in, but trying, at least what to me seems deserate, measures to sell their already completed designs F17 and FX against the F16.