Brett

Thank you for your thought provoking response.

"As a major manufacture we have to guarantee our boats, and in Europe that is 2 years by law. If you under build your designs then you are effectively playing Russian Roulette with your business. The other option is you have to charge more per boat to cover the high level of warranty claims."

>>>I find this hard to accept, if this were true no one would sell "A" class cats in Europe as they are without question much more fragile than the F16. As a manufacture you have the right to define a reasonable scope of use for your product, outside of which the warrantee is void, as is the case with every other manufactured product.



"The second point of stiffness is something that get highly over looked as a integral design feature.I'm not going to get into the "He said" - "She said" - "my numbers show" arguments here... As an engineer I know we can all take different conclusions from the same results. But the fact is stiffness comes at a cost, either dollars or KG (lb for the Americans among us). You have to choose the trade off between weight Vs stiffness. On a side note I believe this is a good feature of the F16... that is that the designer must make another critical decision."

>>>As an engineer you know without a doubt that the very discipline itself is centered on designing structures, whether a catamaran, a car or a space shuttle ... maximizing strength/weight/performance/cost restraints and countless other factors.
To do other wise is no more scientific than a back yard builder saying "if one layer of glass will do the job, two will make it twice as strong" that's not engineering. Using F18 beams sizes for economy of manufacturing, with all due respect, is a marketing decision, not as much as an engineering one, although I concede there is a slight benefit in stiffness as a by product...

"While I agree that some manufactures choose to build easy / cheep boats in favor of "High Teching it up" I think it is rude to assume it is "Apathy? Ineptitude? Laziness? Greed? Arrogance?. In all situations the decisions have been carefully thought through and choices made."

>>>I was not trying to be rude, nor did I assign any particular attribute to AHPC, Hobie or NACRA. There is some reason the three above builders have not built an optimized F16... a larger boat builder has an advantage over a smaller builder in raw material costs because of the quantity of materials used if nothing else. Why is it that smaller builders do not have the same issues with the minimum weight?

"I encourage anyone who feels they can do a good job at designing / manufacturing a catamaran to do so ... then consider doing it commercially."

They are...they just don't have the budgets to attract the "hired guns " to sail their boats to victories.

"Oh and more "on topic"... does this forum enjoy the banter with macca???? this is the second thread specifically aimed at him. Just an observation."

No, I do not enjoy the banter with Macca or any of his minions but it does royally insults peoples intelligence when someone covertly tries to paint an alternate reality like he does thru deception and twisting of the facts. Many of those who do not abide in the truth become victims of their own lies, that is, they repeat the lies so often they began to believe it themselves.

Brett...while I have your attention I would like to ask you a question....is the Viper basically a Capricorn F18 with the distance between the stations compressed? It sure looks like it, and it would be a great way to develop the product with minimum hassle. Just curious.