I know that this topic must have been discussed a number of times. That is actually no reason to try again...

Personally i would like to see F18's to get lighter. Modern building techniques enable lighter boats without the need of expensive materials which would drive up costs.

Yes of course, changing the weight of a 'new' F18 would make older F18's obsolete. But you have to make a change sometimes.....

An interview with Martin Fisher on Catsailingnews (see link below) triggered me to post this thread.
http://catsailingnews.blogspot.com/

What do you, F18 sailors around the world, think of changing the weight of our F18's to (for example) 140kg, like suggested by Martin Fisher? (see quote below on the future of an olympic cat)


CS-Which boat should be used? Tornado, any current F18, or a special new design created for the games?
MF:The Tornado is a nice boat but the design is no longer up to date and I think it is time to look for something new. The F18 is a very active Class and choosing a current boat could be a solution. In that case I have (of course) a strong preference for the Wild Cat. On the other side I think a boat with foils would be nice. So I think an F18 like boat with foils should be used for the games in 2016.
I think 18 ft with a beam of 2.5 m would be a good choice. Transport is much easier than with a wider boat and such a boat would be significantly cheaper than a 20-ft boat. I would also like to see the weight come down a bit, but not to extreme levels. I reckon a weight of around 140 kg would be a good compromise between performance and cost.