Just putting an idea out there...

So it seems to me, that whilst heaps of people love the F14 concept, the price-point and people's apathy seems to have stalled the class' momentum. Especially when I hear local sailors say, why buy an F14 when I can get a 2nd hand but competitive F16 for the same price (and have all the advantages of a popular class).

... Meanwhile ... NACRA has released its 430 in Australia and I suspect there are already more 430's than F14's and it's only been released a few months.

Now the contentious part: What do people think of setting up an F14 sloop class? Essentially something built around the NACRA 430 concept. Maybe a bit lower minimum weight (or maybe not), allowing centreboards, similar sail plan and whatever else people seem to think is a good idea.

Now my justification for the idea. Feel free to argue as I don't even have a cat at the moment!
1) Look at the successful classes vs those that have died off.
a) SMOD (single manufacturer one design) and similar minimal development cat classes have in general had the tendancy to see great early growth and then slowly fade away. Good examples are the Nacra 14sq, 16sq, Taipans. Exceptions are... umm.. the hobie 16. Any others? Designs that are 10 years old or less don't count as they are still in the early stage.
b) Open manufacturer one designs and similar minimal development cat classes have in general had the tendancy to prosper, or only shown signs of dying when technology has well and truly made the designs obselete. Good examples are the paper tiger, mosquito, arrow/arafura. I'm sure there are others.
2) A great deal of the success of the F16 (at least as I see it) is that you can sail single handed or with a crew. 14 foot is borderline single-hander or with a crew boat length - you might as well have a class that allows both.
3) Trying to get F16 performance out of a 14ft boat is beyond an acceptable price point for too many people - hence the current situation.
4) There is already growth in the Nacra 430 class. Take advantage of it. If you can get a 2nd manufacturer or home builds to fit within a class that the 430 is not completely out-classed then you have the foundations of a new class already done for you.
5) A multi-manufacturer class that the 430 fits into means the 430 is more likely to be a long-term class rather than fade out in 10 years time. See point 1.
6) You can't really sail a cat rigged catamaran with 2 people, without one person having nothing much to do.

My motivation for this is very selfish. I want to get my daughter into sailing and get back out there myself. I've been planning on building an F12, which has a very uncertain future - I'd be the first person within at least 1000km's to build and I'd have to do all the hard work of building a local fleet myself, plus it's on the verge of being too small for even a light adult + a child. On the other hand, I could go out and buy a 430, which has already got 3 sailing at different clubs within 50km of my home, but I'll be saving for a few years yet to do that and I'll be forever annoyed that it's a skeg design without boards, and risk the class dying off in 10 years anyway. My ideal option is to build a 430 look-alike with my own personal preferences, that I could race against the established 430 fleet and hopefully get some other home-builders into. My other options are to buy some other class 2nd hand, but the options with existing local fleets are limited, and by the time you cancel out the classes that are so dated that I'd feel embarrassed to sail it or too high performance to consider letting a 6 year old (or younger) helm, there's pretty much nothing left.

flame away...