>>>If you are buying a brand new boat, then I would agree with Eric, Jennifer, and others that the Taipan seems liek a nice boat. But with the manufacturer of the Nacra F18, and the Inter 17 sitting right here in your back yard, it seems silly to go elsewhere.
I was/am in a similar situation as Hobie Gary; when I decided to go for a Foreign design (F16 based on the Taipan platform) I could practically walk to the European Importer of an american build productline and who doubles as the biggest cat dealor in Europe. The dealor of the French branch of a world famous brandname was only a 15 minute drive away. Both provide a big support base with all parts in stock and both wanted to sell their newly designed singlehanders alot.
Where is this leading to ? Well, my platform is now approaching completion (platform is sitting on the beach) and it contains alot of parts from Australia and the it has fittings from all over he world. Example ; My pintles come from Italy (Vidana) and my blocks from the USA (Harken). My "tapered" mainsail sheet is made by a German company.
Not to long ago I discoverd the sad sad truth that my 2 carbon rudderboards / 2 carbon rudder stocks, 2 carbon tiller arms and 1 Kevlar-carbon crossbar and 1 carbon / kevlar joystick put together ARE
-1- CHEAPER than two Prindle 16 rudderboards and their alu stocks. (That is without the joystick and alu crossbar and alu tillers)
-2- LIGHTER than only one Prindle 16 rudder and stock. Ergo the setup weights less than 40 % than that of the P16.
-3- Feels a whole lot stronger, but then again the Prindle stocks are not to be considered a benchmark for break resistance.
The same applied to the daggerboards and mast. To give you an example. We measured the Taipan mast when fully fitted and it was 15,5 kg's, Its direct competition came in at 20 kg's. Even the carbon option of one alternative singlehander was still heavier than the alu Taipan mast. Cost ? I paid 880 Euro's (= 900 USD) for the mast section including taxes, import and shipping from Australia. With the fittings I will have paid some 1750 Euro's. A new mast for one of the others comes in around 2500 Euro's.
I admit that I didn;t know these details when I decided to go for a foreign boat over the ones offered by the nearby dealors; I choose it for different reasons, mainly the way I plan to use it. But had I know then what I know now than I would most definately not even have gone throught the efforts of test sailing all designs to see which one fitted me best. Why would I not save a good buck on a boat that even then is still fitted out much better (carbon-kevlar !) than the others ?
I also admit the prices for the rudder setup of the Prindle are remarkable dear overhere. Which brings me to my second point. Okay the dealors are near to me and I can drive there on every day I want and get replacement parts immediately. But I will pay significantly for this luxury. Or I can order a replacement part at the various contacts and Fedex it to me within a few days and save again some significant amount of money on the purchase. That is if the part ever breaks and can not be replaced by a part source locally (part like blocks, pullies, line, tubing for booms and spi poles etc). With my ruddersetup I can even order a spare system right now and still only equal the cost of only one setyp of the competition. Talking about immediate available replacement.
So I agree with HobieGary that a dealor which is near to you is a good argument for that particular product. It definately is, but on the other hand, both cost and quality are two other very convincing considerations of at least the same magnitude and now I've seen the parts in real life I can tell you that for me both of these heavily outweight the fact that I'm only an extremely short distance away from both alternative product dealors.
Rudder slop; I don't even know what that is anymore.
Wouter
