Franck,

I do not know how the F18 class system is supposed to work, but this current debacle does not show well for the class and your defense of this position is making it worse in my view.
The F18 class has had painted boats for years - this is more than verifiable.

It is not possible that this is now an emergency within the class such that they would need to place a vote. This makes the decision a new rule not just a clarification. Banning something that has been knowingly accepted years after the fact should not be acceptable to any class member, and reeks of poor sportsmanship, conspiracies etc.

Local regulations play a huge part in the processes builders may elect to employ. If someone is already using 1 type of process, they are not going to want to switch to the other. For a performance cat hull there is very little difference in cost between paint or gel, but it cost a lot to switch. As an ex-boat builder I can vouch that any claim this is being done to protect costs is BS. Add to that, the material suppliers are constantly upgrading and revising their product lines. The PVC core and the gel coat used in the F18 today is nowhere near the same as it was 10+ years ago. Restrictions to brands or very specific material types is a bit of a fallacy if your intent is to claim equality. What about all the new carbo blocks and high tech lines? If we want to keep equal and keep cost in line, let’s all go back to hemp rope and metal shiv blocks.

Bringing Manu into this is a bit ridiculous as well. Is not Cirrus the latest in the rush of builders heading to China for the cheap labor and to shed themselves of regulation? To small builder or even 1 offs with no tooling budgets, paint is a very economical, practical solution. To the builder located where spraying styrene is not allowed, paint is the only real cost effective and cosmetically good alternative. For rehabilitating whole hulls paint is by far the better solution to post gel coat application. (If rehab or repair paint is allowed, it is a bit ridiculous to open up rules such that this is acceptable but on new builds it is not – who decides how much is repair? Big big mess coming up)

If you are part of the F18 process, I would suggest some more time trying to get rid of this issue and not continue to try and defend such a poor example of power being abused.