Sam,

Obviously you miss the point of F18. The idea is not to have high tech boat (no foils, no carbon , heavy cat, no wings), but to have similar boat to have close race where sailing skills are the key of the game.

If you want tech dev, A class or C class are much more open.

The success of F18 till 1994 is based on this close class rules formula. That was the original purpose I can produce some doc (in french I'm sorry) to prove that.

Big hull, long daggerboard, paint and now thin sails increased F18 price and more than this the life cycle of those expensive toy are close to smartphone one.
And the customer paid the developpment...

That may explain a great part of a drop more than 35% of new boat plaques provided to builders in 2012 worldwide.

More than this, a faster boat than the one next to you on the start line, does not mean more fun.