Tony, I have been on a 17 once. I have been on several infusions more times than I care to, or even could count.

Jake, "(maybe) three" seems like a pretty confident estimate.

The fact of the matter is that you get what you pay for. Serious teams are on the water hundreds of days per year. A Marstrom platform has a considerable competitive life advantage over anything built to a lesser standard.

Someone else brought up the open sailplan of the T costing more. Earlier this year, the class voted in one design sails and locked the price for 4 years on said sails.

Even taking construction quality out of the picture, the tornado is larger, faster, carries more weight, and has a large preexisting global ownership base. Are you really excited about foils that can't actually foil?