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?
I've only raced against a T in one regatta. It was the Thai Catamaran regatta just prior to the selection trials for the mixed multi. The T was being between around the course consistently by the Carbon 20s, and most of the time by F16s and F18s. Not sure the level of the team racing the boat, but I wasn't all that impressed. The boat looked very dated next to the new designs.
