Pete,
I sail a Jav2, it falls into the 18HT class. I weigh 200lbs and I usually sail with someone about my size and the boat does great with that weight. We carry 20sq meters of sail upwind and 40sq meters downwind and you need weight on the wire when it gets over 12-14 knts. Being a formula class you can cut your sails to match your weight. Also, there are a couple of never/hardly/lightly used HT's for sale for cheap. One in PA for 7k, they bought it for the Worrell and then that race never happened.
THe HT is 130kg all up. I can sail the boat by myself or with crew and move it around/rig it mostly by myself or with inexperienced crew. The other 18/20 footers weigh more and a lighter weight is nice when you are moving it around on the beach setting it up.
We have an active bouy racing circuit and we are also beginning to get a match racing circuit going. The HT is the 2003/2004 ICCT boat. See
http://www.icct2003.org/2003/This is going to encourage more manufacturers to build HT's and more sailors will get into the class as well.
Sailing World wrote two articles on the Jav, it gives good idea of what you can expect.
http://www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=201330&typeID=395&catID=565http://www.sailingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=201180&typeID=395&catID=565 www.f18htclass.com for more info
Having given you the HT pitch, what I would recommend is you think about where and how you want to sail and race(I'm assuming you do.)
Do you want to sail/race on a lake or on the ocean or in coastal sounds and bays?
Do you want to race bouys or distance?
Do you want to try match racing?
If you want to do distance ocean racing, everyone is racing the I20 or the N6.0. Most distance racing is on the 20ft, 8'6" platform. This is partly due to the particular rules of the distance race (Tybee 500) and partly due to the fact that you can trailor the 8'6" wide boats but you need to assemble the wider boats or trailer them on a tilt trailor.
I think the NAF18's are mostly bouy racing.
If you want to tinker tune your boat, then look at the open class, like the HT.
If you want to buy your boat and not worry about tinkering or working on it, you should consider a more strict class with less open rules, like the Hobie class or the NAF18 class.
Also, fleets tend be localized. Most of the HT's are on the east coast with a concentration in Newport RI, the NAF class is hot in the midwest, MI I think, there is strong N6.0 fleet in New England. The florida races attract a lot of I20's.
Good luck.
my 2cents
Bill Vining
18HT USA 22
