i'll add some memories and hear say;
Didn't Mr. Prindle actually help design the Hobie Cat and have an argument that led to making his own cat? That's how i heard it. Hobie's 60s design group would use 2 different hulls on the same boat to compare shapes. They also tested with existing small cats like the Cal Cat and presumably the Aqua Cat. Phil Edwards shaped the TheMightyHobie18 and was there for the 14, but maybe Hobie actually did some of the shaping on the 14. He was a shaper. I think the proto type hulls were made like a surfboard on the 14.
Randy, IIRC, was dominating the Prindle 16 class with Suzi, and the P18 class with Jay, then the Tornados. Also Darts and whatever cats he sailed there in that late 70s - early 80's, and on down the line.
There were actually 3 different sailmakers that showed up at the first Worrell with spi cats. Maybe they all were using Randy's idea, maybe not. I remember Roy Seaman was there on an early 5.8, and i know he had a N36 and built wood Tornados in the 70's so i thought he may have had something to do with the 5.2. I was under the impression it took more than 3 years for the 5.8 to come out after the 5.2 which was a pretty successful design. I personally didn't agree with the uppity nature of the 5.2 sailors because the boat wasn't that much better than a Hobie. In fact we cleaned their clocks on the SF bay with a TheMightyHobie18 in some championship there in the strong breeze back at the end of the 70s.
Prindle guys had that same rap about how their boats were better than Hobies. They were lighter and the manufacturing was better, but in the end i think they pitchpole about the same. In fact, once you learn how to keep a Hobie16 upright on the downwind, i think it pitches less than a P16.
Anyway the original H14 movie would be cool to re-watch. We had a player in our shop that would loop that movie. Lots of footage in the surf, and the term "Chinese flying leap jibe"...