Marty,
I appreciate your concern.
I've been a cat sailor my whole life and have faced (and currently am facing) quality issues with Nacra as well as every other brand boat I've sailed (AHPC, Hobie, and my old Nacra).
All the other current high performance catamarans are built in the same factory as Nacra. We all suffer our own minor issues. Of course we wish our boats were flawless, they have gotten a lot better in the past few years.
Most important is that Nacra stands behind our product more than ever. I was made aware of the F16 you speak of but don't know the exact details as a colleaque sorted the situation out. I can tell you that Nacra commented on the damage, advised how to fix it, and paid for the repair.
There has been a recent initiative from Nacra to support the issues 17 sailors are having (if anyone wants to see this please feel free to email me). Additionally, Nacra admitted to falling short on warranty support and ensure this will be changing. This was really well perceived by the sailors. The new boats have reached an acceptable level among the sailors. It's a big task to keep up with the 17 but Nacra has put more manpower behind it and we will keep improving and supporting the sailors.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me Todd@NacraSailing.com
-Todd Riccardi