Perhaps not, but it has been shown that the foilers are just as fast as the floaters in floating A-cat mode. This isn't internet speculation, I was there when Bailey White rounded the top mark at 2015 A-cat midwinters in pole position with a JZ board Exploder in total float mode, maybe blowing 5kts, maybe-I rounded a few boats back on a C-board EVO II. I don't think flying foil setups make sense in those conditions (i.e not worth the complexity or cost etc.), so for lake sailing I totally get having a straight board or a C-board boat, but the beauty of the new A's is the trunks will take that. If you retool a F18 or F16, it makes little sense to build them with a fixed straight board trunk, rather the universal trunk makes a lot of sense.
As for the class not changing, I'm in the middle on this, the boat is great as is, but so was the N20, and guess what, no one is racing those in a competitive fleet outside of San Diego and West River. They did nothing and the fleet died. I don't want to see that happen to the F18.
Baileys boat is stinking fast upwind, and he is quite fast on it. He will do well despite his boats limitations. The A-class has rather sugar coated its problems with the foiling/floater issue. I have some friends who now refuse to travel to A-cat races as they are not interested in foiling for a number of reasons, and do not wish to compete against a foiler.
I have failed to hear any word about the flying phantom or the foiling N20 really taking off. I think the F18 class going lighter and foiling would REALLY piss off those of us who currently own boats but are no where near buying a new one. I would say F-it and leave the class.
The F18 has felt pretty dead in the USA lately to me. If I was to point to a reason, it would be a lack of any sort of promotion by the class. The class did a great job on promoting the NAs in Texas, since then there has been a lack of any sort of buzz about the NAs. I understand it takes motivated work from talented volunteers to do this.
