While not a member of the F18 class, I think it's great that folks like Ding and Sam are turning over boats so that others may enter the fleet without having to cough up dough for a new platform.

Obviously the build quality on most boats these days allows for a long life, and the class rules do their best to keep the playing field somewhat level (this is not a true development class if I recall).

So a buyer's market in my opinion would indeed be an asset for class growth.

And I don't think anyone would argue that the H16 is the be-all/end-all of multihull sailing, but you can't argue with the fleet size if that's how you're judging the success of a class..