We need to get a sponsor or two or there's no way we're going to make it. Also, the $2,000 entry fee is too damn much.
As far as the Carbon 20 against the F18's go...both have their conditions that they like best but the Carbon 20 is simply a monster that loves everything. We've found when the F18's are tight spin reaching (where the N20 could never hang), we still had faster speed with main and jib. A huge part of that is being that we are semi foiling and can carry the apparent wind longer when we drive off. Heavier on the tiller but it handles the big stuff better than the N20 did (just my opinion after 14 GT300's and 2 Tybee 500's). The beam on it is so high off the water, I think we only slapped it less than 5 times already. And it takes a LOT to do it. The achillies heel has been rudder arms and spin poles. The carbon spin pole should fix that. We were doing 26 knots jib reaching and punched the back of a wave due to my poor driving and the pole collapsed like an empty beer can with a horse stepping on it. With that, we had to lower the jib and stow it on the trampoline with the spinnaker and run uni rigged for the next 50 miles. It dropped our speed back to 17 knots.