I have always found it a little coincidental that the F18 parameters are almost exactly that of the "Hobie Tiger", which came before the F18 not visa versa, and that the Hobie Tiger was very instrumental in "getting the F18 off the ground" (bless their little hearts), in fact, when I take a long good look at the hulls of a tiger, I see all the "old" Hobie 18 lines and shape simply converted to the changes that naturally occure when you move from "female hull and deck moulding, joined at the gunwale" to a "split moulding process? Strange that the weight of the tiger is virtually that of the Hobie 18! They say that the weight of the F18 is to keep the "excessive cost" of "exotic's" out of the class, and to keep the overal package within the reach of more sailors? With the minimum weight of the F18 as heigh as it is, it would be relatively simple to reduce the layup weights of the F18 hulls quite dramatically without any detriment to strength, AND by not incorporating any "exotics atall. THE WEIGHT OF THE F18'S IS MUCH HIGHER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE, and still fulfill all of it's proclaimed criteria.
Hell Berny, I'm not building F14' & F61's to become "mister popular" or to make a million bucks from the exercise, I'm building them to see my own designs on the water and doing what I designed them to do. I don't really care if I only put a half a dozen of them on the water, (and I will do that even if I have to give away 5 of the 6 to achieve it - one is for me). There will always be 14' cats sailing, at least for as long as I'm alive, why they are sailed, who sails them, what their worth, (and what they cost) don't realy matter to me, I just want to enjoy them while they're here and so am I.
Darryl J Barrett.