I don't think it is a big trade secret. This boat has been in production since 1985 (nearly 20 years). We have built thousands of them. Many racers have been sailing the same 17 for many, many years. Seems that the older boats are just as competitive as the newer boats, so there was little new boat turn over in the class. For a manufacturer, this is one drawback to a durable, unchanged design. Of the last ten years of sales, most 17s were of the Sport version. We have now replaced virtually all of those sales via the Getaway. Sales of the 17 race version were projected at less than 10 I think. We wanted to be able to keep supplying replacement parts for many years, but we were running out of raw materials and would have to re-order masts, crossbars and other components that have to be ordered in large batches. We would have to cut production off before we ran through the stock intended for replacement parts.