I don't think the situation for homebuilt boats is as grim as you are suggesting Darryl. I'm sure as a sailor in South Australia you've raced against Darren Peters on his homebuilt Taipan and against the other homebuilt Taipans that have been built in that State. I even bought a Timber Taipan myself out of the fleet in SA. As you've probably noticed these boats are no slower than the glass ones.

While I'm assume you are correct about the Tornado and A-class not having any successful homebuilt boats I'm sure there is probably no good reason that they couldn't as long as they have a good design.

It has worked in the Taipan class and home built boats are beginning to be seen in the F16 class as well. These home built boats are no slower than glass factory builts boats. Glenn Ashby in fact won last years Australian Taipan 4.9 Cat rigged championship on a Timber boat (in fact Darren Peter's boat) and this particular championship has been won more times by a timber boat than by a glass boat.

I concede that designing your own boat then building it at home is unlikely to produce a winning boat as there is a huge amount of development that goes into a boat.

The plans for the Taipan are not free but the price of them is quite small in the overall cost of the boat. Less probably than the cost of a ratchet block. If there is a successful F14 design, such as the Blade F14 may well be if it eventuates, and the designer made the plans available for a similar cost to the Taipan plans, I see no reason why there couldn't also be a successful homebuilt F14. Phil Brander is I believe making his Blade F16 plans available for a home build and I think already has had a few requests for them.

If the hulls are a successful design it won't matter whether are made out of timber or glass, they will be perform equally well. There is even a claim amongst some timber Taipan sailors that the timber platform is stiffer than the glass.

Rob.