I'm not to sure about those Aud 17,000 for a Taipan F16. Maybe it is correct for a Standard Taipan (no spi) in the basic setup.

A listing of aug 2001 has the Taipan + spi at 17.541 Aud. That is the most basic setup with glass hulls, glass boards, alu rudderstocks and plain white sails with a spi kite including a single colour spi.

I accept that this listing is dated and that the prices all but certainly have changed since then. It is afterall 3 years old.

Source : http://www.x-rates.com/

However 17.500 Aud translates to 12.197 Us$ = say 12.200 UsD ex tax, ex shipping. I think shipping is at least some 1500 Us$. So do the adding up. But then again you would have to ship your blade as well, this will be cheaper but it still needs to be added to the price of the BLade.

I think the exchange rate has to drop to at least 0.60 Aus to 1 Us$ to be directly competing (in cost) with any locally build boats. That is still a 15 % drop. Incidently that would make the US$ equal to the Euro as well. Of course this hasn't happened over the last year.

We'll just have to see. I for one certainly hope the exchange rate goes down.

WOuter