Jib kit is available for the I-17R and has been in the US for more than a year. Prices for used I-17Rs is still pretty high...more than $8K on average...from what I hear. All that being said, I think the I-17R (now called the NACRA F17) is exactly what you said you want. As a single handed boat, it does what you ask, and for those skippers weighing 210# or more, there is a larger spinnaker available and class legal. The boat is rated to safely carry 300 Kg. (660 lbs) in crew, but I expect it is significantly slower with that weight!

I sailed the H17 when I weighed 210 # and I know your pain! I moved to the NACRA 5.5 Uni and had a great time racing that boat from 1991 through 1999, and that boat can carry the weight and still be competitive. I think the average weight of the National Champion varied between 175# and 190#. The hulls will carry significantly more weight than that and the class minimum for the NACRA 5.5 SL is 275#. The spinnaker is what prompted me to move to the I-17R and I have sailed one for the last 5 seasons. As you have read from others in this thread, flying a hull downwind is what makes spinnaker boats so much more fun than other Uni rigged catamarans. The steering system and balance of the I-17R allows a single-handed skipper to tend to the spinnaker, opposite board, mast rotation, etc., etc., etc., with the boat continuing to track on course without having to hold the tiller. I don't let it go for long, but a very gradual turn to weather with main only and a similar turn to leeward with spinnaker up is what happens when I put down the tiller...very predictable and necessary, I think, for a single-handed spinnaker boat. There is a guy in our fleet who started on the Taipan 4.9 with spinnaker for the same reasons you state. He sold the Taipan and bought the I-17R and told me he likes the I-17R better. He is the only one I have heard of that has owned both boats. Hope this helps.


Les Gallagher