Lets summarize :

A2
Without sails $19,878 (=15409 euro even at todays RIDICULOUS exchange rate of 1.29 US to 1 Euro)
With Sails $21,170 (=16410 euro even at todays RIDICULOUS exchange rate of 1.29 US to 1 Euro)

Marstrom EUR 14,467 no sail, no shipping = 18662 Us$
Marstrom Eur 16.000 with sail = 20640 US$

Won't you feel really pissed on the race course when having paid this much and (for example) 12.000 US$ nacra F18's are running you done like you are a wounded animal ? (see PHRF ratings) Not to mention that the F18's have a bigger and better race cirquit going on. Come to think of it how do the I-17R boats (11.500 US$ ?) with spi compare to the A's ? For halve the price you can forgive this boat for being just tad slower.

A-cat may be the greatest singlehander boats on earth (although some opinions are swinging towards the spi singlehanders now) but I won't pay between 16.000 and 17.000 Euro's to have a stripped down catamaran. There is hardly anything on it. Where does the money go too ? Hell, I won't pay that amount for an F16 and I'm obviously biased there. Even if I do get a whole lot more hardware and 2 extra sails for it.

I hope the A-cat sailors forgive me for this rant but the prices did make me grasp for air.

Wouter