The 18HT is a separate class. It seems to make a lot of sense. Matt Struble, W.F. Oliver, and David Hertz are already on board. Several other sailors are considering switching to this class, including Chris Brown and Mark Lavine.
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<br>The boats are 110lbs lighter and much easier to handle. The class is going to adopt the the exisiting EU rules. I believe that the basic rules are min of 130kg (286 lbs) boat weight, 20sm max Mainsail area (incl mast), 20 sm max spin sail area (218sf), 5,5 m max length (18ft), 8,5m (8,2ft) max beam, and 10,5m max mast height. As far as I know these are basically the rules! This type of rule structure is much like that of the A-Cats. This simple approach seems to work as the A-Cat class is the second largest cat racing class (H-16 are first) in the world and growing!
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<br>The price is right too! Bimare is introducing them at a short term special price of $12K (FOB East Coast) and Ventilo is selling theirs for $13.5K (FOB Switzerland). You can e-mail W.F. Oliver for more info at williamoliver@aol.com<br><br>