Scott,

I forgot one answer, sadly it is not the nicest one.

Answer :

What is the alterative ?

A-cat ? More open in the class rules and Formula classes and arguably the most expensive boats per amount of used parts.

F18 ? Same issues are linked to this class as to all formula classes like the F16's. No real difference here.

I-17R ? This boat has seen a few design chances over the last couple of years. Besides they have the One-design myth syndrome. More on this later

FX-one ? Steady as a design, unlike the I-17's, but also subject to the one-design myth syndrome

And I can go on like this. In sailing there simply is no perfectly level playing ground. Heavy crews do better in heavy air and light crews do better in the light stuff. People are NOT one-design and so perfectly level playing field are a myth. Even in strickly One-design classes. Also alot of classes are called one-design classes when in reality the are alot more open. We all know of examples where Hobie 16 crews buy their sails of hobie and then take them apart to recut/restitch them with a different curve or overal shape. Sometimes a OD builder changes sailmaker for commericial reasons. A fine example is the 49-er class, suddenly everybody had to change their sails as the old sails were not OD anymore, what made things worse was that the new sailmaker made better sails as well. Then we have a few examples of where the market just forces changes upon OD builders. Take the Hobie Tiger one design classes. I think they had 4 major sail changes in 8 years alone. Simply because the owners prefered the F18 class over the Tiger OD class and walked away unless their new F18 sails were allowed as OD Tiger sails.

There is alot of One-design myths around. One of them being that the only OD racing determines who is the best sailor of them all. Others argue that it rather produces the crew that suits the given boat and sailing conditions the best. Actually OD class often tend to favour a lot smaller crew weight range than open classes do.

Personally, I think everybody should choose a catamaran on his intended use and "would-like-to-have" wishes. Sometimes this is a Hobie 16, sometimes this means getting an F16. After that it is just a matter of putting the required hours in to dial in the boat and get your skills perfected.

Wouter