The Rave for sale in Annapolis is #144 and he was selling it this year. I think he decided to keep it.
When I wanted a foiler, a Tri was hard to find beyond a page on the internet.
Before I bought my Rave I spotted the aforementioned TriFoiler on the Dunedin Causeway. I hung around for the owner to return to the boat, left a message, but we never hooked-up. I couldn't locate a TriFoiler to see and there was a Hobie dealer, no longer here, in Orlando. I bought my Rave, sight unseen, simply because it can be used more easily as a coastal cruiser, loaded with stuff for a weekend or a day, than the TriFoiler. The Tri is a more pure speed boat and has no pretensions to being a comfortable cruiser. The Rave has no pretensions to being "flying only". The Rave is an incredibly durable boat. They are both good designs but are different boats when it comes to describing their typical use. The one thing they have in common is that they fly.
Both boats suffered from a lack of a serious, sustained, supporting marketing effort. Rave production ceased in July of this year. The factory will support the Raves with parts for a couple of years. You could probably have one built for you if you contact Windrider. Used Raves are very hard to find. Most owners are "older", keep them for a couple of years and then tire of the assembly/disassembly needed onshore. In Florida, I can go an entire season sailing around the state's coasts without seeing another foiler.
The joystick on the Rave is used to control bow attitude and the boat can be flown quite easily without a 'stick or with the 'stick left in the neutral position. You learn to fly by not even touching the joystick. It is not overly sensitive. The 'stick was a "race option" on the first Raves produced; standard thereafter.
A pitchpole is so rarely reported that there has been much discussion on the Rave forums simply because most pilots have never experienced it. My one and only pitchpole in six years past occurred when a big gust near a lake shore hit while I was sailing very slowly waiting for a race start. The only few others that I know of happened with novice pilots in too much wind.
The Rave forum is here:
http://www.windriderforum.comGo here for flying lessons:
http://www.windriderforum.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=5b6bc3389bc1fb7454e31946f781cad9P.S.: For the Rave, if you live in a very cold climate the Rave aircraft aluminum frame contracts at a different rate than the High Density Polyethylene central hull which may result in a crack on the transom unless you keep the boat at a more moderate temp than the arctic winters in New Hampshire.
