That is one thing the builder did wrong with these boats. They never really designed them to be really international boats; boats that were well suited to a wide variety of conditions that sailors all over the world will encounter.

They thought that a boat that had a relatively long history on deep alpine lakes would handle and perform well in other area's as well. They were also unlucky that the boats that were shipped to the US were a poor mans imitation of the flyer hullshape that was just getting into vogue at the time. They cut away volume at the sterns and bows, something that really didn't help the design in of-shore conditions or even in in-shore conditions with significant waves/chop.

That was the design part of the story. These of course combined with some organisation issues to seriously take some shine of the 18HT image and when its greatest exponent decided to walk another route in life, the class stumbled and fell down.

It is still doing well in the Alpine lakes regions but not really outside of it. It is highly unlikely it will ever be able to get of the ground in Australia or even the USA in my opinion. Neither do I see much potential for it in North Europe (UK, Netherlands or even the French Atlantic regions) this while the F18 has made serious gains in all these area's. And make no mistake about it; these area's are important in the greater scheme of things. A class will not get very far if it stays strong in only one local area.

Game over, F18 class won.

Wouter