Congratulations to the F18HT class ofcourse, this will be a good endurence test, No doubt about that.



But why would the 18HT's be better "especially for us smaller sailors" ?



I've seen the claims of 250 lbs crews in 32 knot winds and I've seen Tim's comments on other forums. And I think Tim makes the right comments.



I also know that an mathematical analysis presented by the F16 class some weeks ago was simply dismissed by some. But it remains remarkable that the ONLY scientific and verifiable analysis ever made concluded an optimal weight of 310 lbs for a boat with the same width, smaller sailarea and a shorter mast. Based on winds ranging from 7 knots to some 18 knots.



I've seen the next version of the analysis with the data for the 2001/2002 Taipan nationals entered and the earlier presented article seems to be confirmed by the new data.



I would expect the 18HT optimal crewweight to be at least somewhere between the F16 optimal crew weight and that of the I-20's. My personal opinion is that it is probably closer to the I-20's crewweight than it is to the Taipans.



Now I expect to be quoted the race results of the 18ht's of the last 3 months. And my reply will then be to take a look at the Carnac 2002 results as well as the 2001 results. Here the results are the complete opposite of the US results.



Naturally the 18HT's don't have jibs that is true, but how much work is a self tacker ? Especially when the jib is a rather small high aspect one with lower sheet loads.



But having said this. For USD 5000,- what can you loose ?



Wouter