Joel:
I am going to take Bill's advice and have Lars Guck build me a DK-17 when I have ready. I am at 200-220 and he said that it would be a good fit. Check the forum. Haken (sp) put a spin on jis Marstrom:
Here is what Bill said about DK-17
As far as the DK, I own one. Which I built myself. I spent 11k on it.
The DK is designed for a larger guy. Steve Clark is 220-230, George Sanders is 240 or more, the designer, Dirk Kramer is also over 200. I weigh 200 -210.
So the boat has more volume for a larger guy in the stern, which is important going downwind. Steve Clark is very competitive, but he's a great sailor.
The bad news with the DK is that its a custom build, either you do it or you pay someone to build it for you. Paying someone wont be cheap, but you'll get a boat built to your specs, your construction methods (foam, nomex, etc) your rigging preferences, your prefered apendages like rudders, and mast and sail, and such. it will be a great learning experience for you to understand the implications of all these decisions. Plus Hall will custom make your mast for your weight. Peter Cogan will custom make the sail to the mast and your weight. You'll probably end up pay less than the A2/A3 and you'll have a much better product - all custom made for you and your weight.
Now, if you dont have the skills to finish a boat, you'll need someone to do most of the work for you. Lots of guys in RI will do the work. Steve might do it, or you could go to any number of people that specialize in this kind of work. Henry Elliott made the molds and would make you a finished boat. Lars Guck could do the whole project and he doesn great work. You could get the mast from Hall, they are in RI, the tramp comes from Kinder, they are in RI and I know a great sail maker in CT. You could get everything you need with one trip to New England this spring.
http://www.guckinc.com/http://www.kinder-industries.com/racing_one_design_a_class.asphttp://www.hallspars.com/Bill:
Sent you a eamil about pics of your boat. Can you send some?
Doug
