Mary,
Good point, I agree with you. I always get lost with metric. The only issue is the temptation to round up when you get a fraction if you convert. For example when you convert 20sq meters to sq ft you get 65.6168. We dont want people telling their sailmaker that they want a 66 sq ft spin.

But you bring up a good point, we call the class 18HT, as in 18 feet and then all the rules measurements are metric.

Bill

Just a summary :


"The Bleeding edge !"

"When we first sailed our Bimare Javelin 2 USA-45, my 11 year old son and crew, Nick, immediately started lobbying for carbon beams. “Those aluminum beams look so old fashioned Dad."

"I figured we might as well try to get the BIM properly sorted out."

"WF figures our platform is 8 lbs over minimum"

"Fed up with our leaky platform, and the racking of the hulls (independent motion of the two hulls), we began looking for a way to make the platform better, and lighter"

"Finally, we want to rid the platform of the bronco character when pressing downwind in waves. The aft beam is simply too low for the platform"

"And the beam of the BIM looked slightly under max."

Our hulls were pretty scratched up when we got our boat, and the protruding seam can only add to drag"

"The gelcoat looks THICK, so we’re grinding away the seam, scratches and gelcoat"

"Both of rudder heads show voids in the aluminum castings, so still looking at what to do."

"The mast is a beast. We can barely right the boat"

"I asked Ben Hall if he’d make a new lighter mast for us, and he basically said he wouldn’t"

"We also went to a fatter spin halyard that does not absorb water for better grip while hoisting, and lighter weight."

"The Cunningham will get a total re-think in the coming months. The diamonds have been replaced with Dyform wire which stretches a lot less."

"The standard Petrucci main looks pretty good, but not constructed for any sort of long term abuse"

"The weight of the tube/sprit is about 6 lbs, which is what the old alum sprit weighed. And it’s at the maximum length…..about 11” longer than the standard aluminum sprit."

"Goran Marstrom was right. This class has picked too high of a minimum weight. The hulls, beams, trampolines weigh 193 lbs!!!!! "

"REGARDLESS, we’re really enjoying the boat."


Hummmmm, is this "a killer review" or just "a killing review"

Think of iot this way...without development and people willing to experiment with the "bleeding edge" and spending $$$, where would we be? We'd all be sailing Albacore's from the 1940's.

Read Brethwaite's book "High Performance Sailing" for some extremely valid points about why having open classes like the 18 footer skiffs is critical in advancing the sport.


One manufacturer classes such as Hobie14/16 are operated primarily as a business to keep the company going. All boat components/parts must be purchased through the recognized manufacturer, the idea being it keeps all boats nearly equal in performance with the added benefit of keeping the company profitable. One drawback is that as the class ages, new materials appear on the market that have potentially lower costs and improved properties. These can't be readily adopted into the class because this would violate the "all boats identical" rule and there is little or no incentive for the manufacturer to go and re-design components when everyone must come to them for the older stuff anyway (i.e. no competition in the component market).

Now compare this to a more open, multi-manufacturer class such as Tornado. This boat appeared on the scene at the end of the 1960's, pretty close to the Hobie16 I believe. Unlike a lot of other classes, there is no designated manufacturer and only the class membership gets to determine the rules, not a constructer company...so the rules are more about the sailor's desires than about profits for the company. But people say...the only real Tornado builder is Marstrom...which is correct...for the moment. THey came up with a better way to make the boats that no one else on the scene could compete with. This lead to most other builders going out of business...but there is no reason another builder won't ever challenge Marstrom in the future.

While is it obvious to everyone that the Hobie is easily the more successful boat in terms of numbers sold and profits generated, it certainly is not the better sailing boat from a performance standpoint. But more importantly, unlike the Tornado, which continued to improve over the past 30 years with changes in construction techniques and rig development, the H16 today is basically stuck at the same performance level it had back in the early '70's. Some think this is terrific...that's fine, enjoy it. But for me, I don't like the idea of a stagnated technology. I want improvement & evolution. I expect that form cars I drive and in the boat I sail.

No one is forcing you to get into an arms race of spending...there are lots of classes out there that outlaw this.

Dve Carlson asked who wrote the article that started this thread-

His name is Peter Johnstone. Yes, JOHNSTONE as in J-Boats. His fther and uncle started J-Boats and designed and built the famous J-24, J-35, J-22, etc. Peter also ran Laser/Sunfish for some time and started the OD-14 class(one-design version of the I-14).

Peter is currently building Melvin Morrelli designed Gunboat Catamarans. His tie-in with Melvin Morrelli should prove interesting with their new 18HT design!

The 18HT class seems to be making some pretty big strides. This new wave of developmental work and the tie-in with the Little America's Cup will be a boon to this class.

Exactly! If you're worried about sailing against a rich guy whith all the latest go-fast goodies, sell your boat and buy a H-16 so you can re-live the glory days of the 70s. Don't buy a FxHT class boat and then complain about it's development!

I do get the point someone was trying to make- there is a market niche for a one-design non-developement 18' boat right now, whith super-strict limits on the boats, but no rules about where you get your parts from. A 'po-boys' racing fleet of currently-modern boats that can be built without high-tech methods.