Speaking of Mark Murray,
I was the crew of his ht when we participated in the ICCT and logged hundreds of hours on the boat and in the class. I Own an I20(which I love) and have sailed most types of beach cats. The HT is one of the best sailing boats out there. It is incredbly fine tuned. We were able to sail the boat using the downhaul as the only control. Let it out fly a hull, pull it in, hull comes down. I know though, and would agree, that many people found the boat difficult to sail. It takes a lot of technique and I think many good sailors were put off by the rear beam slamming and the relatively narrow "groove" that one finds when used to sailing an N20 , which is a wonderful and relatively forgiving boat. Crewing the boat was extremely athletic and kinetic compared to the heavier boats with more volume. Essentially, you have to sail the boat a lot differently than what most people are used too and when there are already more events/boats/participants in f18 and n20 events why relearn something? Though I have to say, once you do,the boat is sweet! An I20 has better straight line speed on a honking reach, but the Jav, in my opinion, has a greater grin factor in the most common conditions that we see here in NA.
However, witness the amount of work and money that went into every jav still sailing in the US. Lets take Peter Johnstones boat (where is that thing?) as one extreme of what can be done to make the boat better. He put, carbon beams, raised the rear beam, canted the hulls, three inch toe rails, awlgrip paint job, marstrom snuffer and tens of thousands of dollars into that boat, and it was AWESOME! Everyone else had to deal with flimsy daggerboards and rudders, leaky boats, and that darn rear beam slamming all the time unless your crew was an acrobat darting fore and aft on every wave. There was a lot of work to do to get those boats ready out of the box. Not like a new F18 where its ready to go the day you get it.