I find the presented situation intriguing.

Afterall it is well know fact that the 3 established singlehander cats in the US are A-cat, Inter-17 and the F16's. FX-one is nowhere compared to these three classes. Certainly each class has a particular area where they are strongest but nevertheless all three classes have established themselves in the US market. The FX-one did not. I would seriously advice to consider one of the above 3 classes first. Afterall it is alot of hard work to establish a catamaran class.

One other thing, the Hobie FX-one with spi 1-up at 68.6 USPN is wrong. The boat is faster then that. It really is. Pretty much USPN is wrong about most modern singlehanders and as such I would not use this data in comparing the boats to one another. Of course the FX-one 1-up + spi is very rarely raced in US so the USPN committee doesn't have good data on it, we therefor can't blame them for this guess at a FX-one rating.

I personally find it beyond believe that the imported FX-one (from Euro zone) would cost only 13.500 US$ when fully fitted. We have to pay 14.500 Euro's for this fully fitted spi singlehander overhere. Last time I checked the exchange rate between Euro and US$ was 1.36 US$ to 1 Euro. Even after deducting the EU taxes the boat should still be 14.500 * 0.85 * 1.36 = 16.762 US$ ex shipping. Was this quote of 13.500 USD dependable or for a new boat ? Because I most certainly doubt that.

But most intriguing I find the fact that a fully American build, cheaper, faster, truely lightweight, internationally established, most A-cat alike design but with a spinnaker is not part of the considerations !

Right now the VectorWorks Marine is practically converting the US F16 fleet into an US Blade F16 OD class. If asking price of the A's is a concern then the only real options for the US are the Inter-17 and F16's. The first has been covered, the second is totally ignored. Why ?

Crews sailing them have been gethering podium places in the last 2 months spread over the whole USA : New York (2nd), California (1st), Virginnia (maryland) (1st, 2nd,4th) and Arizona/New Mexico (3rd). I'm excluding Florida in this now as that is a F16 hotspot. I haven't seen the FX-one or even the Inter-17 do that. With the Alter Cup boats sold the F16 numbers are passed the US Inter-17 numbers. Next target is to get alongside the US A-cat class.

If a group of sailors is looking to buy into a new class and a new boat then I would try to group deal one with VectorWorks Marine. Most likely to get you a nice group price. I don't think Hobie EU will be sufficiently impressed by a handful US sailors to accept losing money on that deal.

The FX-one is a nice boat, as I wrote in my other post, but for the US scene I REALLY don't see its advantages over the F16's. Especially not since most of the leg work for establishing the F16 class in the US has been done already.

Wouter