Here are a couple of observations.

1) Too much emphases is being put on “home building”.
It has become the major force driving the design
Is the main purpose to get kids out on the water? Or is it to turn dad/mom into a boat builder? There is a difference between having the “option” to home build (a good thing) and having the whole class concept pivoting around every design being home build able in plywood ( a bad thing). If one takes off the “plywood glasses” the design options open up considerably.

Out of the thousands of Cat sailor forum users how many have actually built a boat from scratch? You can probably count them all on two hands. Realistically very few people have the expertise, time, tools, and work space (it takes all these things) to build even a simple F-12. How many of these “clubs’ exist that are going to crank out an assembly line of F-12’s?
What Club is going to want to take on the liability of inexperienced Kids and/or their Parents being injured with power tools at a Club sponsored build?


2) It is called an F-12…if it really is, than their will be multiple designs to choose from, even ones designed by the parent or child themselves, yet there is already questions being raised about a rounded bilge design making the hard chinned design outdated. If this is truly going to be a Formula class (which is one of the positive features of the proposed class) then this has to be accepted as the nature of the beast. Just as there are Blades, Tiapans, Vipers, Stealths etc in the F-16 class, their will be multiple designs for the F-12 as well…why is that a problem? I find it encouraging that at least three individuals are working on independent F-12 designs.

Best Regards,
Bob