We are looking forward to having more Ontario F 17's come over to Caseville, Michigan for the Nacra North Americans. Please have them contact me and I can add them to the attending list. We have 22 F 17's telling us they plan to attend as of now.
http://www.nacraclass.com/NCW2008/north_american.htmThere have been a number of questions earlier in the threads that I would like to address.
The Formula thing. This is a single manufacturer formula. It indeed was a marketing ploy, a good one too for the sailors who like this boat. The Formula was to help us gravitationally challenged folk stay up with the fit folk. The help is with a different chute. This was a stroke of genius I believe. In reality there are very few sailors in the class with this big boy chute, me being one of them. As a class we race heads up with each other and portsmouth wise. The formula works because no one is seeing any advantage. The main stays the same for everyone.
How heavy is the F 17, well it weighs more than the F 16 and A Boat. No suprises there. I like a sturdy boat. Here in Michigan we only race in class races. We always have enough boats show up at CRAM. I know in other parts of the country the F 17 will have to race Portsmouth. It will be interesting to see how the F 17 does against the F 16 in various conditions. I have not seen too many F 16's so I have no idea how they fair in light, medium or heavy air and sea conditions. Each boat probably has it's favorite conditions. That makes the debate fun. I am not going to knock any class. Nobody wants to spend their hard earned bucks only to hear somebody say bad things about their choice.
I don't know about the rest of the current F 17 fleet but originally I came from a two man boat (in CRAM there are several of the guys that followed this path). My wife had kids (my son Marc now races F 17's on ocassion, but he prefers the F 18 Class) and I had to spend several years trying to get new crew all the time. I got a Narca 5.5 Uni and raced it for 15 years and loved single handed sailing. Before the 2000 season there was a shift in tastes in Michigan and the F 17 was chosen as the single handed boat of choice. I had one the first year they came out and really did not like it. Coming from a UNI I felt there was too much to do on the boat, I have since changed my mind on this point. That's why I'm back.
Hope to see more single handed boats out there on the course.
Eric Kennedy
F 17 Fleet Captain
2008 Nacra North American Event Chairman
