F18's cost ~$20K US.... I know the dollar is down against the Euro, hardly a cheap recreational boat! That said, an average sailor that spends ~$40K on a new Marstrom might want to have his head examined. This price is another blow to the T-class, great boat, too many practical liabilities to remain viable, and price is one of them.
The whole concept of the F18 was to build fast boats at reasonable costs and grow the class-a good idea. (That's why there is a 'no carbon' provision in the box rule. Seems to be working. Now, even the T sailors compete on F18's as part of their training, and the boat remains within accessible price range for pros, serious amateurs and also novice sailors.)
Therefore I wouldn't say 'cheap', I'd say 'accessible'.
A new Olympic ready Tornado, fully loaded for racing, is just too expensive for the number of sailors that want to sail them.
But boat costs are almost irrelevant wehn costing a campaign. When I was doing it, it was about 10% costing for boats and the rest logistics. If it's cost based the Star needs binning.
First, I don't disagree with anything you say. That said, the advent of the de facto SMOD Olympic Tornado ultimately drove the price out of sight, and has contributed to the problems of the T, (despite the fact that the T is a fantastic boat). Keeping the price of the boat down is important to the class, but not an Olympic campaign. However, both price and competitive considerations are ultimately important to the sustainability of the MH class in the Olympics, albeit for very different (yet complimentary and synergistic) reasons. Cheaper boats is supposed to = more MH sailors. More MH sailors means better competitions, better competition means better Olympic spectacle. An accessibly priced, competitive boat is a means to this end.
As windswept shows above, the facts are that the T is not the most expensive boat.
The T is also the most long lasting.
We did some numbers a while back and the T is one of the cheaper boats to sail at the ollies in terms of boat costs as they last so long.
Yes there is high initial cost to set it up; but once set up things settle down to running expenses that will be similar to most of the other boats - I hear horror stories of laser sailors going thru 30 masts before choosing a couple they like and similar for hulls. I've also been told that a laser hull lasts 3-4 months before they get another one.
yes, Laser hulls are allocated at the games and so they don't pay for the last boat, but I assume they pay for all the boats they use up to the games.
You really need to dig into the detail to get to the true campaign costs.
