Ummm, yea, I guess you could actually say that about any part on the boat. My 18's mast has had a comptip for over 20 years and it's totally fine. As long as the comptip isn't sun-fried, there's no reason it shouldn't last the life of the boat.

As for H20 specific issues, none really come to mind. There were problems with the hulls cracking on the earlier boats (around 1994), but that was resolved well before '99.

sm