Sam,
I'll tell you exactly why. It comes down to dollars. Would you spend $50,000 on tooling to sell 10 boats per year and make $1,000 profit on each boat. At that rate it would take 5 years just to break even. That is not smart business. All of the ARC tooling was built 20 to 25 years ago, long before there was a N6.0 or an I20 or an F18 or any of the other new boats. No effort was made to dodge todays 'normal' boats. The ARC22 came about because the SC20TR needed more pitchpole resistance. An old SC20 hull was given a nose job that stretched the front end 2ft and a quickie mold was made back in about 1990. All SC20 hardware, beams tramp,boards,rudders, mast, rigging, sails, etc fit the ARC22. This was a low cost project initially done in someone's garage. Production tooling cost big bucks. Right now the beachcat business is changing fast. What's in today is out next year. Its like the stock market; I think I'll stay out for now.
I have never heard or used the 'ultimate speed' comment. ARC products are not ultimate speed machines. The ARC 27/30 are the best family/daysailing boats going.
Barjack: When I was designing my first beach cats, the trailering width limit was 8.0ft. My first boat was 12ft wide. I talked to alot of sailors about what they wanted in a new boat in 1976 and all of the average size people were tired of being beaten every time the wind blew hard. The 8.5ft width limit came along in the mid to late 80s, about P19 time.
Seeker: Wider boats are faster as you know and weight sensitivity is less on wide boats. The average size person or team is competitive over a wider range of wind speeds on a wide boat rather than on a narrow boat.
The M20 would be awesome in a breeze at 12 to 13ft wide.
Evidently the Hobie sailors here in S Fla don't know how to use wings. I see them sitting on them all the time; never using them to trapeze from.
I have 5ft wings for my RC30.
I don't know what rebuttal you are talking about.
Here's a breakthrough for you. Ten years ago an F40 cost 1 mil+$. That boat has a demonstrated PN of 54. An RC30 has a demonstrated PN of 53.8 in 2003 and costs 1/15th of a mil and is only 75% as long. How's that for advancing "the state of the art"? An RC30 hull weighs 175 pounds rigged and painted; scale that down to 20ft and you get 52 pounds; scale it on down to 18ft and you get 38 pounds. Now, what company has the advanced technology? What company produces the lowest PN production beach catamarans in the world?
