Jake,

I strongly agree with Eric Anderson's response. I started racing cats in 1992 when I purchased a Prindle 19. Initially I loved the performance but I was disappointed in the poor quality of the fittings used and how heavy the entire platform and rig was. Understand that I came from racing high end sailboards for the previous six years. Sailboard technology was WAY ahead of multihulls in the use of carbon and kevlar in board construction and soft wing mast/sail development with carbon fiber masts and booms and camber inducers used in luff sleeves. I could not believe how heavy my P-19 mast was!

I always wanted to move up to the Tornado class and in 1994 I got my wish when I was able to purchase a new Marstrom Tornado. Going from the P-19 to the Tornado was like going from a Chevy Cavalier to a BMW M3. The Tornado was lighter, faster, stiffer, and much more durable than the P-19. In terms of value, it was a lot more "bang for the buck" as in the six years I owned the boat, it never leaked, never broke, and seemed to stay as tight and solid as the first day it hit the water. I never again enjoyed sailing my P-19, it just seemed like a heavy loose slug and I felt I could never spend money on a boat like that again.

In 2001, I switched from Tornados to A-Cats. Like Eric said, the transformation to sailing a platform like this from even the Tornado was dramatic. The boat defines "a joy to sail". And those who still beat the "but it's fragile" drumbeat are simply ignorant. My Boyer Mk. IV performed beautifully before I sold it to get my current Mk. V. That boat is now 2.5 years old and is as solid as the day I bought it and it has been raced hard. It is still very competitive proven by placing 2nd in two races and 1st in one race at the September North Americans (6th overall). I hope to pass this boat on to another new A-catter in 2005 and purchase a new A2. IMO, that boat is the next subtle evolution as I believe Pete Melvin has done a great job trying to make the Flyer/wave piercer concept perform even better over a broader range of conditions.

Like Eric, I cannot believe that someone has not put together a production two man boat in the 18-20 foot range that weighs less than 300 lbs other than the F-18HT. I can tell you now that the current evolution of that boat is faster (and I am not talking a little faster) than any F-18 sailing today. If you could take the current F-18 designs (that by the way look beautiful on paper) and employ the technology available to reduce the weight by at least 100 lbs, you would have something to talk about. But until then, my opinion is these boats are outdated (technology wise) and overpriced for what you get. Many will argue that the extra weight makes them more durable. That is simply not the case if the lighter weight technology is employed correctly.

My last comment is regarding the evolution of spinnaker launching systems. The current state of the art on Tornados using a carbon launch tube is simply fantastic. We used a Marstrom system with a beautiful carbon tube with every edge and surface smoothed out on the F-18HT. Launching and retreival is probably 4-5 times physically easier than the systems I see on the F-18's and Inter 20's.

Merry Christmas,

Bob Hodges
A-Class USA 147