Wayne, regarding the F17, the only version the matters is the current one which is quite a good boat. The mast is the same as the Infusion and the new sail plan is really good. The hull design is dated I think we all agree on that. But it is a very nice boat to sail. I think people are way too caught up the "latest and greatest" hull design fads.. The F17 is a true one design class that works..

My apologies. In this current economy, hopefully, even sailors are concerned with mundane things such as initial investment, normal and regular maintenance, and damage repairs. Why would we question a manufacturer giving us a boat that will have some sort of a shelf life?

What if Hobie or Cirrus build an F16 to min weight, then it's well built, fast and lasts long? Does that mean the existing heavy boats sit on the shelf?

Door still wide open...

We already have F16 manufacturers making boats at weight, well made ( probably better in some ways to get local high tech production where the boats are built by highly skilled workers)and will last as long as any other manufacturer, with the same warranties, they just don't yet have the brand image of the big boys ( read can't afford to have paid top jockies to smoke them around the course ) and that has always been the problem for the F16 class, the big boys wanted to protect there own one design boats.

Now finally we have a reason for the big boys to get involved, namely the Olympic mixed boat. Sadly AHPC who have made all the running to date and put a lot of investment in to secure sales in the class now have other contenders, they may just yet have to bite the bullit and make a class weight boat to gain any advantage, it will annoy there already considerable number of owners but they may just have to do it.