Be informed that the well known German boatyard Flyer Catamarans has launched a new F18 which is expected to enter the 2004 F18 Worlds to be held at Follonica (Italy).
See:
http://www.katamarantraining.de/indexmain.html

Nice boat!
Will the Flyer be available in the US and Canada?

Even though USA is the largest market in the world, only two makes of F-18 cataramans are available there (Nacra and Hobie);three, if you add the Mystere Twister. This is very surprising when you consider that more than a dozen models are available in Europe.

A little more competition between manufacturers would certainly be beneficial to the north american sailors.

André

>>Even though USA is the largest market in the world

Not in catamaran sales !

>>is very surprising when you consider that more than a dozen models are available in Europe.

So who do you think has the biggest cat market ?

Wouter

Good call.

In Australia we are very limited by the number of manufacturers we have.

Again Nacra and Hobie as well as Boyer.

But when you go and look at the guys sailing the A's and T's, they are all sailing imported boats, and with the exchange rate, it makes it very expensive.

>>But when you go and look at the guys sailing the A's and T's, they are all sailing imported boats,


Are you saying that the Aussie A sailors are sailing European build boats and not Boyers ?

I used to think that the majority of A's in aus were boyer mark 3 mark 4, some 5's and teh Boyer build Aussie flyers. I can't imagine why Aussie sailors would import : Bims, Schreuders, Mastroms or even German Flyers when the Boyers are at the top of their game anyway. I think Schreuder and Marstrom are only building a handful every year.

with respect to Tornado you are right of course as there is only on e Tornado builder left in the world.

Wouter

Urm, No.....

White Formula are still building T's

>>Urm, No.....
>>White Formula are still building T's

Well yeah. And you can build one yoursefl from timber.

However if you want to be competitive you'll need a Marstrom, that is a well known fact that has lead to 98 % of all the tornado's in competition being made by Marstrom.

Wouter

Currently yes. I think there is some evolution in hull shapes with the Kite to come.

Now the Aussie Flyer is proving itself as a fast A Class, they are starting to pump a few out, but you see plenty of German Flyers around.