There are a fair few in Holland too (not sure how many)
I'm sorry to disappoint you guys with respect to Holland. The I-17's are indeed rarely seen. In the racing this season the F16's pretty much outnumbered both I-17's and FX-one's. Considering that at max there were only 3 F16's racing; go figure what that means for the I-17 and FX-one. (only 0, 1 or 2 ever raced) And I haven't even seen an M18 in real life yet.
Now we (F16's) are definately not a big class by any reasonable count (and we fully accept this), but isn't it just a little funny that in race it is precisely US (F16's) who outnumber the "big boy" designs of which "... big special competition ... in Europe ..." is claimed ?
So lets get real here. All boats mentioned (with spitfire and A-cats as the exceptions) are sailing open class in Europe without a hope of getting their own class start in the comming years. The M18 sailors have at best only an extremely remote hope of ever racing against another M18 design; lets alone have a class.
And THAT is the truth for Holland (and most of Europe in general)
Sorry guys.
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Here follows a section with links and info that should shed light on the "Big special competition in Europe with regard to FX-one"
2002
http://www.regattatime.nl/nieuws/nieuws.php?id=150&tblName=nieuwsHobie FXone Europeans Katwijk Netherlands
1. Dirk Pool NED 14 points
2. Jan van Spellen NED 24 points
3. Herre Deurloo NED 32 points
Note how the 3rd place was taken by a sailor with 32 points ! From memory there weren't more than 5 FX-ones.
2003 Hobie Europeans Travemunde Germany
http://www.hobieworlds.com/h14-2003/resultsfxone.asp1 NED 304 Pool, Dirk 1944 ( KZVW CKZ ) 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 [dnf] 1 - 13.00
2 NED 307 Zwitser, Dirk 1969 ( KWVS ) 1 2 3 2 [6] 2 1 4 4 - 19.00
3 NED 28 Deurloo, Herre 1982 ( CB ) 3 3 1 3 [5] 3 3 1 5 - 22.00
4 GER 185 Schrader, Mathias [6] 4 4 4 1 6 4 2 2 - 27.00
5 NED 200 Spellen, Jan van 1943 ( KZVS ) 5 [dns] dnf dns 2 4 5 3 3- 38.00
6 NED 80 Rooij, Andre de 1945 ( KZVS ) 4 [dnf] 5 5 4 5 6 dnf dnc - 45.00
7 NED 75 Goosen, Cor [dns] dns dnf dns 7 7 dnf dnf dnc - 62.00
Note the 19XX numbers ; those are their birth dates. I've met Cor Goosens at the 2001 Hobie nationals (2 FX-ones) and he is getting on in life as well. Also notice how all but one sailor are dutch sailors. Halve of them I know or met on the beach. Only Dirk Zwitser (in this listing) is a regular racer in the Netherlands; the other one isn't in this listing.
This 2003 result is the best attendence in this class I know off.
FX-one Europeans 2004
zo 8 vr 13
Eurocup FX-One & FOX
Cabanas Spanje
Results can not be found on the net. Rumour has it that tens of FX-ones were there. Without a publized results listing we can neither confirm nor disproof that claim. But some people believe that pigs can fly as well.
Lets go the French side of things then : (source :
http://www.hobieclass.com/news.asp?MenuID=News%2F10772%2F0 )
French Hobie Cat National Championship
13-16 May 2005 - Mandelieu-La Napoule
87 Hobie Cats (39 Hobie 16, 14 Hobie 16 spi, 25 Tiger, 6 Dragoon, 2 Max and [color:"red"] one FxOne) [/color] gathered on the beautiful bay of Cannes for the great annual rendez-vous of the French Hobie Cat Class Association.
Yes [color:"red"] ONE [/color] FX-one was at the French nationals of the year 2005 (that was 2 weeks ago !)