I am fairly new to the catamaran hobby and i was wondering if anyone could help me answer a few questions about the nacra 17s
What is a general price you could find for a used one?
What is the ideal amount of people for this boat?
Is there much racing for this type of boat
If you could answer a few questions or simply give me some more info or experiences with them it would be greatly aprecciated.

Welcome to the forums, it would be usefull to know where you are based first.

ryanm,

Scooby is right to ask where you are from. There are only Nacra F17s available in North America used (I think there was one N17 sold in Florida and one in St. Croix). The used F17s have been selling almost as quickly as they show up on the market and the prices vary by the year it was produced.

The F17 is raced single-handed, however, I have sailed two-up and the boat handles the extra weight really well. There is an optional jib kit for the boat, however, the jib is not legal for class racing.

The most active fleets for the F17 are in Michigan (CRAM), Florida panhandle, and New Jersey shore. There are boats in Minnesota, Texas, Georgia and up and down the Eastern Seaboard. One design racing the F17 is best in CRAM, and the F17 fleet numbered 14 boats at the last CRAM Regatta.

This boat with the spinnaker and carbon mast (F17) is a riot to sail! You can hear many people expound on the wonders of spinnaker sailing, and it is no different with the F17. It is a fun boat going to weather, but the real excitement for me is under spinnaker, flying a hull and just ripping down the lake! this boat has been well designed for the single-handed racer. Things are well organized and designed with racing a spinnaker boat in mind. The way the boat steers and is so well balanced makes for a delightful racing machine that does what it needs to do and do it well. If you put down the tiller to do something else, the boat tracks relatively straight, feathering upwind (slight weather helm) with the just the mainsail deployed and falling off slightly (slight lee helm) with the spinnaker deployed.

Nacra N17

Overall length : 5.23
Overall weight : 155 kg
Overall width : 2.6 mtr
Overall sailarea incl. mast : 13.68 sq. mtr.
Nacra F17 w/ spinnaker (source: http://nacra.us/F17/Findex.html)

Overall length : 5.23 mtr
Overall weight : 145 kg
Overall width : 2.6 mtr
Overall sailarea mainsail incl. mast : 15.14 sq. mtr.
Overall sailarea spinnaker (small) : 15.5 sq. mtr.
Overall sailarea spinnaker (large) : 18 sq. mtr.
Additional comments :

The Nacra Company does use the F17 identifier for their latest 17 footer. The F17 has a 9.25 mtr (30' 4") carbon mast, differing from the N17 with a shorter aluminum mast and less sail area. In the past, Nacra has launched and produced the following variations of their 17 foot boat. Australian Inter 17 (a doublehanded sloop which replaced the Nacr 5.2 in that market), European Inter 17, US Inter 17, Inter 17R and now the Nacra F17. The Australian Inter 17 has different hulls than all the rest. The European and US Inter 17 were the same. The US Inter 17R and F17 are almost identical and only differ in some component differences which are relatively insignificant.

Is it F17 as in Formula 17?

Is this a formula class boat?

No its not formula

its OD.

which is pretty shady

No, no, no, no....not more conversation about F17 not being formula based. It's just a name used for marketing, since the F18 class became so popular.

Who are the other F17 sailors on the Panhandle besides Curry and Turlington and how often do they get out? Anyone know? A guy at the club I belong to has a F17 and wants to get in some OD can racing, not distance racing. I think he wants to confirm class racing before committing to a regatta.

Just to throw my .02 into this Formula17 vs F17
I Googled formula 17:
Welcome to Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia
try this link Wikipedia
Chris

I know of a Inter 17R that was listed on the TheBeachcats.com . I don't know the asking price, but can tell you the boat has hardly been used. I sailed it once as crew and skipper two up. I love the way the boat handles, and have been hoping to get a ride with the chute. Not sure if it's even still for sale. It's in SE Mass.

That wikipedia entry is very interesting. I did not know that. The website work at www.formula17class.com seems strangely familiar.....

Conspiracy?

I actually wrote most of that wikipedia article back in 2005 but recently someone else changed a few key comments. To my opinion these changes are just non-sense. Someone is playing with you guys here.

There is no way Hobie is going to vamp its FX-one to make it comparable to the Inter-17R and there is no way Nacra is going to downgrade the I-17R to reflect the setup of the Fx-one. These boats are very dissimilar in their rigs. The difference in mainsail area is no less then 1.5 sq. mtr. (= 16 sq.ft.)

It is all just BS.

Wouter

Wouter, I've missed something here

from wik'





I make that 15.14 - 14.91 = .23 !

The EU Inter 17 was never intended to sail evens with the FX1, however (and I would need to check) the FX1 and Nacra F17 rate the same under current SCHRS.

What can I say, the numbers provide are wrong. The I-17R (or F17) has a much larger sail area then that. Go to Texel and see for yourself. 16.44 sq.mtr. over 15.14 sq. mtr.

That 15.14 number is for the Inter 17 XL of which I know of only one sailing, this version never got of the ground in earnest. And nacra Europe is specifying yet another mainsail area for their nacra 17, this is is yet to be measured by Texel.

This is all just mind bogling confusing. But the end result is still the same. There is no level 17 foot formula class.

Wouter

Wouter is now the Formula Police?
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Ted