New Nacra 17footer
Double handed
Curved foils

www.nacra.ca

I honestly dont get the reasoning behind it.
Would be easier to just get the F16 and take the jib off.

One-design that doesn't interfere with existing F16 or F18 classes

How much does it weigh?

around 130 kg

aka Olympic equipment proposal?

Isn't the idea of one-design to have enough of the same boat to constitute a "one-design" ... else you're simply racing Portsmouth ... and competing/interfering with F16 and F18.

My guess is that unless the N-17 offers something substantially radical from either an F16 or F18 I just don't see it catching on. Too much momentum in the other racing categories.

286 lb. Good luck.

What's it rate?

designed and build for the OG. Specs based upon ISAF requierments

Which I think is actually pretty smart. It will be interesting to see what approach other manufacturers have taken. Submissions were due last week. I guess we'll know soon.

F18 weight but with curved foils. The sail/rig plan should be interesting. Cost could be minimized by adopting either the F16 or F18 rig. Always cool to see trickle down innovation.

Should be interesting if it was a submission for the evaluation because the boats need to be in Spain by mid-March.

If selected hopefully they'd do a F18 rig. Much cooler to watch people sail things that are WAAAAAYYYYY over powered, and doing it well than to watch a regular boat sailed well. in my opinion anyway.

Plus the crashes have potential for being that much more marketable.

it is 50kg lighter then an F18

I don't get it. Nacra is just now coming out with an F16, and they already have a good grip on the F18 market...so...their marketing strategy is to...?

Compete with themselves?

Unless this is a boat aimed only for Olympic consideration, I don't see it ever getting started as a OD class, just like their earlier F17, I17, I17R, etc. never caught on in big numbers.

IF...and this is a huge IF, they got together with Hobie, and started a real F17 class, box rule, etc. maybe you could resurect the Hobie 17's to race agains the N 17's, but I don't see a real demand for an -in between- boat.

Oh... you have no imagination...

Maybe they said that the F16 class is fatally flawed by design... (1 up and 2 up.... boat weight and a limited development philosophy). It is... what it is... growth as a racing class will be limited. Nacra has covered their assets because they have a boat for those sailors in any case that they just released .... If the F16 class gets their stuff together... terrific... they are on board.

Moreover, ... The F16 class world wide is quite small and not even close to the F18 class in terms of market share of the racers... It is hard to market the F16 as a practical formula class for racing when the critical mass in most of the world is just not there.... It is hard to have two formula classes where the major difference is ... 2 feet and weight. One class will win the hearts of the hard core OD racer class and that is likely to be the F18's. No matter if this POV is wrong... they have a boat in the market where it does fly.

That still leaves a real market opportunity for a boat that is state of the art (curved foils... looks like AM cup classes of boats or the A cats/N20c and has the SMOD controls that many people (in fact) like. A racing class can form from F18 teams that drop down for the new technology and F16 teams that jump up for new technology. They could look at the Melges marketing and say... why not us in multihulls and build a high end racing circuit like the melges factory has. Moreover... if you think of the boat as having a 5 year racing life time and the class as lasting about 7 to 10 years... the timing is perfect The problem with a boat that must have a FLEET is.. fleets are slow to form (Look how long it's taken the F18 to catch on in the USA)... they will market the N17 as more future proof then an F16 (its going on 10 years old) ... Hey.. you will be racing state of the art open boats in most of the world. .... why not pay the premium for the curved boards...(the EU actually does race cats in open.. so.. Why not buy the baddest boat in this size range. (if you customize it further... you can get it measured for a rating cert) Cat sailors ALWAYS have this itch for new technology... the Hobie 16 is the ONLY cat class that compares to boats like Thistles, Albacores, or any of the classic dinghys that have 40 year old histories of being built and raced. Cat sailors LOVE new and hot.... we have a huge dead boat society as proof.

Finally, the Olympic Mixed Multihull selection is a unique opportunity. Olympic selection is wide open... who knows what the committee will want... low tech... (pick a Nacra F16... or high Tech... pick Nacras new 17) They can use the instant professional class that will form in this N17 boat to jump start this elite racing class. And it lets the Mixed Multihull selection committee off the hook on a charge that they undermined an existing class by picking a flavor of either the F16 or F18 fleets.... Olympics are unique... why not an Olympic "professional" boat.... hey... that was the reason for the birth of the Tornado (a very different time and place in the multihull world).

Finally, look at how little risk there is in tooling up this boat. all of the metal hardware is probably identical to the F16... So... you have good scalability... if it has a carbon rig... (probably does..) it not only works for the Olympic measurement issues... but it is definitely the upscale small cat to buy. Much of the design work was already done for the 20... How difficult is it to scale it down and build a mold.

Note.... this story is pulled completely from my a$$ and certain to get a few pots boiling in the cold of winter.

The clue is in the name .... It's not an F 17
Nacra have had enough of propping up f classes and deserve an OD fleet with some longevity where they don't have to tool up for a new model every 2 years

Is this an actual 17' boat or is it just Nacra's F16 (at 16.4 or so feet) with curved foils rounded up to be called a Nacra 17?

I think I was viewing it in the context of the Nacra 17s of the past, which were always singlehanders.
I do think it could have an edge over the F16s at the Olympic trials though, the curved foils and the wider crew weight range will appeal to a lot of current F18 sailors.

Fresh new 17' cat....in effect a scaled down F20 Carbon with around a 2.6m beam

Although labelled as a Nacra 17 it is in fact 17'6" long!...more detailed info to follow....