Other Manufactures?

[Fastboatfan]

When are other manufactures getting on board in the US ? I am interested in the F-18HT class but not necessarily the Bimare. I also heard the F-18HT Ventilo molds are some where in the US. Is someone planning on building them?

[Nacracando]

I have been doing some research about other manufacturers of the F-18HT. I have found that a British builder, John Pierce (Stealth Marine) is building a F-18HT and plans to introduce it to the USA within the year.

The Ventillo F-18HT molds are not in the USA. Someone spread the word that the were, but the are still in Europe. The Ventillo was very expensive and scarce. Judging from the event in Italy this past July, where the Ventillo design finished poorly, I would say that it may need redesigned to remain competitive with the new wave piercing designs.

Boyer is also planning to build a F-18HT, however they have a lot going on with a new dinghy design and such. Theri F-18HT is probably a year out or more.

Dr. Martin Fischer has designed and build a handful of F-18HTs and has a new design. He is currently interviewing builders.

As far as the Bimare, I have looked it over and the boat is built very well. I do have an issue with the rudder system. While the rudder system is light, simple and works well for bouy racing, surf launching would be tricky. I understand that Matt Struble is developing a new rudder system to be used in the Worrell 1000. I sailed the boat and it is very fast and handles well.

I hope that my research and this information helps.

Steve

[Wouter Hijink]

I would like to comment with regard to the Ventilo F18HT

I think Nacracando paints an overly critical image of the Ventilo F18HT.

>> The Ventillo was very expensive and scarce.

The Ventilo is currently quoted at 14,780 Euros which is something like 14500 USD taking the drop of the dollar of the last months into account. With the high dollar rate of last winter the price would have been 12500 USD and not that much more than it competitor.

With respect to scarce; all the photo's used in the beginning of the US F18HT website were depicted Ventilo's or when there was a group of F18HT's there was a majority of them. I don't know if there are more Bims than Ventilo's but the describtion scarce may well be inappropriet.


>>Judging from the event in Italy this past July, where the Ventillo design finished poorly, I would say that it may need redesigned to remain competitive with the new wave piercing designs

However the Ventilo F18HT is the European champion for 2000 and 2001, maybe the crew just had a bad year this year ? Or the likes of the Jav crews (strubble and Oliver as well as the Italian Tornado crew) was just a level higher than the crews that normally sail the Ventilo's. Remember that this class has just receive a large influx of established sailors from other (US) classes.

In Europe alone extremely few crews of name and fame race F18HT's They are all found in the Tornado, F18 , iF20 and H16 classes.

I wouldn't be surprised when the Ventilo would proof to be just as fast as the Jav when sailed by the likes of Smyth and Strubble.

A question : Why are so many of us always trying to conclude so much from single results ? You would have a case if the results were found in several championships in a row, but it is very much a shaky conclusion when only based on a single 2002 championship were the fast majority of boats were Javs.

Wouter

[W.F. Oliver III]

I must agree with Wouter on some of his points. The Ventilo F-18HT that I saw in Italy was a good looking cat. I think that it was sail poorly, thus its poor placing.

Unfortunately, the Ventilo was never beside us, so we got no boat for boat comparisions. Not much could be determined from the Italian regatta in terms of relative performance.

The Venilo is very hard or impossible to aquire, as several Jav 2 customers attempted to contact the factory before they bought Jav 2s. Nobody received any response from them. I think this is what the poster meant by "scarce".