I have to say I am VERY disappointed in all of you. 12 hours in and noone has said anything particularly contentious - I think I'm going to ask for my money back on this one! 
I could always just throw a little fuel on the fire with this statement from Nacra:
"Nacra F18 Infusion.
In Formula 18 racing, all producers have to try to top of the racing results and therefore on top of the market. All sailors know that Formula 18's are innovative racing machines and therefore will continue to change to meet the demands of the market.The Nacra Infusion is made with the latest production technology and hull design by a company famed for quality production. The Nacra Infusion is the most innovative sports catamaran on the World market.
The Nacra Infusion is the only production catamaran that is made with infusion technology."
OK - more popcorn, please!
As said before, the best F-18 is the one you are on......
However the fastest F-18 is the one that Bundy and Gashby are on
OK..... Hobie Tiger has won every F-18 Worlds with the exception of one. That was won by a Cirrus.
Now (popcorn ready)..... A large part of Hobies success is because of the sailors on them.... They have taken the smart route by employing Olympic Tornado campaigners to race. With minimum cost to them they are riding the wave of Government and private sponnsor funded training and sailor development..... The Olympic pros are indead in a different league to other sailors and it was a very smart move on Hobies behalf to utalise them..... Other manufactures should take note.
Now if you take out the top Tornado sailors from the results and then have another look....... Both the Tiger and Capricorn are very solid performers. With Booth and Bundy removed from the finishing results, the Capricorn was the next best placed boat in 3rd and a Capricorn was leading the event outright until it OCS in the last race and threw it away. This was also the Capricorn's 2nd Worlds after debuting at 5th in last years event...... Look out Tigers 
The old NACRA...... well there is a reason why they updated the design.... The new boat is untested on an International level and will be interesting to see how it compares to the Capricorn and Tiger.
I also believe the Flyer showed good pace at its first Worlds.... Have not heared much about it since.
I don't really understand Nacra in this marketing strategy. To talk up a boat is one thing, everybody does that, but nacra is almost overconfindent. I would wait and see how the boat does first. The fact that they had to delay production (redesign the hulls ?) suggest that it was not all thay succesful straight out of the mould that they seem to proclaim. Hell, even the Cirrus F18 and Capricorn F18's went through several iterations before they got it right. And even then some will say that they are not completely there yet.
Designing a new and succeful F18 is by no means an easy task anymore, to much development has been done in the class and each new design has to do alot of tweaking before it is level with the former last new generation F18's
We'll see how the infusion will do
Wouter
Good point Wouter...
Has it been known for some time now that the Capricorn is the fastest boat up wind, but easy to pitch pole down hill? The tiger however, is the fastest boat down wind. Therefore the skill of the crew is the deciding factor (boring is it not..). Read this in the last Yachts and Yachting- before you all tear me to pieces I mean..
What is the difference between resin infusion and vacuum..... If nothing, I think you will find many classes use it such as T, A, Taipan, Capricorn and many more......
Marstrom are the #1 quality manufacture on the market and a specialist in prepreg nomex honeycombe hulls and spars baked in an autoclave. Look out if Marstrom decided to join the F-18 class.
Isn't that pretty much inevitable? More 'when' than 'if'?
With the status that Marstrom has and the rapid acceptance and growth of F18, Marstrom's involvement is surely bound to happen. The only problem is they'd have to learn how to build a heavy boat first......
I think Marstrøm has their hands full for the time being. Building Seacarts, VX-40's, dinghy equipment, spars etc. etc.
If the Europe-spars business declines now when that class is out of the olympics, they might have time to look at other markets.
If Gøran and Torbjørn decided to enter the F-18 market, the boat would no doubt be fast, but imagine the price! S-glass pre-preg hulls are _very_ expensive, just look at the Tornado.
Stephen
The difference between vac bagging and resin infusion is not so great, with infusion the stack is laid in the mould dry then a bag put over it and a vacuum applied, then a pipe is taken from the bag to a bucket of resin, the vacuum pulls the resin out of the bucket and into the mould, it is distributed around by a series of channels and the laminate is wet out, when it's all wet the pipe is closed off and it's left to cure.
With vac bagging it's all wet out first then bagged down to consolidate it, results are very similar, but infusion uses a bit more resin and is quicker.
You can't build f18s in pre-preg it's against the rules.
regards
john
I like it, now go build it.
Henry Elliot will cut the foam for your mold using your cad file.
Go do it man.
Bill
This is just an example of the Nacra boys not doing their homework. Other production boats using infusion technology that went BEFORE the nacra infusion. Boyer A-cats, Capricorn, Blade F16. Those are the ones I know of; if anything they are only the 4th builder to start using this technology for their production. A far cry from "... the ONLY ..."
In that case, everybody hold on to their wallets !
Wouter
Now that is a silly class rule !
Wouter
Yeah, we'd have a bunch really ugly F18's out there. What is up with Marstrom's color choices? Is the guy in the paint booth color blind?
Wow, we agree!
LMFAO
No-no-no-no, both the blue and yellow boats are good looking. White is plain boring.
Might be that painter has breathed to much solvents tough..
It makes perfectly sense for me to forbid pre-preg in the F-18 class. The idea is cheap and heavy boats on a level playing field. Building a heavy boat out of pre-preg is a waste of money, as you can build a boat just as strong/stiff/heavy with vacuum or regular wet layup. F-18's are evenly supposed to have an easy to reach min. weight with plywood, so why drive costs up by using a rare material like pre-preg s-glass.
Once again, I ask, if it has no advantage, why rule against it?
They rule against it to keep the costs down, that's why they also rule against carbon masts, beams, spin poles, etc.
What does a new Tornaodo cost? What does a new F18 cost? What does a full up all carbon A cat cost? I've heard $19,000 for the new Nacra A2, with only one sail, not the three on a F18.
I guess to stop anybody from going that route and build really expensive boats.
If Marstrøm or someone else buildt some F-18's from pre-preg S-glass, put som olympic pros on it and they won the worlds and europeans, dont you think most sailors would want one of those? This is exactly what happened in the Tornado class, and as a result it's as good as a one-manufacturer class today.
I think it is a wise move for the F-18 class to forbid pre-pregs in the hulls. If they allowed carbon in the hulls, I would have a different opinion, but then they should lower the max weight also ( and morph into the 18HT, lets not go there today..).
Also, the technology for going into pre-preg production is expensive. Autoclaves are not cheap..
Timbo
I'll try to answer to yr questions
A complete Marstrom Tornado ready to sail is EUR 27,000 ex factory (tax and shipping excluded).
At the current exchange rate roughtly USD 32,100.
This is for the "basic" version (you can pay quite a lot more according to yr preferences for sails, spinnaker setup and rigging).
In Europe a complete Capricorn in the average racing trim is EUR 16,250 (VAT excluded)-EUR 18,500-19,000 (included VAT).
Actually I do not think that Marstrom is interested to build a F18. Tipically a F18 hull scales up at 100-115 lbs (45-52 Kg). Personally I attended the weighting of a Capricorn hull: it was 104 lbs (47 Kg) with fittings.
Consider that a M20 hull is 57 lbs (26 Kg) and a rock solid Javelin 2 F18HT (in plain glass and vynilester resin) is 70 lbs (32 Kg). As you see the weight limit set by the F18 rule is unable to keep down costs, but makes the boats unnecessarily heaby by 30-40 Kg.
Thanks for that info, it is too bad the F18's are so heavy but how do they change that without making all the current F18's obsolete?
Easy
You lower the weight over time, in a published and predictable manner. And open up the allowable materials.
As the weight is lowered, people get new boats and the heavy boat owners try to lighten up the last generation boats with new components. Lightening up a F18 would require a loosening of the rules, allow carbon masts, or other lighter components.
A competitive team is going to cycle a new boat every 3-5 years anyway, so why stay locked into a weight range? You could lower it over time and really not hurt the F18 racers.
In order to stay current F18 really should consider a 10 year weight reduction program
[sarcasm] yes, because otherwise the class might not grow [/sarcasm]
Exactly the point I was trying to get at !
Wouter
Indeed !
Wouter
Shouldn't we all? Humans, not boats. The obesity rate is out of control in the US (especially in the chitlins belt).
Does anyone with the "inside F18" info think this could happen? I think it would have a positive effect.
Jake, I wasnt trying to bash F18, but in 5 or 7 or 10 years, what will the world look like? Do you think the F18 will stay current at its current min weight if other lighter faster boats or classes take hold? I mean look at the F16 for a glint of that happening now.
The F18 will grow and will continue to be successful, but what happens when the next new new thing comes out? We all going to jump on that?
Just my 2 cents, and what do I know?
Who knows? We've certainly seen a lot of classes come and go - but have we seen a class explode like F18 in the past? My point is that the rule seems to fit the bill for a lot of people. I don't have any trouble moving my boat around on shore and speed, for me, is relative. Hell, I REALLY enjoy racing Waves as long as there is a tough fleet (if you haven't tried it - you should!). F18HT's were light and probably faster (?) but that didn't shake out real well. Class health is not necessarily measured by boat weight and overall speed.
Best F18 'round here seems to be the one with Pete Melvin on it
Mike.
Jake... you make the claim that the F18's are experiencing such great growth. (forget the world situation )
In the USA... Have you compared the growth of the F18 class to the growth of the Hobie 20 fleet? (they had 70 boat nationals once upon a time)
Betcha they are not much different and may actually lead the F18's
Seems to me that what you are seeing is not so much growth... as consolidation.... Old boats are retired (nobody wants to be last boat owner in a dying class) and racers have gravitated to the F18. Much the same happened with the hobie 20 where lots of hobie sailors moved to the boat and created that boat as a hot class for 4 or 5 years.
I don't see lots of new sailors on F18's.. I see lots of I20 and Hobie 20 racers. More of a zero sum game.
Yeah, I'll buy that, but you now have two lightweight classes seeing good growth, F16 and Acat. Just something to consider.