mmadge wrote:
Karl pretty soon we are going to call you Wouter,remember this is a Hobie Forum the other Forums are for Hobie Bashing .This Forum was designed to promote them.
I'm not bashing, and no Kool-Aid. I don't think any of the boats being submitted is on par with the quality of a Marstrom Tornado, and the discussion is costs.
An Olympic campaign means sailing a lot. 200+ days a year. That's 800+ days every cycle.
Figure the average serious amateur spends 40 days a year sailing, with the H16 they typically get a new boat every two years. If you stick with numbers like that, (in reality I'd bet they'd use up more just from being picky), your looking at going through twenty boats in that cycle. If you're spending $10k a boat, that's $200,000!
The Marstrom Tornados are pre-preg, and autoclaved. They are extremely stiff, and stiff means fast. Those boats will, and do last and entire quadrenium (sp) of training, and you've got $40k into a Tornado. Sure, you're going to go through sails like crazy no matter what boat, but you're not going to can the platform as often.
Trust me, these guys spend a ton of time on the water, and get to know the equipment extremely well, and as a result get very picky about how things feel. If things don't feel right, it throws everything off.
There's definitely parts that work better than others. I've got a mast right now that I'm probably going to hang onto for a few boats, because I like it. It just feels good, and I'm no where near the skill level of the Olympic hopefulls. Even if its just in my head, that's still worth something.