There is a new difference now between new and less than new 17 sports. Let me digress; I have a 2000 sport that recently flipped during a wind storm while parked on the beach (bare mast). The mast broke in half and the front cross beam cracked near both hulls. When the new replacements arrived from Hobie, the new front cross beam came with the integrated track, like that on the new 16s. Always looking to upgrade, I bought the integrated jib track cars made for the 16 (ones for the 17 are not available yet), a couple of cheek blocks, bungy, control line, fabricated some car stops and combined with my current Jib cleats (used now as jib car controllers) cobbled together a nice jib track system allowing me to control the jib sheet position from anywhere on the boat. The integrated track H16 jib cars did need a little tweeking for the 17, I raised the cleating angle 5 degrees with a wedge (easier to cleat/uncleat from the wing) and also decreased the fixed cleating side angle by about half. I have only had the boat out a couple of times since the repairs/upgrade, but have already noticed the difference when on a reach to any other point further off the wind.
