Does someone else have good pictures of showing both boats simultaniously from the front. I would like to know if the Nacra's are the same width or whether the Nacra 17 is 2.60 mtr wide.

The same applies to the masts. From what I've seen it appears that both use the same length of masts, possibly the exact same section.

I venture that the Nacra 17 is fitted with a slightly larger mainsail or indeed 15 sq. mtr. + 0.15 * 8.1 mtr = 15 + 1.215 = max 16.2 sq. mtr. As the difference between the beams would suggest that 0.15 mtr is added to the boom length and possibly to the whole leech.

A similar reasoning (bow + 0.15 mtr) puts the jib at max 4.09 sq. mtr. compared to 3.70 sq. mtr. of the F16 when it is assumed that the same mast is used.

Of course, the hull length say nothing about the spinnaker being used, so that can still be of any size between 17.5 sq.mtr (F16) and 21 sq. mtr. (=max allowed under Texel and ISAF rating without additional penalties). 18.5 sq. mtr seems most likely however when taking into account the 6% additional hulls and usage of the same mast.

I don't think that that will help much in the way of performance as luff length is the more dominant factor here. That may only increase when they are using a longer mast on the Nacra 17.

Anyway, does anyone have more dependable data or pics that allow us to compare the two directly.

Wouter