http://www.geocities.com/kustzeilen/Typhoon_F16.html

Wouter

Congratulations Wouter! Your boat is lovely. Not sure HOW you are going to be able to wait out the winter before sailing her (at least main and jib). I think I might get a dry suit and as much fleece as you can fit and just go before you are frozen in!

Take Care
Mark

Take care
Mark

Wouter!!

Great to see your platform is finished. It looks great.

The decks do look very round compared to the standard Taipan. Why did you choose to do this?

Will your boat fit in your loungeroom so that you can sit on it over winter while you watch sailing on your television?

The second to last photo is a bit scarey.

You must be gagging to get it on the water.

If there is anything that you would like to add to the Timber Tips on the Taipan website send it to me and I'll upload it.

Congratulations.

Rob.

Rob,

>>The decks do look very round compared to the standard Taipan. Why did you choose to do this?

I think it feels more comfortable to the behind of both skipper and crew. You have a more rounded gunwales (?). At the forward deck I feel that a more rounded profile will improof dive recovery and also lower drag during a dive even more.

Third consideration is that a more rounded deck will feel more firm as the curve will help to transmit the loads and the rounded deck will be more stiff as a result.

>>You must be gagging to get it on the water.

Well yes, but I fear that circumstances have forced me to abanden this idea and wait for the comming spring. There are some 3 weeks of sailing left but I'm packing in and driving it all to the winter storage. I was offered an A-cat rig so that I could sail a big race nearby saterday but I had to decline.


>>If there is anything that you would like to add to the Timber Tips on the Taipan website send it to me and I'll upload it.

Ohh yes, but I fear that some may well be forbidden by the Taipan 4.9 one-design rules. I'm not even sure wether teh rounded decks are allowed; isn't there some template it needs to conform too ?

I will contact you about these later in the winter when I have more time.

As you can see this platform was intended as a F16 and it was build as such.

Thanks everybody for your compliments.

Regards,

Wouter

Wouter,

>> I think it feels more comfortable to the behind of both skipper and crew. You have a more rounded gunwales (?)

The gunwales on my boat are more rounded than on the fibreglass hulls. I quite like this look, a little more sleek looking.

I also have the hole through each hull through which to run the trapeze shockcord. I'm somewhat ambivalent about this system. Most of the time it is great but when the sea is a bit rough and you need to move along the hull while on trapeze the shockcord can get in the way of your feet making it necessary to lift your foot off the boat and around the exit point of the shockcord rather than being able to just shuffle along the hull. This is a minor gripe with this system and only really is a problem for me when it's rough. Given the choice I would choose to have it and put up with it in the rough.

>>I fear that some may well be forbidden by the Taipan 4.9 one-design rules. I'm not even sure wether teh rounded decks are allowed; isn't there some template it needs to conform too ?

There is a template that the hulls must conform to but I have never seen one. I suspect you are right that the modifcations to the decks that you have made would be disallowed. It may be however that the tempate is for the bow, bottom and transom of the hull and doesn't measure the decks. (Does anyone who is reading this know? Jim B are you out there?) The Taipan platform is very stiff as it is so your modifications will probably have little or no noticeable effect on the overall stiffness of the platform. The dive recovery aspect of the change is very interesting and we will have to wait till your next summer to see if there is any difference. It is probably going to be difficult to judge this as the Taipan performs very well as it is. I couldn't beleive the difference between the Taipan and my previous boat (Hobie 16). Once the H16 got a sniff of the water above its bow it was pretty much all over. The Taipan seems to be able to submerge its bow and still keep ploughing along. The boat slows of course and you can push it under too far but usually easing the sheet brings the bow out and away you go again. Great fun!!

Rob.

Great boat Wouter! Very nice finish!

However, I can't help but noticing a familly ressemblance to the yellow P16 beside it!

I would have tought that you might have choosed to go for canted hulls since you had decided not to build exactly the T4.9 plans. I hope that the boat will be a good performer

Charles Leblanc
N5.2

Hey Wouter,
Great boat was wondering if you would ever get it built. I thought I inspired you to paint a shark profile on the side of your boat. It makes the boat a lot faster. Looking forward to reading about all the races you are going to win next year. Take care.
J.P. the Terrible
Isotope 186

Great boat Wouter! Very nice finish!

>>However, I can't help but noticing a familly ressemblance to the yellow P16 beside it!

WHat can I say ; I'm in love with that Colour.

>>I would have tought that you might have choosed to go for canted hulls since you had decided not to build exactly the T4.9 plans.

Well, I'm not sure wether canting is such a big issue. I also noticed that all new boats have gone back to being non-canted. The New Nacra F18 is uncanted and so is the current F18 worldchampion boat Cirrus F18. Also the FOX and FX-one are uncanted. Tiger is not canted, F18HT's are not canted and I remember a comment that was made on the old open forum by Jim Boyer himself.

Jim indicated that when he compared the mark 4 to the mark 3; which are basically the same boat appart from being canted or not; that he found no differences in speed. He did find differences in the way a boat steered. He put the steering forward as the main advantage of the canted hulls. I think the Taipan steers very well and hence I saw no need to go for canted hulls; besides producing non canted hulls is simpler.


>>I hope that the boat will be a good performer

Me too !!

Hey Charles; weren;t you the one who was thinking about homebuilding one of these too ?

Wouter

Dear Wouter

I had to jump in.
Your yellow cat looks great! It must be hell to wait!

>>I would have tought that you might have choosed to go for canted hulls since you had decided not to build exactly the T4.9 plans.

Good you didn't cant your hulls! In my opinion, a none canted hull doesn't pitch poll that fast. The bow produces lift when the cat is heeld over. Also in low winds, canted hulls will produce more drag.

Greetings from Switzerland!

Hi Wouter

>>I would have tought that you might have choosed to go for canted hulls since you had decided not to build exactly the T4.9 plans.


I am relief to learn that you did study the option of canted hulls. I know that the canted hull were very hot two years ago with the Inter and the Mystère 2000. From my own experience, I can say that designing a catamaran forces you to weight many options and that many of these options will bring improvement on some caracteristics of the boat while decreasing other points.


Well I was really getting ready to build one but I have changed my mind and I decided to replace my Nacra 5.7 for a Nacra 5.2. The Nacra 5.2 is a very nice boat and it really sails well uni-rigged.

Most of my upgrade decision was based on the excellent review that were recieved by the Taipan as well as the growing information about the F16HP.

Don't worry, I will NOT cut my hull one foot shorter to fit the F16HP requirement but I can sail it solo and have some fun with it.
It is really the discussion about the new class of small fast catamarans that have helped me to make my decision for changing my boat.

The weather is begining to go bad in my area, the forecast is calling for 5C tomorrow! I will have to end my season soon



The other reasons are the usuall availability (or lack of) money and workspace.