Constantine's Taipan - 104.5 ding, ding, ding (winner)!

Do you also remember in what mode these boats were measured.

BTW, his is so well maintained that it looks new!!!

His (Dan Feldman) is the first Falcon produced BTW.

And your Falcon is a prototype or also a production series model ?Wouter

Here are the tidied up results and data of all who participated in the F16 GC 2009 Gulfport USA.

10 Vipers, 7 Blades, 4 Falcons, 2 Taipans and 1 G-cat F16; in total 24 crews who finished at least 2 races.

The event saw 8 singlehanded crews and 16 doublehanded crews.

And first place overall went to an adult/kid team, with a two-blokes doing second place and a mixed (aldult) male/female team in third. A very nice mix of the F16 (2-up) target group indeed.

Interesting to note (see the green numbers) is that the claim that Vipers were the first 5 boats over the line in the heavy wind days is not really reflected in the results.

Vipers were 1 to 5 in races.. 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 12 (all strong wind days apparently)
But indeed were not in races 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 ..........(or in light wind races 13, 14 and 15)


However, Viper crews were first 3 boats over the line in race 1 to 12 (heavy winds); still an incredibally impressive result, no doubt about that.

Best grouping of non-Vipers crews was in race 13 were 2 Falcons and a Blade laid claim to finish places 2 to 4.

Best score by a Taipan crew was 6th place in race 6 after that they stuck to midfleet placings; really not bad for an oldie. There also doesn't appear to be that much difference between a 1-up and 2-up Taipan.

And of course we see how well Andi Lutz and Martin Schori did; they have put in 4 top 5 finishes on a Blade; 3 of them in heavy winds.

Team McDonald did 6 top 5 finishes overall on their Falcon F16. Also 3 of these in heavy winds.

It is also nice to note that after the previous two Global Challenges were won by a singlehanded F16 skipper (2007 : Hans Klok/Blade, 2008 : John Pierce/Stealth); this years GC was dominated by the doublehanded crews. All GC's up to now had big wind, so that can't be given as an excuse.

I think this wraps it up and till next years F16 Global Challenge !

And what about experience levels? Any professional sailors being paid or sponsored to race in this event?

I guess you would have to define the word 'professional sailor' before making such a comment. I say this as the 07 Global Challenge was won by Hans Klok (Catamaran Parts). 08 Global Challenge was won by John Pierce (Stealth Marine) Hans also entered. Greg Goodall(AHPC) and Matt McDonald (Vector Works Marine) were both participating in the 07 & 09 Global Challenges. To my mind all of the above could be classed as Pro Sailors. I accept they are all manufacturers of sailing equipment and aren't necessarily being paid directly to compete but I think it's really good for the Class and probably better than having paid jockey's turn up and take the trophies.