Like Berny, I to am a little disappointed by the “penetration” that the F14 has made on the market place, as far as numbers sailing go. That is not to say that there hasn’t been great interest in the concept and in the F14’s that are sailing, (I have personally posted out over two thousand DVD’s of the AO F14 sailing to people, world wide, who have requested them, and always with very positive feed back from them after they have viewed them)
Personally I have always considered that the most demanding AND rewarding sailing has always been on a cat around the 14’ size. This size requires that to perform well on the water a sailer has to concentrate to the utmost, as even a small error of judgement will drop you back in a fleet enormously. This is a size of boat that is not very forgiving of “mistakes”. It is a size that requires very good seamanship to sail it well, it is very hard to gain places on a 14’ but very easy to lose them and that is why it is such a great test of a sailers worth on the water. On larger cats, the same small errors that cost so dearly on a 14’ are not as noticeable to their overall performance. The weight placement on larger cats has far less of the immediate critical effect on performance and even the sail trim is not on the same “knife edge” of whether or not the cat goes or goes backwards in a fleet. Having said that, and having sailed (designed and built many myself as well) every size of “off the beach cat” that there is, it really has surprised me that when, two designs (at least) of F14 catamarans have been produced, and that have shown, over an extended period of time, to be FAR superior in all round performance, to any and all preceding 14’ cat(s) that have ever existed and yet there has not been at least, a moderate number of sailers prepared to “move into” the class. It is even more puzzling to me when I watch week after week two F14 Alpha Omega’s competing equally with cats that are much bigger and way more expensive, and many times (not always of course), the F14’s are finishing ahead of the bigger, more expensive cats, over the line. Just look at the current comparative Yachting Victoria yardsticks to get an idea of just how competitive the F14’s are. In all humility, I have to ask, JUST WHAT DO THE SAILING PUBLIC WANT?
That is not to say that I have any regrets for designing and building the Alpha Omega F14, for like Berny, it has fulfilled my personal desire to “take the 14’ cat” to a place that I felt it could go but where few, if any one else was prepared to put their “money where their mouths were”.
I don’t think that the F14 is dead, I think that it’s time is not quite here yet – but it WILL come -