I may be able to reassure some people here. The F16 will never be a youth boat, neither will the F12 replace the SL16 as the best boat to prepare the youths to become champions in the Olympic Tornado, F18 or A-cat. And lets face it guys, the Hobie 16 will never be the Olympic catamaran, nor the wave or its competitor F12 if that ever gets off the ground.

Personally I think the Hobie 16 folks have burned their own house. First they refuse to have spinnakers on their boats in any shape or form and pretty much ostrasize any H16 with spi. And now that some other builder has jumped into the gap that the H16 guys left open they scream murder and rape about being displaced as the preferred youth boat.

Personally the Hobie 16 is not a good lead-up to the tornado, F18 or even the A-cat. Just as much as a laser-1 isn't to the 49-er. That is the truth.

Another harsh truth is that the EUROPEAN Hobie 16 class is nowhere near its former strength. As EU is increasingly the more important area in sailing we'll find that the days of the Hobie 16 as the youth boat are numbered. We may see a few flare-ups here and there, but that will be all, the end result is not in any doubt.

Personally I feel the Hobie 16 posters have given Art a pretty rough ride. For Gods sake this guy has achieved something special and all we hear is whining how it doesn't do proper credit to the religious icon of catsailing. How about giving Art and his team the credit they deserve ? Without their efforts you can forget about any championship chances of US teams as all EU teams are exclusively sailing spinnaker youth boats. Meaning they got heaps of spi experience by the time they enter the championship.

Plus why don't we see the two programs as complementary. The H16 initiatives are very important in growing the sport of catamaran sailing to youths and great work is done there. Eventually from this pool a selection of talented sailors will come forward and these can then be properly trained on Arts SL16's. The way I see it this is an excellent 2-stage rocket.

But you have to stop saying things like :"in just a couple of years the SL16 will be just another boat of the past". You may be proven wrong in this and it surely degrades all the efforts made by the team around Art. Nobody is helped by that.

Wouter