With respect to the F16's I can be totally honest.

By far the biggest reasons the current F16 sailors have chosen for their boats are largely unrelated to the points you provide.

For F16's the main reasons are :

-1- The desire to use the boat for several different purposes. As in 1-up, 2-up, sailing with kids, racing and recreational sailing, spi and non spi.

-2- The desire to have a lightweight boat with gadgets.


These are the most often cited reasons for purchasing a F16. Several also name the desire to have a spinnaker on the boat by this is often secondary.

Available fleet racing, class structure, geography or "in class skill level" do not seem to factor in at all. It is discussed but never dwelled upon. I had expected these to be more of an issue.

One of the more interesting aspects is that F16's tend to go quite easily into far off places, like new mexico and arizona. On the world stage, like Finland and Shanghai China. A such geography can't be much of a factor.

I feel that the F16 are succesful in expressing a feel and alure of a modern high performance boat without really intimidating the potential buyer to the point were he becomes hesitant. It is still regarded by many as a small boat, although performant.

During test rides I often find that people still expect "a smaller boat", simply because it is 16 foot long and all 16's are ... . But nevertheless they are all totally pre-informed about the gadgets.

What I guess I am trying to describe here is that the F16 buyers are looking for a "manageable pocket rocket" mostly for the enjoyment of having one and sailing it, but not really for the racing or social structure. If F16 sailors turn to racing then it is mostly after they have purchased one for the other reasons and found it to be a competitive racer. Afterall it is always fun to place high in a fleet.

With this in mind, and when doing promo, I try to focus on the F16 versatility and the special feel one can derive of owning something out of the ordinary. With the later I mean, how many 2-up boat do you know that weight 240 lbs ?

Interestingly enough a very large portion of F16 sailors enjoy tinkering with their boats. Rerunning lines, trying a new block.

I guess for many of us it is a more inward forcussed enjoyment we get from these boats.

Selling on racing fleets and performance is hard for us F16's. Mostly because no-one believes the F16 performance before having had a test ride and secondly racing fleets like the F18's, A-cat and also the H16's are alot more glamorous then us. In customer perception we always loose on these points.

As a class chairman and also as promoter I have actively tried to install a policy of being confident to race everybody and everything. Partly because of the above stated issues, but also very much to open the minds of the sailors. I believe in the saying that you have got to set people free to keep them. That many react positively to opening up their choices rather then assuring them by regulating everything. People I talked to reacted positively to a "can do !" feel to the boat and class. As such I feel half of the F16 class promotion is to sell this concept. To have people play the game of high performance sailing on ALL fronts. Not only the refine your sailing skills but also tweaking your boat to suit your style of sailing the best. This arcs back into "fiddling with your F16" point referred to earlier.

Organisation is also hard because as a group we are like herding a bunch of cats. Again as crews we are more inwardly focussed. But as a result of all those individuals and opinions we get an exceptionally active class forum. That forum by itself is practically 85 % of our social class life.

In the beginning I wanted to set-up a class that was different, and I think what I asked for !



Summerized ; F16 seems to pefer to be promoted as :

-1- Versatile
-2- Being lightweight + having modern gadgets
-3- Enjoying specifically the owning of a modern boat and just sailing it.

Racing, available events, social structure (other then the forum) and class skill level have proven to not be significant points for us.

Wouter