Hi Wouter,
Martien Kooyman here from the Blade NED015, saling with Frank van Marle, the participant from the global challenge who tried to sail under water all the time.
First time on the forum, meanwhile finding out how it works as it is not my thing normally.

I agree with you that the F16's did very well at the REM Race. Good for promotion of the class in The Netherlands! I see you are trying to compare with the F18's. As you mentioned the best of the F18 class were not there. This is however not to be taken lightly when comparing. The level of the Dutch F18 class is very high with the top sailers nearly at Olympic class level. (see for instance Micha Heemskerk and Bas Tentij as current European Champions F18). I just wanted to mention this to put thing into perspective.

Last Global Challenge proved to be very succesfull for us, not in results but in experience. We learned a lot, mostly while not sailing as you know. But being among a good group of F16 mates all learning how to cope with this relatively new class was very helpfull.
Hope to see more Dutch F16's at Ronde pampus on the 15th of September. We are thinking of going there.
Cheers,
Martien