Hi all,

don't intend to tell the US sailors what to do, but hope I can tell you about my own experience in OZ, which may add more info into why it is important to try and get near the right number sooner rather than later.

My interest in the F16 class started when fitting spinnakers to the Mosquito class I was sailing. Luckily it already had a single Yardstick for one or two up. So we started racing and found the Yardstick correction for adding a spinnaker to the base number was too easy to win with, so Tim reviewed results and approached the VYC yardstick committee with that figure. This was put into the system and has only moved by .5 since, however at mixed events the front Mossies with spinnakers have continued to clean up unless it is blowing 25 kts. plus.

I came under constant criticsm for winning races in the open fleet on Yardstick and so have the other top sailors, but still the number has not changed, because the starting point was to generous? So one of the reasons I decided to go full F16 was the winning on Yardstick criticsm. I wanted to race for the front of the fleet and avoid the Yardstick criticsm.

I was lucky that when I approached the VYC Yardstick committee (one person)about the F16 yardstick, he agreed to use the number I suggested and had been using for a few races so had some results. It was based on adding the spinnaker factor to the Taipan Sloop Yardstick and rounding down. It is very hard to win races in mixed fleets with, but I would rather that than the criticsm I had when racing Mossies in mixed fleet. I know the F16 is capable of mixing it at the front of any fleet and Matt and others have shown this in the US.

If I where in the US I would be doing anything I could to get the number changed now, as when your number is near the front of the fleet, where your top sailors sail the boat, the class will get respect, which also helps to grow the class, we all know the F16 is fast, but to other sailors and prospective buyers only the handicap proves it.