In many ways, the F104 is very close to the F16 and in france and UK, I believe that they are well installed. I don't have the number, but I think that there is more F104 in france and UK than F16 in the world...
This is not really a fair comparison, neither is it true.
There are 150 PURE F16's in the world and if we count the Taipan 4.9's with that group we get over 400 boats in total. Do the Spitfire and FX-one combined top that number ?
Basically the F104 is counting different designs as belonging to their class. But really how comparable is a Mattia Esse to say the Spitfire or the FX-one. For one thing the Mattia Esse has 17.25 sq. mtr. upwind sail area with the other two having 18.9 sq. mtr. and 19 sq.mtr. Similar differences exist between these boats and the BCM Energy. Between the F104 boats there is a rating difference of 5% already. The F16 class grandfathers boats but not by that much rating difference.
How many Cirrus Evolution are there about anyway. Basically the numbers of the F104 are made up of the Spitfires and the FX-ones. The rest are just 1 and 2's.
Spitfire claims over 150 boats sold; what does Hobie claim ?
The attendence at the last FX-one Europeans (their biggest event) was down right disappointing. FIVE boats raced.
http://www.eurohobie2007.com/files/risultatiFXONE.DOCFX-one did better in 2006 with 10 boats participating in their Europeans, however not a single French team despite the fact the event was held in France :
http://www.eurohobie2006.com/resultats/eurofxone_s.htmHow about 2005, when the championship was held in the Netherlands, one of the regions with most FX-ones sold : 9 boats with 3 sailors over the age of 45 (and 2 over 50).
http://www.kzvg.nl/EK%20Hobie/ekhobieuitslagen.HTMI wondered about this in the past but I don't see these attendence numbers as pointing to a class that sold many hundreds of boats. The Spitfires at least get 20 to 30 boats at their UK events. FX-one are thrilled to attract 10 boats to their UK nationals, that is if they held such an event at all since 2004. We never see more then 4 FX-ones at any Dutch event of magnitude, most often it is something like 1 or 2, seeing the 2-up version is even more rare. With only some 10 F16's in the Netherlands we achieve similar attendence numbers. I think we have a single Spitfire in the whole of the Netherlands; if was on sale for about 18 months before it switched owners.
I may be wrong but it does appear to me that the F104 is basically the French Spitfire class with a handful of FX-ones and some other boats thrown in. As such it is as we F16's were in the beginning. Mainly a Taipan 4.9 class with a few others thrown in. Nothing to be ashamed about, it can grow. However, claiming to contain more boats then the F16 class in the whole world seems like stretch to me. Afterall, using similar wide criteria we can count the Spitfires as F16's !
And I don't see UK + France having anything like 400 F104's. I'd surprised if there are more then 20 active F104 crews in the whole world, with all of them found in Northern France. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I think that F16 and F104 has to converge and my opinion is that it should be possible to make the F104 come to the F16. In my opinion, fighting against the F104 in france for now will be pointless...
Another interesting observation is that the F16 class can not converge on the F104 at all. Basically, our class rules are fixed and with the number of boat sold and our growth numbers we can't modifying anything or risk upsetting the class. In principle this means that all the converging has to be done by the F104 class, which they will not do as that means that they must become full F16's.
Personally, I don't believe in fighting any class directly (with the exception of the US 18HT class in 2003, we HAD to do that). I've come to the opinion that for each class the biggest fight is for survival on its own merits anyway. Most classes fail on that even without being pressured by a competing other class. The rest is just a came of winning territory. Currently the F16's are secure in all area's of the world, the class has gained its critical mass and isn't fighting for its survival anymore. The F104 first needs to achieve that and only then can it enjoy thoughts of "fighting" the F16 class for "dominance". Same problems are had by the nacra F17, FX-one and Spitfire classes. None of them are anywhere near achieving critical mass on a world scale. This is actually were alot of the 1000's of F16 class work hours went into. Creating a stable base world wide with at least 3 builders committed to supporting the class.
The first thing is to create a buzz around the class (I'm trying).
And your help is inmensely appreciated !
The second thing would be to invite some journalist (from multihull for example, which is published in french and english) to try a blade.
I think there was already a Taipan 4.9 + spi article in the Multihull World magazine a couple of years ago. It may be an idea to give it another go with the Blade or Stealth, but most of the time these mags request a sum of money and other privilegdes for having them write up an article. I have never seen the F16 class go to great lengths to achieve such a thing. Basically we grew (and grow) because we gave potential customers test rides and through our internet presence. This seems to have helped us very well. I personally rate multihull magazines rather low in importance. Most of the time it is a flash, such articles have no staying power. And we all know that these articles are written according to a standard template. Lay a couple of them next to one another and they pretty much all read the same.
I think what you are doing is best. Making the French sailors aware that the F16 class exist and that free personal test-rides can be arranged for seriously interested parties. From that the rest will follow. The F16 specs do a great job of convincing potential customers on their own.
Because what do you think any customer will choose out of the following comparison.
A 140 kg boat costing 14.500 without extra's like a snuffer setup or selftacker and having a rating of 1.04 and requiring a righting aid for solo sailors.
http://www.sumhit.com/sites/bcm/fr/catamarans-options.asp?IdProduit=3or a 110 kg F16, being cheaper at 14.165 Euro's when fully fitted with all "extra's" as standard and having a rating of 1.01 (or less) and not requiring a righting aid.
If this Evolution (more like a step back in evolution if you ask me) is made to directly compare to a standard F16 (snuffer, selftacker added) then it costs 15.560 Euro's. A singlehanded righting aid is added for another 215 Euro's. For 15.775 Euro one can have any F16 design fitted with a carbon rig (we call that a righting aid ! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ) and be smack at 107 kg ready to race in 2-up mode.
I have yet to meet any sailor who would chosen differently then go for the F16.
And again, many thanks for your efforts !
Wouter
