Few design differences, almost same overall weight and sail area... In my point of view, Spitfire, FXone and the BCM evolution could be considered as real F104, like blade, stealth and Viper are F16. Nevertheless, I agree with you that the F104 is mainly the spitfire with (very) few other design.

So, lets say that the F104 is only made of spitfire, then 150 spitfire can be compared to the 150 "true" F16. In one case, that's in france+UK, in the other case that's worldwide... My point is that there is a high concentration of spitfire in france, and that's why the F16 will have a hard time to grow there.

That is also the reason for what a sailor could choose a F104 instead of a F16 despite the better rating at the same price. A large class with high concentration of boats allows to do real time regattas and numbers of sailors really like to have that chance. That is already the case for the spitfire in some regattas (for example, the eurocat).
Make two differents set up of the same boat could bring some builder involved in the F104 to our class. And more builder mean more buzz...

"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."

Given this, I agree with you, multihull is probably a bad idea...

"And again, many thanks for your efforts !"

You're very welcome, but you know I have a personnal interest in all this. I want to be able to do some real time F16 regattas in france when I will come back from the US and buy a blade (or the new bimare???)!!!

Ciao,
tom_in_fire.

Ps : Wouter, you seem to understand the french very well! Your traduction was quite good! Where did you learn french?