I've seen many claims, the highest being 250 boats sold. But I don't believe that. Mostly because we have 300 Taipan 4.9's sold since 1988 and you can see them pop up in race results everywhere in the world, their australian national seeing as much as 50 boats; how come that even with 250 Spitfires sold (since 1998) we only see them in results in France and the UK with about 30 boats at their largest event (Europeans in UK).

But real production numbers are hard to get by, but there is a trick to accurately make an estimate of their real numbers. Just note down all the sailnumbers you ever see in any race results. Also note down how many times the same sailnumber is encountered. The most accurate estimate of the number sold is then the highest sailnumber * (1 + 1/number of different sailnumbers encountered).

This trick was used to estimate enemy tanks, planes and artillery in WW2 and proved so accurate and succesful that modern wapon systems are no longer produced with nice sequencial serial numbers.

This method falls down when the sailnumbers are not started at 1 or when sailnumbers are passed over. Both tricks are often used by sailboat builders. However here is where the count of the encountering the same sailnumber comes in. Basically, it is possible to modify the above method to still produce accurate results even when sailnumbers are passed over. It is more complex but it can be done.

So if we really want to know the number of Spitfires sold then we can find out. I haven't done this in detail myself yet, but at first glance I come out at about 150 boats, which to me seems realistic for the combined market of UK and France knowing that the Spitfire is NOT a very popular boat like the F18. But if desired we can do the in depth analysis.





I find it very hard to believe that Boulogne doesn't know about the F16's. He must as his Dutch agent knows me well personally and is absolutely aware of the F16's. Surely the topic has come up between them. I even seem to recall the F16's have been discussed between them. I'm in the dark about Mattia though. I fear Boulogne and Mattia are not easily swayed towards the F16's. They are really held back by the light weight of the F16's.




The same reason why Nacra and Hobie are giving us 145 kg singlehanders. Ease of production and entlargement of the profit margin per boat. Most often by using the same parts as used on their F18's. An F16 must be designed as an F16 from the bottom up. It can not share components with other boats and be a succesful F16. Masts will be too heavy and too stiff, beams will be too heavy (for no real net stiffness gains), daggerboards and rudder setups will be ludicroudly overweight. F18 has a minimum weight for the daggerboard of 3 kg per single board for example. F16 boards PER PAIR are between 3.6 and 3.8 kg. F16 stocks are 0.4 kg where the F18 stocks are typically a few kg per stock.

The Viper F16 at the global challenge was measured at 137 kg including repairs and such. On the daggerboards, rudders, stocks and beams already 12 kg in total could have been saved. Greg practically said so himself. He had to used some Capricorn parts as the Viper parts were not all available.

Having 145 kg 16 foot boats is not necessary from a technical point of view even when using cheap basic materials like glass, aluminium and vinylester resin. Of course with kevlar, carbon and epoxy more can be done. Such heavy weights are as good as always inspired by economic considerations. Basically any 16 foot boat with spi over 125 kg is heavier because of those reasons. 107 kg is light for a 16 footer and it takes some effort to get there but beyond 125 kg even you and I could do it. Remember my homebuild Taipan F16 as build from 4 mm ply is 121.8 kg ready to sail in 2-up attire ! Lighter homebuild Taipans have been made by amateur builders all the way down to 105 kg (= excl. 5 kg for spinnaker package). So my boat is by no means special.

I feel the business rational is that they feel that they can corner the French market before the F16 class does, which is likely, and then not be forced to spend more effort in designing a proper racing catamaran like the F16's. For all other intents and purposes the F104 is identical to the F16 class. Same concepts of 1-up / 2-up and targetting the lighter F18 crews as well as the more recreational racers who switch roles often.

Wouter