In view of the current discussion, I have some opinions I want to express.


I agree fully with what Dermot wrote. The F-16 class would be nowhere without this forum. The forum is not the only thing of importance of course, but what got this class going was the forum. In my own case, I have been acting as an ambassador for the class here in Norway for the last years, making sure F-16s and the F-16 concept was mentioned as often as possible. I would not have become interested in the class unless the forum existed and was run the way it was. I am certain I am not the only ambassador recruited this way. Changing the succesful way the class have been managed, which encourages involvement, is very risky in my opinion. The gains from creating a forum closed to outsiders are minor compared to the advantages of an open forum as far as I can see. Unless somebody have hard numbers on how many are recruited vs. how many are turned off or are indifferent, we are playing with the continued success of the class. Are anybody going to say that the class have not been a success so far? If not, why change a winning recipe?

I wish the GC communicated what they were working on and what direction they are going more often. I have all respect for the need to earn money and put food on the table. I also wish the best for the class, and all I am saying is what I think is the best for the class. Pretty much we are all working for the same goal, but we see different ways to reach it. If confrontations like we have seen over the last two weeks are to be avoided, communication is needed! Implementing a new strategy of which just a select group is informed is not a good way to bring about change. Trench warfare is usually the result. I, as an F-16 homebuilder and ambassador, want to be involved with, and informed about what is going on in the class. I firmly belive the best way to do so is with open communication on this forum except under very rare circumstances. The F-16 class is not a business with business secrets, but a gathering of like minded sailors.
The AGM was discussed earlier in a thread: http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...96&an=0&page=3#Post99496 and nothing much have changed since then. I think the class itself should be allowed to decide on what direction to go and how it should be run. That is what ballots are for, and running a ballot is not time consuming or difficult once the infrastructure is there.


A last and more personal note. I was so outraged by the behaviour of members in the "F-16 wings" thread that I would have deleted my profile and left the forum and possibly the class for good if technically possible. Some might feel it's a pity I did not leave, but I think the kind of behaviour seen lately to be far more damaging to the way our class
is percieved than any open discussion.
We recently put our Tornado on the market and we are now three sailors building our own F-16 Blades in strip plank. Interest for F-16s is quite large up here now, but the used boat market is too small for growth. When the prices begin to drop, we will have a class up here. I would not have engaged in the class if it was run another way, and the class would be as unknown here as it is in France. Transforming the F-16 class into a blueprint of e.g. the F-18 class will make the class far less interesting to me, and I might just as well have stayed on the T.