I think I can answer this question satisfactory. F16 actually had a weight equalizing system like the F18's in the very beginning, but it was disgarded very quickly.

But first things first. At 300 lbs = (136 kg) you'll be very hard pressed to be disadvantaged at all. That weight is right smack in the middle of the competitive 2-up weight range, which is surprisingly wide for the F16's (250 lbs - 340 lbs = 115-155 kg).

If you would sail against a 200 lbs 2-up crew = 91 kg you'll find that it is rather they who are disadvantaged.

Of course we must note that competitiveness is defined as "averaged over the while spectrum of the sailing conditions".

But even without that limitation you'll find that being heavy, light or at optimal weight are not very big influences in overall performance irrespectibally of the sailing conditions. One way we have found this out is by having 1-up crews racing against 2-up crews. Surely a big strong guy at 200lbs/90 kg and singlehanding will blow the doors of any 330 lbs/150 kg 2 male crew in light winds, right ? Well, not really. Over a wide range of conditions it was found that performance remained very close together even with this 130 lbs crew weight difference.

The Taipan class was the only catamaran class who did an thorough statistical weight-to-performance analysis, you can read the results here : http://www.geocities.com/f16hpclass/F16HP_optimal_crew_weight_analysis.html


These results together with the experience that the weight equalisation in the F18 class wasn't really working out as intended lead to abandonning of any weight equalisation system in the F16 class. With respect to F18's, all racing crews just upgrade to the big sail plan anyway, because the small sail plan hardly sees any development and because the smaller sized jib and spinnaker simply don't interact well enough with the mainsail to get proper drive. And of course the large mainsail and the same tall mast is making truly lightweight crews overpowered too soon anyway. Lightweight crews don't like the F18 small rig at all in EU. Without a clear benefit the F16 class felt it was not worth the hassle. In retrospective I think this to be one of the better judgements made by the F16 class. It appears that the differences in the F18 class between the small and big rig aren't that much less then you expect to find when both heavy and light crews used the same rig. Although which crew is favoured is exchanged. Not much won, but alot of complexity added to the class.


Now there was also another perspective into this situation. Models of the F16 boat showed that the differences in drag between a light crew and heavy crew weren't impressive at all. It was only a couple of %. When this drag was compared to a given sail drive (assuming both crews used identical rigs) then the performance difference over a race course was still not adding up to more then 1 min per hour racing. We felt that this was far to little inequality to necessasitate any elaborate equalizing systems. Especially not when differences in boat design, age, sails and maintainance would be at least of the same magnitude or a little more. And of course both are dwarfed by the magnitude of the differences due to crew skills.

Jim Boyer and Greg Goodall actually campaigned against a weight equalizing system in the beginning of the F16 class as they felt that their Taipan experience had shown them that sailing "light" on a Taipan was not advantagious. I asked Daniel van Kerckhof about this and he felt the same.

We must not forget that the F16's are pretty power-up boats. The boat itself weigthing next to nothing and it is actually the crew that is keeping her down by their weight alone.

Of course in light winds, there is no need to to keep her down, but here aerodynamics become the most dominant limiting factor. And these are largely unaffected by the crew weight on the boat. Even a heavy crew can lift the luff hull early by putting the crew on the leeward hull. And a 30 kg difference on an overall weight of 245 kg is only 14 %. Difference in wetted surface area will be about 5 to 6 % and the difference in performance when using identical rigs will be 2.5 % or (again) a good 1 minute per hour of racing.

Having said this, lighter crews will sail with flatter sails even in light winds as they can not hold down fuller sails in big wind and they are only allowed one set of sails per event. This latter rule basically forces them to sail with a sail that is a good average for them as the heavier crews do. Surprisingly enough all these factor together interact in such a way that they class is surprisingly well equalized.

I know that gut feelings say otherwise, but this is still the situation as shown in real life and by statistics. I for one am a supporter of the adagio ;"if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

As things stand there doesn't seem to be anything wrong, at least not in a significant magnitude to justify adding complexity and cost to the class.

It would even go one further. I'm convinced that at this time the F16 class is more equalized over a larger range of crew weights then say a One-Design class like the Hobie 16's or even the Inter-20's. This is the result of the modern hull shapes, the unregulated sails and the fact that the crew is a much larger part of the overall weight. Also the F16's are much more sensitive boats which shifts the onus even more towards differences in sailing skills and away from basic boat speed.

But indeed Dave, the best way to find it out whether this is all true is to just borrow a Blade for a few races and just give it a try. I'll garantee you that you'll be smiling all the way at 300 lbs.

Wouter