Personally I like the AHPC Viper F16. I would have written "really like" if it had been lighter.

Bob has send me some more pictures of the Viper and I will post these shortly.

I think it is a very clean looking boat and I think it has the right amount of bow height for very challenging conditions.

The thing that I don't like very much is how somebody consistantly misremembers some important specifications and averages. Hans has already responded to that, as have several others over the past year. I also don't appreciate it very much when Greg says that the Viper is a much bigger boat then the others, because it isn't. The Aussie Blade is the same size (volume) and that boat was measured at 111.7 kg if I remember correctly. And we must note that this Aussie Blade was a prototype as well ! That 137-112 = 25 kg wasn't therefor so much the result being "bigger" but more of different design choices.

When Greg wasn't looking we, the GC participants, had some fun with the electronic scales and various Viper components. Two daggerboards, 2 rudders and rudderstocks on the Viper were already 8+ kg heavier then the same package on the other boats. Certainly, the parts were said to be off the F18. But still.




Notice how this leads to the following situation :

boat weight + max crew = 125 + 140 kg = 265 kg

Were the other F16's will have :

110 + 155 kg = 265 kg

Basically what AHPC has done was to take out any excess weight of the Viper itself from the maximal competitive crew weight. The final overall weight remained the same.




Personally I believe both the Taipan and Blade struggle a whole lot more when you don't send the crew on the wire when sailing under spinnaker in challenging conditions. I found that having the crew sit next to the skipper puts to much weight forward on the boat.

It does appear however that the taller bows improve the downwind ride.





Well yes. That and the fact that the competitive crew weight range has been corrected to arrive back at the same overall weight. With that being exactly the same together with having exactly the same rig then yes, light wind performance would indeed be expected to be identical.





This is simply not true. Both the Stealth and the Aussie Blade has at least the same quality as the Viper, were I believe that the Stealth is still the undisputed winner with its T-foils.





Most of this volume is above the waterline and in a place where it can not be used effectively. This is because it is largely the result of having a taller hull all over and for example the additional volume between the beams will not be doing anything no matter how rought the conditions.

More important then overall volume is for example that the bows are taller.





It will be interesting to note here that the Blade hulls are now about 23 kg. The Taipan hulls were 23.5 kg. The home build Timber blade hulls come out at 25-26 kg. This shows that most of the difference in ready to sail weight (= 125-107 kg = 18 kg) is not coming from the hulls (total 6 kg) But from other components. Again this confirms the earlier claim that weight differences are not the reasult of the Viper "being bigger" but of having made different design choices.

The daggerboards at the GC were measured at 8.0 kg per pair exactly. With the savings as mentioned by Greg we now have 5.6 kg per pair. The pair of Stealth daggerboards were 3.6 kg, the 2007 VWM Blade pair are 3.8 kg, mine Taipan set is 4.1 kg and I seem to remember that the Aussie Blade pair was 4.8 kg. The latter was a prototype set and Marcus was adament that they would be lighter in the production version.

With respect to rudders. We measured them at just over 7 kg at the GC. With the weight savings we now have 6.6 kg. My own AHPC rudder setup (2 rudders and 2 carbon rudder stocks) weights in at 3.1 kg. It is true that the Viper uses aluminium rudders stocks and therefor we can't compare them directly to the my carbon stocks. Both rudder boards do use carbon cloth as stiffening however. Still, the European Blades are fitted with aluminiun stocks as well, made from bend alu tubes, and this are surprisingly light. I haven't measured them but when I held them I could not feel any difference in weight. I'm told that the stocks from bend alu tubing weight almost the same as the carbon stocks I have and it sure felt that way. I'm also certain that I would have noticed any difference over 0.5 kg, mostly because board+stock only weight 1.55 kg and then 0.5 kg different is quite alot.

I don't think the current run of F16 boards and rudders (stocks) are considered anything other but up to the job. So the added weight is not to prevent any breakages as none are occuring now. Looking just at the rudders (stocks) and daggerboards we see that already another 5 kg can be won.

I'm sure the beams themselves are combined at least 6-8 kg heavier as well. Maybe even more. That results in an extremely stiff platform but it does cost a bundle in the weight department.

And that shows my earlier point about making different design choices.


Now I reiterate that I really do like the Viper F16. And I agree with Greg that the performance difference between a 110 kg F16 and the 125 kg Viper F16 will not be much at all. Even Texel only predicts a 59 second difference after an hour of racing because of it (assume both are raced with 150 kg crews). When the Viper crew is 15 kg lighter then the other crew then the difference will be less still.

Personally I feel that the Viper F16 has everything done right except the overall weight. But that is still very acceptable. I do understand the reasons why AHPC choose the go this route, using the same beams for the F18 and the F16 is economically attractive. What I don't understand is their choice to have different boards and rudders for the F16 and then still have them at F18 weight. Again AHPC has been making much superior boards and rudders for nearly 20 years now, surely they can get the result they're after by being only 1 kg overweight instead of 3 kg ? With the lighter boards and rudders the Viper F16 will come out at 120 kg is just under it and then, indeed, it will become an attractive F16.

That is the way I feel about it.

Wouter