Pete,

Having just come back from competing in this event and being a F16 owner, I kind of find offense in this post.

Many crews who would be perfect for the F16 have have stayed with the F18 becuase of the "racing". In Europe this appears to be the class if you race. This was pushed in the US and many very serious teams do compete F18. I consider my racing seriously, but have no allusions that I could race with Gina on an F18 and be competitve with Tomko/Billings, Pitt/Shaffer, etc. 90% of the boats we have sold have been to beginner/intermediate racers. They did not buy the boat to be top of the racing circuit. Most's enthusiasm and improvement (including yourself) has been remarkable. Since there is not any money in this for most of us anyway, for myself and I would beleive most others, the social aspect and the pure fun of sailing is just as important as the racing.

Most of the world uses a different handicap number than the US and they typically place the F18 and F16 much closer in performance. The US is results based, and will eventually change with more participation. For now why in the world would you want change a favorable number if you do race handicap? This is a huge selling point for racing an F16 in the US.

The Cap was a very nice boat to sail. It was a bitch moving on land and lacked the responsivness of the F16 on the water. Even though Seth and I had never sailed together and took a DNS and a DNF I felt our boat speed was very competitive with the group all week. Comparing this to how we race on our 16 I still feel the 2 different designs are relatively comaparable in overall speed around the race course. In a distance (not upwind/downwind) type event, the extra volume length and weight would be preferable over the shorter 16, but most of these guys are running 20s in the US anyway for the same reason.

For potential, there is a lot more opporunity for female crews, youth, mixed, and smaller teams on the F16. The top F18 racing group will not ever look at the F16 anyway. A few may move over if there becomes a large racing cicuit, but aiming at that is waist of time and not what the F16 is about anyway. The F18 may still present themselves as "serious racers", but in our area, there is no one left. After JC goes to Europe, we have 2, Ding and Olli. I am going to the race for the party and to see my friends and enjoy my time on the water. I've raced years on the H16, arguably the most competitive 1 design cat class in the world, I own a wave also pushed for the race scene. I have also owned and raced at least 10 other cat classes. I realy enjoy my F16 more than any other boat I have owned or raced. It will not be the same for everyone, and I would never try to claim so.

Now back to feeding the Trolls - Waterboy <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />