Just an outside observer`s view on progress in the class thus far :

The Taipan US Nationals have been sailed recently, attracting 8 entries.
The F16HP US Nationals just completed attracted a record number of 4 entries, hardly worth a mention, I`m not convinced that even constitutes a class and can be called a National Championships - where I sail it certainly doesn`t qualify.
Right, now that I`ve got everbody`s backs up, I`d just like to know a few things, since I don`t live in the US & don`t know the answers, I`m sure that there are, however, valid reasons for all these things :

- Why hold a separate Taipan class Nationals and a F16HP Nationals at different venues fairly soon after another ? Is the low turnout at F16HP`s as a result of this ?
- Would it not have been a good idea to run them both together ?
- Looking at the results it seems as though the F16HP Nationals only consisted of 4 Taipans, is this as a result of there being no other F16HP compliant boats in the US ? If so, why did the event not attract 8 or more Taipan sailors ?
- Would it not be better to hold State titles as is done in Australia, since distances to travel are huge ?

I understand that in the US it`s a bit difficult to hold a National championship because of long travelling distances, that`s why I`m asking these questions !
It just seems that after a year of everybody talking about F16HP class being the greatest thing to happen to catamaran sailing, nothing much is happening on the water. I would expect a multi-manufacturer formula racing class to have picked up & grown rapidly in the States, or is this just a confirmation that catamaran sailing is not as big in the US as I would like to believe ?
Looking at the Florida Multihull web-site, it seems that long-distance racing attracts a lot of bigger boats like Inter-20, Hobie Tiger etc. Would it not be a good idea for the F16 guys in the US to make a showing there and justify their belief that they are as fast as the bigger boats ?

These are just a few questions that have me wondering about the future of the class.