I think the future of the F16 class is to continue to be the F16 class. It was formed on some sound scientific considerations and an appreciation of the situation were our target group is finding themselves. I.e. sailors looking for a versatile recreational racer and/or a versatile boat for high performance pleasure sailing.

Therefor the goal and path of the F16 class are clear and it shouldn't matter much at all who produces F16 boats to forfill the F16 demand. Or on who joins or who leaves.

I fail to see significantly larger attractive benefits with a big builder then with a small builder. I'm not impressed much by say the Inter-17 or FX-one classes. If that is all that a big builder can offer then I much rather have "a small" builder like VWM. More impressive results and less complaining.

I think the identifier "small" and "big" are intepreted in a way that hints "inferiour" and "superior" when in fact there is more reason to intepreted it the other way around.

Lets face it guys an amateur designer called Phill Brander simply outclassed the "greatest design minds" of the big builders, with a shoestring budget. He is a "small" designer but created a "big" design !

I think all discussions on where we want to be in the future combined with whether a big builder will join or not are pointless. It is up to a builder to decide to join us and not the other way around where the F16 class will decide to join a builder.

We have been doing well without ANY support from a big builder in the past and there is absolutely no reason to believe that we won't be doing fine without them in the future.

Big builder support for a class is highly overrated in my opinion. I refer again to the I-17 and FX-one classes. Wew have gotten far more meaningful support from "small" builders.

Wouter