Hi everyone, it's my first post here and I thought I'd kick it off by sharing my thoughts about my first ride on a viper F16. I was fortunate enough to spend last Sunday sailing on a Viper F16 with Greg Goodall, designer and builder of the Viper F16.

First off, I'd like to make a disclaimer. In recent years, all my cat sailing experience has been on a Taipan 4.9 and an Boyer A class Mk4, so my review of the Viper is in relation to these 2 boats.

Layout- The layout of the Viper is very much like race ready F18. The components are all extremely high quality, Ronstan fittings and spectra lines. One of the features I loved the best was the external downhaul which runs under the trampoline. The spinnaker setup was a single line to a cleat on the mast. The layout of the system made it very easy to raise and lower from a starboard tack making it very ideal for windward leeward courses. There's no doubt the layout is really intended for course racing.

The centreboards, compared to the Taipan, are much narrower and longer, and my impressions under sail was that the boat generated a tremendous amount of lift (IMO more so than the Taipan) going upwind.

On the water- The Viper has a lot of freeboard. Coming off an A class, I felt like I was sitting really really high off the water. The hull shape of this boat makes it sit on the water rather than in the water. This may surprise many, but I actually found it a little easier to get and keep the Viper moving in light airs compared to my A, which has the older hull design and tends to sit in the water. This hull shape also means that the Viper felt faster and easier to tack than the Taipan

Tracking- The helm on the boat was extremely neutral, maybe a little more so than for my taste, but it felt extremely light to steer.

Invariably, everyone is going to ask about the weight, did it matter? Did that extra 18kgs matter, especially in light airs? For myself, no I did not feel like it mattered at all. In fact I did like the extra weight in the light airs as the momentum kept the boat moving through small chop which is normally a little more challenging to get through on an A.

The other reason I am ok with the weight is because a large chunk of it comes from using F18 beams (it's really surprising how big the beams are on the Viper), and the overall feeling was that the viper is very very stiff. More so than the Taipan 4.9.

The F16 mainsail seemed a little harder to trim accurately compared to my A, but perhaps this had to do with the fact that the sail was practically brand new and perhaps not broken in yet. But on a practical basis, trimming the sails, setting up rotation etc, is pretty much like the Taipan F16, which uses the same rig. The prebend settings, mast rake, spreader angles are pretty much like the Taipan F16.

Downwind with the kite up, the boat was a real joy the sail. The hull shape meant we had to sit further forward than I was used to as the bow didn't dig in as much or as quickly as a Taipan under spinnaker. My impression is that the Viper will really shine in heavy airs both upwind and downwind.

However, one thing that does concern me regarding the Viper is that this boat really shines as a 2 man racing machine due to high high volume hulls. For a smaller, lighter person like myself who wants to sail this boat one-up, it might be harder to manage the hull volume compared to a sailing a Taipan F16 one up ie, keep the bow pressed down and going through the waves upwind in choppier conditions

In conclusion, would I get one? yes, in a heartbeat. But it's a lot of money for a boat (fair enough, since it's a real racing machine, like buying a Ferrari), especially because of the strong Australian dollar, but certainly on the F16 racing circuit, it would be a very capable 2 up racing platform IMO.