Hi Wouter, with regards to the weight issue, no we did not measure it on scales. I spoke to Greg regarding the weight issue and he said the first few boats, which we got in Singapore, were a little heavier than 125kgs ie around 132kgs because of shared components ie rudder casing as the F18. These F18 components on current production boats have since been switched out and now the boat is around 125 kgs. Unscientifically, having pulled Nacras around the boatyard for years, I am guessing the weigh in of 125kgs is about right.

But as far as beams go, the beams are still the F18 beams, which I really prefer over the smaller taipan beams especially since the Viper is wider than the current taipan. One can really tell the difference in stiffness on the water . The way the boat powers up and moves makes it feel much more like an 18ft platform than a 16ft platform.

And yes, TaipanFC is right, the boat really likes having the crew sitting way forward upwind and downwind in light airs. According to Greg, the Viper was designed with the intention of being a boat that is really fast and easy to sail in strong winds and high wave conditions without giving away too much performance in light airs. He was saying one of the problems with the F16 modified Taipans that were extended to the 2.5m width was that in really strong winds, with the new big head sails, spinnaker, etc, the hulls tended to submarine easily. According to Greg, the original T4.9 was designed to be sailed best in 12-15knts and the new F16 sails were really pushing the limits of the hulls in a breeze. The viper hulls was designed to rectify that problem.

It was great sailing with the designer and learning what the viper was really designed to do.