I apologise in advance if this offends anyone but what a really pointless discussion this mostly is!
None of you really KNOW what is and what isn’t when it comes to the “why” any certain class of cat is, or whether or not it only “resembles” another class or whether or not that other class was used as a basis for its design. Most classes that sail today are mostly the result of “design by evolution” meaning that they are the results of previous ideas of other classes/types of cats that have been applied (in most cases) by small incremental, alterations/additions. The Taipan has been used as an example of the forerunner of the F16 here but did you know that the first Taipan was the result of taking the bow from off of a 16’ Mosquito hull and joining it to the aft half of the then current style A class hull? – What does that make the Taipan – a Mos-A? Or Perhaps an Amoss??
When for example you start to adamantly declare that this cat or that cat were the ones that the F16 or the F18 were based on you had better be very sure of your chronological history of catamarans or you can easily be shot down in flames if you are not accurate. Did you know that in the very early 1980’s (l980 and 81) we designed, built, sailed and commercially sold the Alpha Omega 5m and 5.5m cats? The 5m was designed to be sailed one up with a Tornado mast section as cat rigged with spinnaker, and two up sloop rigged with spinnaker well before the first Taipan (or F16) hit the water? The configuration/ measurements of the 5m Alpha fits almost exactly the measurements of the current F16, apart from the weight as the 5m Alpha was “of its day” and as a consequence heavier than the current minimum weight of the F16 and as there was extremely great resistance from cat sailers then to having a spinnaker on a cat (it was considered almost sacrilege) we later deleted the spinnaker as an option. Does this mean that the F16 was/is a direct copy of the Alpha Omega 5 metre?? Similarly our 5.5 metre Alpha still DOES, today fit precisely within the F18 measurements and rules, from the weight, the mast height, the main sail area, the jib area and the area of the spinnaker, etc, etc, and this is a cat that we sold for the first time in 1981. Could we not then say that the F18’s of today are all just copies of those Alpha Omega 5.5m?
In 1983 I attended a formal meeting of sailers where the main discussion on the agenda was the potential of forming formula 16, formula 18, and formula 20 International associations and of defining the measurements and rules for such classes. All the proposals at that meeting were, to all intents and purposes the same as those rules measurements and regulations that define both the F16 and F18 classes now. Does that mean that someone stole the minutes from that meeting and used them as their own to form the current F16 and F18 association? I am quite sure that there are a lot of people who were later involve, in one way or another, with the formation of both the F16 and F18 who through direct contact or through contact with people who were familiar – even remotely – with the “politics” of those times and of the Alpha Omega’s, who have been influenced, no matter how little or how distantly, by the Alphas (particularly) of that earlier time. This is of course what occurs when anyone “design/builds” any new boat/cat. No one ever starts from scratch. They are influenced directly and indirectly by what has gone before, they will always “borrow” either heavily or lightly from ideas of other designs that they feel will make their boat better – if they didn’t the only new boat that would ever come out from some one designing from scratch without the advantage of “accumulated’” knowledge, would probably be a floating log with a few cut marks in it. (And some idiot would say, “What’s it rate? While someone else equally stupid would say, “its overweight anyway”)
Does it really matter where, why, or how any of these classes came about, surely it is better just to enjoy them all while you are still able too? Remember – death is so permanent and so soon upon us all – (and lots of time not sailing to)