Wouter, it means there are some in the process of being assembled and another 2 or 3 more on their way to Singapore (depending whether you count the stock the dealers holds on hand) and the boats are in a container somewhere between the factory and Singapore. ETA is one week. I know cos one of them has my name on it. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

With the latest shipment i believe the fleet of vipers do hit 10 just here in Singapore alone. With 10 vipers, lots of taipans, 2 blades, lots of nacras, couple of A cats, couple of hobies this monsoon should see some really really fun racing.

Talking about the Nacra 17, we do have one of the first boats here in Singapore, waayyy back from the late 90s when they were known as inter 17 (australian version). In fact i believe these were one of the first 17s to be built ever they are definitely very very different animals from the Nacra EU F17 seen on the nacra website. Can't imagine how it would be possible to come up with a common rating for the Nacra 17 unless all the older 17 were forced to change their rigs, foils, sails, control lines... Just removing the bridle for the jib on the old 17 is worth quite a few kilos right there.

But back to talking about the F104, while it's a really great idea, i think it might be tough for the idea to gain traction internationally because the boats that now fit within F104 are very very specific to Europe IMO. But i do love the idea of having a whole bunch of boats really close in rating just racing together and i think in the future, fleets of F100 or F104 or whatever will start popping up depending on which parts of the world one is in.

For example, i personally do not foresee the F104 gaining traction in Asia. The boats that fit within that framework are generally from European manufacturers and too expensive (due to euro), the fact that other fleets are already very established in this region, and the current boats in the F104 are just too heavy. but the concept is still great though and I look forward to the future of everyone racing together.