Does it help to have equipment refined for single handed sailing?
I have yet to see any set-up changes that made any difference to speak about. The issue is experience/practice. I can not ever remember to do everthing I need to do on the A cat with only 1 sail, never mind the F16 when I am alone. It is not fast to have to go in and make adjustments after the fact and this is drasticaly amplified as the wind increases. A well sailed single has proven to be fast even in a lot of wind. I prefer to sail with crew no matter the wind and I have found at least 2 up it is all about where you put the weight, not how much there is (within a 260-340 range anyway in my experience)
This weight issue also is on the list of "issues" the F16 class has. I spent a lot of time talking to various sailors and the hard core 18 and 20 etc people have very long lists of why they would never get an F16. You could address everyone of them and there still would be something else.
Well if that have such long lists of why not then let them stay out of the class.
So far people who have been to see us, have liked what they see!
As for the single handed vs 2 up speeds....
After the GC in Mumbles, it was noticable that the 2 up boats were slightly faster up wind and quicker making tacks and gybes, but those single handers that pushed it were faster downwind, but even these were not pushing that hard as they were not trapezing downwind on the first day, some trapezed at times on the second day. However, Hans was flying upwind!
As for setting the boat up for single handing, I have done this as this is how I sail most (in fact by Job has not been up the forestay yet!!!!!), my mast rotation and downhaul are adjustable from the wire (and I do change both). I have a system to reset by mast rotation back to upwind setting automatically when I drop the spi.
Sailing the F16 is a massive challenge when it's windy, and I like challenges! We have a lot more to learn about doing it well!
