Spitfire is a good counterexample. It was lanuched in 1996 or 1997 I believe and thus more then 10 years ago, but still, not need to be picky.
More convincingly is the inability of the Spitfire class to move beyond the UK and Nothern France regions. It is, in my personal opinion, very much a local class and not a world spannning class as the F16 indeed is.
The Spitfire class is probably the most serious competition to the F16 class, but isn't too succesful in a larger sense. The Spitfire class couldn't apply for official ISAF recognized status if it wanted too, the F16 class can.
Wouter
Wouter,
Sorry, but the Spitfire is not COMPETITION for the F16. I know a fair number of the Spit sailors well, FFS, I am probably sailing on next weekend!! Chris Sprout actually thinks that the F16's and Spits complement each other. Spits are heavier, and 2 up ONLY, and are SMODS; thus they are more suited to people who want to sail "out of the box".
The F16 allows you to configure the boat how YOU want it. It allows you to have the sails YOU want and the boat set up YOU want; it is also lighter, but critically you cannot sail a Spit single handed boat-for-boat at Spitfire events, you can with F16.
Chris was saying at Mumbles that he thinks is would be a good idea for the F16's and Spits to share open meetings next year; yes, some Spit sailors might change to the F16 and some F16 sailors might go to the Spit, but he feels that the complement each other and lead to growth in both classes.
As for F104; lets see what happens. Wide range of boats with wide range of SCHRS ratings; I can see that there will be "boats for conditions" and so I am not sure if it will work; there also appears to be some confusion as to if you can race single handed in F104; if you can; the boats is going to be around 140KG which is too heavy for some to haul around on their own.
Good luck to F104, if anything gets more boats on the water, it has to be good!!!!!
