Not entirely, the ruddersetup was straight off the Capricorn that by that time was several years old as a design.

The daggerboards where shorter in overall length then the Capricorn but otherwise the same.

These components were much less in their prototype stage then one may think. Same with regard to the mast section and mainsail (all developped in the Taipan 4.9 class). The beams, selftacker and snuffer systems were standard from the Capricorn but shortened to F16 length. The overall boat layout is a Capricorn copy.

The only items truly new (as being a prototype) were the jib, the spinaker and the hulls.

The Viper at the 2007 GC was indeed 134 kg due to extensive repairs having been performed on its hulls. Fork lift drivers at the Rotterdam harbour did a "smashing job of unloading the crate". This was the measurement of a 2-up sloop version that AHPC now quotes as being 129 kg. See the following link :

http://www.ahpc.com.au/Brett_Viper.htm

Apparently this 2007 "prototype" was pretty close to the final end product. As it should be considering the known components it uses from other designs.


With regard to the GC 2009. I think the crews sailing these Vipers had all to do with the final scoring. Just look at the following listing.

Robbie Daniels former international Tornado compaigner and professional sailor/sail coach/trainer
John Casey Professional catamaran sailor, Twice alter Cup champion when sailing F16's
Greg Goodall International A-cat and F18 campaigner/sailmaker; professional boatbuilder/sailmaker
Olli Jason (Aspiring) professional sailor/F18 campaigner trained/coached by Robbie Daniels
Brett Goodall Australian F16 champion 2009 and born and raised into established sailor/builder family

Note that the McDonalds sailed very well on their Falcon F16 but scoring 5 dnf/dns kills their overall result. In the other races they finished on average at the 5th place and they won the last race. This also disproofs an earlier claim that only Viper CREWS won races at this GC. The McD's back up this win with 2 additional 2nd place finishes in the preceding races 13 and 14. So their win was not some lucky outlier, they were already knocking on the door so to say. Note that the McD's are not a team of international fame or professional sailors; respectfully speaking, they are at their core a husband and wife team.

Of course Andi Lutz and Martin Schori (also not professional sailors) did very well on a borrowed VWM Blade F16; at home they sail a difference beast (a F18HT). John Casey for example just did a week long "training course" on the Viper at the Alter Cup event 2 weeks ago.

I argue that their is ample indication that the make-up of Viper crews was important in achieving the final results as we have them now. That and the fact that the Viper contingent was almost half the total fleet and that it is beyond any doubt a very capable design. These factors certainly didn't hold any of these crews back.


With kind regards,

Wouter