I would suggest 4 at a minumum.. in no order.. Blade, Falcon Stealth & Viper and Im guessing with a good crew dont dismiss the Tiapan.. Watch the space more to come I suspect..
All does look good for the class... If we dont fukc it up with rule changes..
Yes it does.
The 2 biggest selling points in the f16 class are weight and versatility. Jacking the boat weight does nothing for the growth of the class.
If weight is that important to the Viper owners, then let Greg know. If buyers stop purchasing or push enough, he will build to minimum. His only motive to build as he does now is so he can have 2 models using similar parts, and have cheap Asian builders doing the dirty work. Soon as sales dropped on the Cap - hey we have a new design on the water.
As far as a split to 1 design, there is a long way to go till they have numbers. The Tiger pulled it off for a while, but they had many times more boats and even that has died as the formula concept became stronger and more accepted. Look at the Unicorn in the A class, same deal. yes there were more Vipers at the GC, but those were pre-sold Alter cup boats that the owners had to bring back for that event. Not too many were sailed by their owners. None of the chartered Viper teams is a regular F16 campainer, (Except maybe Brett) There are roughly 60 Blades, 10 Falcons and 20 some Taipans sailing in the US. Pulling a 1 design on a regular basis for the 13 or so Vipers is tough go. Yes France has a lot a cat sailing, but that is not 1 design either. There is a drive for 104, but no one can agree what the rules should be as each manufacturer is trying to make it fit theirs, so it doesnt even exist in form yet. It may or may not ever take off in France, and no where outside of there have I ever read anything about anyone taking up that torch.
The F16 class is a semi-developmental class. There are 3 builders capable of making min or near min weight boats now. 1 builder for economic reasons has elected to show no inovation, even to the point of properly sizing foils, so now there are a few vocal individuals who want to force the class rules to fit them - I do not understand the logic. The Viper is a nice boat and as proved, given the right drivers, weight is somewhat secondary.
