Well, I don't know about that. The Taipan did at the same time spawn the F16 class which is keeping many of the Taipan qualities available to sailors the world over.

Note how the Taipan that was tested has a spinnaker addition ?

I truly believe the Taipan has had another lease on life by virtue of such awards and the F16 class. It sure helped the basic concept of the Taipan to go international and we still see them at F16 events.

It may be true that this award didn't established the Taipan 4.9 as an international OD class but I'm not at all sure that that would have happened anyway, even without this award.

Wouter