Firstly, If the F18s have a fleet, they are not going to let the F16s play with them. They don't need them.
Secondly, this is the first class I have heard off that are arguing to have their rating increased (reflect the boat is faster). If you believe it is a gift rating compared to an A or F18, you are a fool to ague agaist this advantage. No other class will.
It only sounds like little brother syndrome and nothing else. The F16 class is better than that.
What you all seem to forget is that here in Europe the F16 Uni ( Formula 16 1.008, Formula 16 Uni 0.982 Formula 18 1.005 ) gives time away to the F18, we have no chance of competing with the F18 as a uni sailor, my understanding is that in America it is the other way around. Mind you in real terms the 2 minutes per hour is really academic to say the least.
John Jalani got it just about right when he said on the water we just keep up with the F18's and no more, whether or not we are uni or dual. The SCHRS as it is set up cannot compute the single handed factors like not having enough hands and the extra delay in sail handling that a Uni dictates and in my opinion the formulae should be able to allow such factors. I'm sure Scooby Simon would disagree.
To date in all the sailing I have recently been to, there has never been a big enough fleet of F18's to warrant excluding the F16's but then I tend to only go to competitions where other F16's are and that tends to be our TT's with the exception of Simons home event, where the F18's are taking no prisoners and will run over you and protest rather than take a poor race result. In those cicumstances I would rather not sail with them but then I'm a bit of a wuss ( most of the time ). Seeing 5 or 6 F18's start and then 5 - 6 F16's seems daft to me, yes on the bigger events where numbers are higher say around 20 or more, then have seperate starts, on the smaller event just lump them all together.
