I think the problem with F16 is one day it will be the ultimate victim of it's own success. As the class grows and the prestige of winning a worlds grows, eventually somebody will pour enough money into a boat that will blow every other design out of the water.
The great thing is that the class has the opportunity to minimize this risk now. Putting in some simple controls and grandfathering existing designs will go a long way to prevent such a situation arising and should take action quickly.
This class has some magnificent strengths compared to it's primary competitors but to not recognize their own strengths and learning from them is a recipe for disaster.
Cheers,
Michael
The F16 class appears to be doing fine with quite a bit of growth Worldwide.
Indeed the class is. My point is that the executive committee that leads the class should be looking at not only F16's strengths but also where threats could come from. Whilst I'm sure you don't mean it that way, there does seem to be a bit of a "head in the sand" approach to potential threats and to just dismiss them out of hand because "we're doing fine" now will be doing the class a massive dis-service.
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AHPC while they have an active marketing program and are placing the best teams on their boats as part of that plan, are not the only players. Matt M, while he is separated from Vectorworks, with the combination of Blades and Falcons is up around 70+ boat last I heard. FCA, Stealth etc are out there and a number of new models are being introduced and are being or going to be built here shortly.
1 kilo of carbon weighs the same as 1 kilo of glass. All the advanced processes and materials in the world will not build an F16 less than 107 kg (2 up) as that is the class min. Carbon sticks are in service and with the min tip weight have not proven to be any game changer. This fear of an unlimited million dollar craft destroying the class is a bit far fetched.
In the case of macca, this is either the pathetic fence banging exercise, or he has motivation for a purpose, whether friendship or for financial gain to continually bring up the same rehashed subject.
Possibly however I do believe this thread was started by somebody else asking a specific question of him.
Tiger Mike
ps. Other than paying an extraordinary amount of money to Hobie-cat in buying my Tiger I have no connection to any manufacturer. My sailing expertise extends no more than a weekend hack that might give the good guys a run for their money if I'm having an extraordinarily good day
