Stewart,




I don't understand your question.

Can you rephrase it for me, please ?


Of course, there is only one rating for all F16's and that is the rating belonging to the (virtual) boat that is maximized under the rules. In principle this produces the fastest possible rating to which all F16's are subjected. When a particular craft is slower by being say overweight then that is the choice that the owner has made for himself. I.E. he accepts that he sails a slower boat and with it the difference in performance to the official F16 rating.

This is always fair to the other competitors and the only party disadvantaged by it is the owner of the slower boat himself.

I am myself an example of such a sailor. My own homebuild is overweight and uses an outdated hull shape; not to mention aging gear (unmodified) throughout. I accept that say a new Falcon owner has an advantage over me as I'm too cheap at this time to buy one myself even when my own boat is now 7 years old and competitively speaking ripe for replacement. I have decided for myself that I will only replace it when I have

-a- enough spare cash laying around doing nothing

or

-b- start finishing consistently within 2 minutes of the leader in class races


Currently my own sailing skills have "aged" as well and I'm first in need of lots of on the water training before I can sail a new 3rd generation F16 (I have a 1st generation boat myself) to its full potential. I can get that practice just as well on my oldy as on a new boat.

Maybe that answers your questions without you rephrasing it.

Wouter