Questions: Why has F16 not boomed in Europe? Why has F18? I don't believe they compete against each other for sailors but should complement each other.
Because the European F16 manufacturers are confidential and do not manufacture enough boats. If you want a Stealth, you will wait for it for a god 5-6 months for example. Imports have been scarce because of costs of importing a small number of boats.
I'm thrilled AHPC decided to push the Viper in Europe, Francis success in France last year shows that there is a market and that with a minimum of marketing boats could sell.
Originally Posted by Bundy
The F16 class will eventually come under pressure to become a bit more professional and now is the time to decide its direction for the future before it it happens. Do you want manufactures involved? Do you want full development? Do you want to limit costs? Who makes these decisions?
Please define "professional"?
Yes to get the big manufacturers involved. The more the merrier.
Yes to full development. Whoever is paying for it will pull the class forward. Yes it will make my sails, mast and everything obsolete. But guess what: they already are
Cost limitation will autoregulate due to the class rules. You can't build a boat lighter than the rule, or longer, or with foils. If someone is crazy enough to build a all carbon monster, with sails in unobtanium, heck that's fine with me. But if it measure, the performance gain will be minuscule compared to the performance gain of putting a Bundy on it rather than me
Those kind of decisions are made by the class members, by voting on the rules. I think the rules as they are are fine, I see no reason to change them. Some of it needs a little clarification, or a slight rewrite. But any change to any box rule parameter would be a mistake in my opinion.
Now AHPC has also a decision to make as well: Do they really want to push a F16 class or do they one to push some sort of one design Viper/104 kind of beast?
