Do you hear any Viper sailors wanting to raise the class weight?
Sadly we do, or are we to count for example Greg or Robbie (see youtube video's) not as a Viper sailors ?
This has got to stop.
And the doomsday quotes of 35K+ for an optimized F16 (that seem to come from "nowhere") must end with it.
We are all in this boat together and it will do no good for anyone to polute one's own nest.
It is time to close the ranks and grow this exiting class together.
Fortunately most Viper owners do not fuzz at all about such issues and are happy to participate in the F16 class and we welcome them all warmly.
The Viper is fast because it has ...
I would claim that the Viper is fast because it is an F16 !
The F16 class design ratio's are spot on. For example, the sheet loads are viable to mixed crews because the sails are better proportioned to the physique of such crews and not because the hull has bulkheads (that in fact all F16 builds have). Improved ability to sheet the sails makes crews faster.
Of course the F16 class will NOT remove the minimum ready-to-sail weight from the class rules. If we did then yes I think a 35K F16 will be a realistic possibility. There is no point in going overboard in this sense.
I do however fully agree with mr Bundock statement to :"... let everyone find a compromise between weight, quality, stiffness, performance ..."
That is exactly the basic idea behind a formula set of class rules. It allows for slow development giving us better boats over time while maintaining fair racing and also limiting the purchase cost to acceptable levels.
Wouter
