Hopefully last weekend's events at the West River Sailing Club exemplifies the mission and culture of the F16 Class (Club Catamaran Racing at its best).

Saturday - Club Open House to the public. F16s (as well as an A-Cat and 2 N20s) giving visitors 30 min rides. Familiar sailors given access to sail F16s single handed. Additional, F16 sailors on land to coordinate the rides and to discuss cat sailing. We also kept an F16 on land as a static display to show off the class.

Sunday - Steeple chase style race with "potential" catamaran sailors. There are 7 regularly uni-F16s @ WRSC. All volunteered to take crew, rig for double handed sailing, and to treat the race as a recruiting event. There was a mix of "new" sailors. Some never sailed before, some had a little experience (ie. Hobie 14), one was a spouse that had not sailed for 12 years because her prior experiences was on a less forgiving platform. Winds were great (a little heavy at the start, around 20mph gusts, but managable)! All came back with big smiles and great tales of their sail. None were overwhelmed by the F16. Additionally, one of Saturday's single handed guest crewed on an N20 Sunday. He remarked about the relative ease and speed of hoisting and dousing the F16 chute relative to Sunday's sail.

For the Uni-F16s at the club, it was very gratifying to introduce both new and experienced cat sailors to the F16 class. It was also a great reminder of the versitility of the F16 platfrom.