It was to overcome a problem the F16's had started to get into design wise. We all have started moving the front beam back further in the boat like the A's basically to get the upwind Uni sail working better ( the uni sailor is not allowed to have a jib ) and bringing the Spinnaker COE back further into the boat to prevent pitch poling ( it does seem to do that ). Bitsa has got to the point in that despite quite fine bows, it will side slip rather than dig the nose in even when provoced to try and make it so. A part of that also is my belief that as an Uni sailor we are over square at 2.5m beam so reduced it to more the A's of 2.3m

The problem lies with the box rules in that we have only a 8.5 m mast height allowed which then makes the sail much lower aspect than the A's and creates a much longer foot. That means then that the rear travellor has to be much further back than an A, so the beam has to go back further in the boat which then immediately flags up the short fulcrum arms. The 150mm gantry is a waste of time as far as leverage goes, it was just a method of getting the arms longer.

There is an alternative to the arms we use and I wish I had used that method, Have a look at the C class boats, they use a much better, far less vulnerable to accident damage ( crew falling into the cross arm )and probably a lot lighter system. Knowing now the problems caused by the extra leverage of the gantry, I wouldn't do the same again particularly as we cannot fair the lower gantry in to make it more streamlined as per the box rules.

Bitsa as we speak is in the workshop getting this mod done ready for next season, it has a load of benefits, moving the tiller mount point 400mm inside the rear beam and giving central sheeting. The downside is I will have two short tiller sticks rather than the more traditional long stick.