May even be less then that; the real point is that the A's are pointers while F16's are footers. Both have good VMG to windward but do so through different means. A's point very high with reasonable speed en the F16's go fast with reasonable pointing; the end result is about the same with the edge to the A's. Till the windward mark that is, when the spi leg comes then it is all over. Here the F16's will point deep and go fast where the A's are sort of limited in both aspects.

For distance races and touring the F16's have the edge over the A's (if not more than that). In such sailing there is typically alot of non-pure upwind work and here it pays to go everywhere fast rather then excell in just pointing. Say the mark is upwind but at an angle that other boats like the F16's can make in one leg then the pointing ability of the A's has been rendered useless. It then all comes down to boatspeed and while the A's are certainly fast, other modern designs are too !

This leads back to one of the earlier posts ; The A's are excellent for what they are designed for. Course Racing with preferably an upwind leg to the finish. They have evolved to that suppremecy at the cost of performance during other uses.

Wouter