Please explain why a new boat made of carbon would be made so much heavier than the class minimum weight? Seriously, I do not understand. And why would anyone pay so much for a boat that starts off being so much heavier than minimum? Again, I truly do not understand, so I am looking just for straightforward answers. Thanks in advance.
The weight for a sloop rigged Taipan is 102kg. This is for a glass boat that
- Has no spinnaker gear
- Much less volume in the hulls
- Very small and underbuilt beams.
- Boat is not truly built to take the loads of a spinnaker boat including hull volume.
Yet, the F16 class rules were based of the Taipan 4.9 with a few extra kgs tagged on for spinnaker gear.
There are still a lot of people who believe 107kg is too light for a glass boat with alloy beams and mast, especially if the beams and hulls are built to a size and volume need to remain competitive as a spinnaker boat.
Adding carbon costs $$$. Every other class knows this. AHPC is, and Narca will likely produce a boat 20kg heavier without the extensive use of exotics because they believe they can still produce a boat that will be competitive with the current fleet, engineering in more volume and platform stiffness. If they spent more $$$ and built it out of carbon, down to 107kg, then the boat would be quicker however it will be significantly more expensive. They would also unlikely sell many boats despite the performance advantage.
Not everyone here will share these views, but many outside this F16 forum do.
