I stand by my word so read below a copy of the mail I have just send :
Dear mr. Melvin,
I write to you in relation to the comments you made with respect to F16's. I refer to the series of comments as published at the following location.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nacra-Sailing/215545338553You wrote :
"... we were considering adding performance-enhancing features like a carbon mast and curved daggerboards. The F16 class and F18 class rules do not allow either of these features."
This is patently untrue. The F16 class has always allowed carbon masts and indeed a good number of them (about 75) are sailing / racing with one. In fact, different winners of past F16 championships used one with other winners using aluminium. I admit that I'm a little surprised that a F16 designer is not aware of that fact.
You also wrote :
"The F16 is on the small end of the scale for the crew weight range specified (120 kg to 140 kg), and, in our opinion, would be more exciting and challenging to sail for Olympic-caliber sailors if it had a more powerful sailplan."
This may be the case for the 131 kg heavy Nacra F16 that was presented at the trials with a combo of an alu mast section optimized for F18's and an (undersized ?) mainsail of only 13.35 sq.mtr (ex mast area), but much less so for a full spec F16's with a minimum class weight of 107 kg, an optimized F16 mast and a mainsail (excl. mast area) of 13.72 sq.mtr (combined 15 sq. mtr.)
The F16 class rules were optimized for that particular set of dimensions and maximizing it to those specs will already lift competitive crew weight by more then 10 kg. I also think it to be instructive that past Alter Cup events on F16's (3 in total) do indicate that the fullness of that range is indeed competitive, even when using the Vipers. Same conclusions may be drawn from the various F16 European and World championships. In fact, in those events the range of 120-140 kg was itself considered to be at the low end.
I desired to write to you about these statements since they now have entered the public domain and you are seen as an authority in cat sailing and cat design. I admit that opinions are opinions and one can endlessly argue about those, but the statements above are clearly based on misintepretations of the F16 class rules. As such these hurts the F16 class needlessly and there also appears to be ample room to lift the Nacra F16 performance. Both points compel me to write to you about this.
With kinds regards,
Wouter Hijink
(Co-founder and first chairman of the Formula 16 class)
