Australia's Forster regatta this year had only two F16HPs, but they caused a lot of interest. Tim and Gary Maskiell turned up with singlehanded Mosquitoes. For those who don't know them, the Mossie is a late '60s design with a low aspect rig, sailed either 1 up as cat, or 2 up as sloop. The Taipan is basically an updated, uprigged Mossie.

The two singlehanded Mossies dominated the small open class. They also beat about half the As home in some races (maybe most races), and I think at least once only one of the 17 or so Taipan 4.9s (non spinnaker) beat them home. They were as fast or faster than the F18s downwind, it seemed. Most impressive of all was the fact that current world A Class champ Glenn Ashby reckoned the Mossies were clearly quicker downwind that his A.Considering that the Mossies carry tiny rig and rate a lot lower than a "real" F16HP, it was interesting to see how well they went. As Gashby says, a modern F16HP singlehander would be a weapon.