Hi All,

We had a fleet of 17 Taipans and that's great at Forster. I tried as did many the F16 concept last season. We had a great time however the Taipan is a great boat without a spinnaker and I personally will be pushing to ensure initially we don't split the Taipan class in Australia by having half of us racing with Spinnakers.

The Taipan class is still growing very successfully and much of that is attribruited to the simplicity of the boat. Eg: Why is the Hobie 16 still around... I have had many Hobie 18 sailors whose collegues have gone to F18 say they don't want to sail with a Spi and hoped the Taipan did not go that way however it was nice to be able to sail F16 occasionally.

The 1st Taipan international event will be sailed Sloop.

The F16 is great for distance racing or if you sail predominantly in light winds or have a good crew who has the strength and willingness to sail with a Spi then it is perfect. I know most of the crew's on the Taipan's in Australia enjoyed it, as did the skippers however for most of the racing we do the crews lost the enjoyment they used to have and many of the other crew would never sail with a spi. Hence we started to split the class... Never a good thing.

If I were sailing with another guy I would probably sail with a Spi and race the F18 however we have a great class and that needs to be our primary focus. We need to keep the crews happy. Also sailing Cat rigged I would sail with a Spi.

We seem to be forgetting we are not out there to beat the F18’s but to help the formula concept grow and hopefully create an alternative class to the F18 that people under 145kgs can sail successfully.

I have not seen the results on elapsed time. The mossie’s did create some interested and I am sure a Taipan with a kite cat rigged would have been really awesome. It was not a windy regatta. I would have been interesting watching these guys on the Mossie’s in 15-18 knots with the kite.

We will sail with a Spi in distance races and for a bit of fun sometimes however I don’t think there will be many Taipan F16’s at the major regatta in Australia for a while to come…

However when the first F16 worlds is organised I will be their for sure…..

Cheers Willy