>>I find it a little surprising that the Spitfire class has "barely heard of F16"

They heard of it all right. I had contact with some and even talked to Reg White on the phone a while back. Send eamil to the class associations and the Dutch dealot mentioned F16 and the possible role Spitfire could play in it when I send him a mail asking about a F16 related topic.

>>and that they don`t really see the need to be associated with the class,

That is something different. Many feel that an SMOD setup will give them a better shot at the future. Nothing wrong with that.

>>as when I look at the list of boats that are included in the F16 class by the Grandfather clause, the Spitfire & Taipan are listed as being included. I would have thought that this would imply their co-operation & inclusion in the class, including it`s inception & development, which seems to be contrary to what is happening.

Not really : AHPC and Taipan sailors were definately involved from the beginning (AHPC soon after the initial beginning). Spitfire sailors (Dermot himself for example) were so too and there has been communication about the Grandfather status of the Spitfire between myself and Reg. We even appeared in a Yacht and Yachting article together.

But mostly Spitfires and F16's walked seperate, although often parallel, paths in the past. I know they don't object to being included in the F16 framework even though they concentrate on SMOD sailing. I think this setup suits us both at this time.

I agree fully on your prediction for the future, Steve. Mostly because I see how several builders are reacting to it and a few key players are prefering formula because that allows them to continiously be creative with their product and thus continue to sell their product.

I shall make no secret of the fact that even sailors from succesful SMOD classes are very interested or have switched to formula classes (few examples in the F16 case). Certainly in Europe the name of the game is F18 and everything is racing F18's either on other F18's or on Handicap. The F18's are slowly developing over time. Slow enough to prevent breackthroughs and arms races and keep investments under control but developping nevertheless. This is always to the disadvantage of the SMOD classes as they keep their relative handicaps even though the main benchmark is continiously improving.

Of course OD classes have a better positio as they can at least keep up with the improvements in sailcut and running gear.

Of course the Mosquito class is proving another good example that a class need to modernize from time to time (Tornado is another). This class is really building up interest with the new spi setup.

Wouter