Robi,

>>This boat is going to be along the lines of solo and crewed racing correct?


The Blade F16 design was fully designed to strike an optimal balance between singlehanded and doublehanded sailing. Comments by test sailors make it out to be a very good singlehander in a wide range of conditions. The doublehander (mostly weight carrying) capability is considered to be a serious candidate as the new F16 benchmark. The rig is a proven setup as it is already used on the AHPC Taipan 4.9 and Taipan F16 designs.

Arguably the designers could have chosen to either optimize it for only singlehanded sailing or only doublehanded sailing. However they did not. I can bear witness that with each decision they investigated what it would mean for both setups and each time they chose what worked best in both setups.

Now I have the Taipan F16 setup (a modified Taipan 4.9 at 2.5 mtr selftacker etc) and I now know this to be a very good platform and in several aspects the better of the Taipan 4.9. Blade F16 design is expected to be on a par with the Taipan F16. Designers are very careful about making claims with regard to the Blade. This way she can not underperform to expectations. However I do dare say that they have given themselfs ample margin. If I compare my Taipan F16 to say any other singlehander I ever sailed (includes the 17 footer but excludes the A-cat) than I have to say that I'm extremely happy with my F16. If the Blade proves to be the equal to the Taipan F16, and we have not encountered any counterproof yet, than that is good enough by any standard. If time shows her to be better at certain aspects than that is all another blessing by the Gods.

Of course there are some differences between the three models ; Stealth, Taipan and Blade and I think any decision of purchase should be made on these rather than the expectation that one is better than the other.

Simply put the

Taipan F16 strongpoints are :

- Silent running - no slapping she is absolutely a cutter, she cuts through the water leaving a very small wake
- Faired mainbeam and decks. Very low drag when punching through waves

Blade strongpoints are :

- very smooth and rapid steerage, especially appreciated under spinnaker
- very stabil and smooth feel to the whole platform.

Stealth strongpoints are :

- Very attractively priced considering the carbon mast and Landenberger sails it has.
- Excellent downwind behaviour (under spinnaker); everbody I spoke to commented on that. Downwind seems to be one big sledride on this design.




>>If so I cant wait to see the final product! Is there MORE OR LESS a timeline? for instance when can see this boat for sale?

These are questions you need to direct to Matt McDonald, probably in private as I know Matt to be carefull when it comes down to public statements. A wise policy I think.

Wouter