Hello Gary,

Thank you.

Be sure to send that movie clip of your Altered to Eric Poulsen so he can include it on the F16 promo video !


>>Must mention whilst cruising the international A class site found some negative comments about F16. Of course I had to reply to stand up for F16.

Actually an A-cat sailor had mailed me refering to these posts, asking if I would care to reply. I let it be as it is their A-cat forum and it is all harmless enough. There is no need to rub some F16 salt in their wounds (Spinnakers).

I can understand they are a little bit sour. But I fully agree with Dirk when he writes that they need to get with the game or decide to stay out of it and accept that the A's are not top of the line anymore. I think Dirk worded it just right when he commented that A-cat have played the development card to their own advantage for years and that now some other classes do the same that they must accept that a similar development (spinnakers) has turned the tables on them.

Apart from that I hope to experience more cooperation between the two classes like the shared US F16 / A-cat event. We have much to gain from eachother.

And therefor I fully agree with the next comment.

>>But the main thing is people get out and enjoy sailing doesn't matter what on and we can all share the ideas.

Now I wouldn't be Wouter if I wouldn't dispense at least some venom in the tail of this post.

If anyone ever draws some heat from an A-cat sailor about sailing an ugly boat, a fake A-cat or something than simply remind him that it is still the one that is first over the finish line that wins the race and not the one who first reaches the A-mark. This same criterium settles the dispute of who sails the fastest (singlehanded) catamaran. Shuts them up permanently.

And I think we F16 sailors know what I'm talking about here. Between you and me ; the expression "sitting ducks" has gotten a new meaning to me since sailing downwind legs with a spinnaker.

But seriously, I understand their sagrin at spis a little bit. And I like the A-cat design. I'm happy to sail my F16 and hand the upwind leg to the A-cats. They are welcome to enjoy their place in the sun.

One extra comment. I also feel that they are confusing having a spi with having to sail against the highly developped and skilled F18 designs/crews. The spinnaker is only part of the picture. In the past they A-cats had easy prey in the rigid SMOD classes that discouraged development and improvements. Now of course the F18 class is adressing every single issue with the F18 design with the power of tens of professional and olympic crews as well as 1000's of determined amateurs. This can only result in very fast and well balanced boats and crews. Such a combination is always hard to compete against. As Dirk wrote, the ratings for A-cat were helped when the gap to the F18's was reduced from 6 points to 2 points and still the A's get their behinds handed to them by the top F18's. This only suggests that rating inequality is only part of the equation if it is at all now after the rating modification. These F18's and F18 crews sail a darn good race nowadays. In all honesty the A-cat scene is not THAT deep in skill. If the A-cat class features 10 hero's worlwide than the F18 class can now boost itself to have 50 of them. And these 50 also hone their skills against the others every two weeks. This is a level of intensity that is beyond the A-cat class. Let remember that all the other non-F18 classes have serious problems competing against the top F18's on handicap and this includes Tornado sailors. The level of skills and amount of practice hours is so disproportionally.

In our own case the F16 is up to the task from a technically point of view (some signs suggest we even have a small edge in several conditions) but it will take a whole lot of practice and honing skills with your buddy to be sailing among the top F18 crews. There is simply no way to buy your win into the lead group of the F18 fleet. Also not when buying a F18 itself.

Wouter