sailwave ,

A year ago I nearly bought an A-class cat rather than the Taipan F16 I currently own. The A-Cat fleet in Santa Cruz, California is growing and attracting some really accomplished athletes from the 505 and other very competitive performance monohull fleets (though ,i've yet to see any of these guy's actually show up to a regatta).I too was drawn to the A-cats asthetic and simplity, plus, the thought of sailing w/ some of the very best sail athletes around was a plus as I aspire to improve.So, why did I choose the F16 when all of these other factors weighed so heavily in favor of the Acat? With the little I know about sailing (three years tenure from motocross racing) and sail racing(mostly swimming around in S.F.Bay chasing my skiff) - i'm certain that I want to sail downhill with an asymmetrical kite - the kite really makes that much of a difference to me.
As for my boat to boat experience vs. the Acat? I sailed the first four regattas in my F16 with way too much spreader rake(610mm for you taipan guys)and my windward boat speed suffered. When I sorted stuff out (oh, that read 710mm of rake -*&#@ !!) and I sailed against a very good Acat sailor, with "top of the fleet" boatspeed (vs. other Acats), who could sail race after race w/ close to zero mistakes, and still finished real close or ahead of him boat to boat - I figured i'd made the right purchase...I wonder how well and for how long, the talent filled international Acat fleet will accept seeing the boat Wouter sketched out on a napkin during his lunch hour (...probably not true but i love the image), fly by your asthetically pleasing and elegantly simple "A's" born from decades of incremental improvement...
Regardless,sail what pleases you !

pk