I can understand the need to have a cheap class so that the kids can sail it. BUT it needs to be something they want to sail. When I started helming a cat it was a Dart 18 (at 12 years old) and I had a Dart because it was the "weapon of choice" at the time.

I've spoken to a few of the (now Ex) youth group in the UK and they hated the Hobie 16 and only sailed it because they had to, comments along the lines :

Old, slow, cannot tune it (just rake the mast back and then it's done), The addition of the kite brightened it up a little, but they could not wait till they were too old for it and could move onto something else.

Both teams have now got new Hobie Tigers - Now I don't know if these are "daddy boats" or they have sold their souls to the bank, but it really opened my eyes speaking to them. They really did not like the H16 and just sailed it becasue they had to (and they wanted to sail a cat, not a 29er or some such). They said that other mates had been so unhappy with the 16 that they had gone to the 29er as it was "more sexy" and more "fun". So in the UK the choice of the H16 has LOST us some talant to the 1/2 boat fleet. Now maybe they will come back, maybe they won't.

The H16 is seen (IMO) as an old (obsolete?) design and is hardly sailed in the UK, but then the 16 never really was anyway. So form a UK angle the 16 was imposed upon us and some of the kids hated it.

I am not sure what the view of the 16 is in Europe (Wouter et al?)

My tuppence.