Hi Kirt, et al,

I've been following the discussion on the A-cat forum about this topic. I've also been amazed at the photos of the Moth guys with foiling boards. As interesting as they are, I don't think it would be beneficial for the F16 class to allow foiling daggerboards or skyward-lifting daggerboards. The easiest way to prevent these is to limit the angle of the daggerboards realtive to the hulls and prevent foils on the daggerboards (rudders ala Stealth okay).

The F16 class is, without question, a high performance class that allows and encourages a certain amount of development, innovation, and flexibility with materials. But it is not a full-blown developmental class like A-cats, C-class, etc. Some of the core appeals to the F16 class have to do with the fact that they aren't as uncompromising (in terms of weight, for example) as the full developmental classes. The F16 class should certainly embrace innovation, but it should do so in the context of preserve some of the core appeals. What are the areas of core appeal?

--Many boats already exist that are compatible, in their current form, with the F16 rig (eg T4.9, Spitfire, Stealth R, old Bim, Nacra 5.0, Prindle 16, etc.) or have been developed specifically under certain F16 rules (Stealth F16, Blade 16).

--Despite being extremely lightweight and high performance, all the F16 boats retain a robust build quality and user-friendliness. In other words, we're still beach cats! Our boats are strong enough to last through years of vigorous use. Also, we're not saddled with rigid wing sails or paper-thin hulls. Yet there's still tons of room to improve within the framework that we've got.

--There is an accessibility about the F16 boats for other cat sailors that a full development class doesn't share. For example, is the average Hobie 16 sailors going to feel more comfortable jumping to an F16 or a c-class?

--Then there's the budget considerations. Right now the F16 boats offer a tremendous VALUE in terms of how much performance you're getting for the dollar or euro. We certainly don't want to end up in nacra A2 price range (is it the balsa wood core that makes it so expensive??), nor do we want to force class members to buy new boats every season (sure, I'll buy the A2 this year and the A3 next year to stay competitive). The nature of the F16 class should be to allow sailors to constantly refine their rigs, etc to stay competitive, not have to rework their hulls with new trunk casings.

So to summarize, canted, lifting (skyward), and foiling boards are obviously a facinating innovation that should, quite naturally, fit in the A- and C-classes but should not be included in the F16 class since they would distract and dilute some of the core appeals of the class.