Had a really great time at the Gulfport regata this weekend. They put on an excellent event, good racing, good food and good people. I would like to thank them for inviting the F16s to the A cat event, I feel it worked out well for everyone.

This was my first opportunity to have the Blade head to head with the Taipans, and my first opportunity to sail the boat uni. It also was the first time I have ever raced uni. With the boat set up like it was I felt that I had a slight advantage goint to weather in most of the conditions we encountered. I, however, got schooled going down wind. By the last race on Sunday I was doing much better and not loosing quite so much ground (until I fell off the boat). Jennifer really makes that boat go fast. Hopefully the next race we can get everyone out there for the whole thing.

The Blade platform does very well in the uni configuration. The boat is still balanced very well with out have to really change anything. I personally still prefer to sail with a crew. On Saturday the conditions were very variable, and it was difficult to impossible to keep optimum sail trim. The extra set of hands to run the down haul, traveler, fetch the loose sheet or re-attach what ever just came loose would have been very nice. (plus a little more conversation, and those who know me know that I do not talk much) When Jennifer and I were running very close there were very different boat speeds varying with the wind gusts. With 2 hands you could not continually change many settings, so in certain wind speeds each boat would show very different characteristics. On the whole there is not significant differences, but I have a ways to go to catch up with Jennifer on the tiller and tuning time she has on the Taipan, so who knows. (Look out for us at JPOR Jennifer) One thing is for sure, and that is that I am still really impressed with this design and very glad that I chose this boat to move up to.

Matt