As a 5.7 sailor it is fantastic to hear that these great boats are still being sailed all over the world. Jimi get yourself a kite from Landy or Charlie Ogletree, both have cut very fast sails for our 5.7.

Recently we sailed our 5.7 in an long distance race against tornado's, 4.9s and F18 and totally destroyed them all downwind, but not quite so much upwind. Our boat cruises at 20.5 knots with kite and does about 12-13 knots upwind, probably the most unbelievable thing we have recorded is a speed of 23 knots in a lot less than 10 knots of breeze. This is not bad considering, as the dutch boys know, us Australian 5.7 sailors are a bunch of clowns. With someone good on it a 5.7 can make the impossible possible. However, it really gets my rocks off to know that a bunch of hicks who don't know what their doing can do things that most millionaire's yachts can't.

If the Supertaipan works it will blow tornado's, m20's and anything else out of the water, looks to me like it could well be the future, cheap and very fast. Hopefully the dutch boys can make it downunder next time as we have a few suprises here for them.

Paul Henderson
Bockscar Aus 187