Thanks, Wouter, for your excellent input as usual.

Yes, the H17 specs out very similar to F16 and I do like the H17, but at 2/3 the weight, I know I'll like an F16 much more! And that's not even counting the spi, flexibility, or high tech cool factor...

Regarding pointing of a unirig vs sloop, you points sound very valid. The only experience I have is H17 vs H16 (both sailed solo, but H16's as sloop). Interesting, in the first few races, which were upwind/downwind, the H16 did exactly as you suggested, trying to get into a pointing duel with me, which they rapidly lost. It almost felt like I was sailing straight upwind! And I didn't feel like I was giving up too much speed by favoring pointing over a lower course although one did have to sail an S course to keep the speed vs pointing optimized. In subseqauent races, the H16's tried a different tactic, as you suggested, which was to sail lower and faster, attempting to mazimize their VMG in doing so. But even when doing that, it was just no contest to the upwind mark. Now I can say that I had to have a good 10 MPH to point that well and this tactic wasn't quite as effective in less wind. One place I did suffer significantly was off the wind and I did give up lots of ground gained to the windward mark. But ususally the windward gains were enough to keep me ahead, sometimes majorly so. If the racecourse gets redefined as a reaching course primarily I know I'll suffer, particularly in ligher winds. But an F16 which will allow one to sail with a jib and/or spi would be just unbeatable.

I've sailed the H17 a fair amount and sailed an H16 only a few times. My experience is that the H17 is a more technical boat and more difficult to trim properly (both sail trim and hull trim) so it's not easy to get the most out of it but when you do the payback is great. I suspect this is even more true of F16's.

Thanks,

Jerry