I have just returned from a cat regatta in Florida this past weekend. There were two Blades starting in the Inter 20 fleet, which had 9 Inter 20's in it. The wind was light and shifty on Saturday and a little better on Sunday but not above 10kts. either day. I was crewing on one of the Inter 20's. One Blade was Matt and Gina who build them in the States. The other Blade was brand new, in the water for the first time on Saturday, sailed by husband/wife former Taipan 4.9 racers, Chuck and Mavis. They only had their old Taipan Spinnaker on their boat, not the bigger F16 spinnaker. I will leave it to Chuck to provide his input on Blade Vs. Taipan, but when I asked him how he liked it he said it was great, loved the extra beam and deeper hulls.

Over the 7 races the Blades did finish in front of several I20's, boat for boat, but it was light and very shifty on a lake. In the better wind of Sunday the Blades were much closer in speed to the I20's, and I'm sure if it had been blowing 15-20 they would easily have kept pace as the bigger boats have to de-power much more in 20.