When my dad and I collected our Taipan 5.7 in Holland back in 2001, we stayed one night with Peter Saarberg and his wife. Peter is the Taipan dealer in Holland, and also the guy who sailed the Taipan F18 in the Texel. The boat was a customized and shortened verson of the T5.7, with added weight to fit the F18 rules. Peter said they went through all kind of troubles finding opportunities to add weight, ending up putting most of the additional 40 kilos in the beams. According to Peter, the F18 felt really slow and "tame" compared to the original Taipan 5.7, and it was obvious that Peter preferred the original Taipans over this one-off F18. Nevertheless, Peter with his son as crew, won the Texel. As Taipan owners ourselves, my dad and I consider this as a good example of the T5.7's capabilities. This despite the T5.7's poor ratings in Europe. In Australia, the T5.7 is rated just slower than the Tornado.

To be brief, the Taipan F18 was a one-off experiment, which I think surprised the Taipan designers almost as much as the other F18 designers when it won the Texel in 1999. I am not sure of how much this experiment meant for the later devolopment of the Capricorn, as the Capricorn has shown to be somewhat of a small revolution in terms of hull design and sail design.