That is a good looking Mosquito Steve !

On the topic of trampoline space. I once had a Tiger bitching about my kiddies boat. How it would be good for featherweights and that its tramp was far too small for himself and his crew; not to mention that the bows were to short on a 16 foot boat. After a while I had enough and parked my boat next to his Tiger and made him check out the length of the bow and the position of the beams.

He couldn't believe that the bow section of my Taipan F16 was ONLY 50 mm (2 inches) shorter then his Tigers. Then when he checked out the space between the beams he couldn't believe that there was onlu 150 mm = 6 inches difference there. The only part that was noticeably different was the length of the sterns. The Tiger just had alot more of that, but no crew is sitting on the part of hull anyway, tillers are in the way there you see ! I see in the picture of your mosquito that it has much the same setup

With the 5 mtr length of the F16 hull the 2.5 mtr. width makes the boat looks wider than an Tiger even if in reality it isn't. The more slender hulls reinforce this aspect. So in area my F16 trampoline/deck space is 90 % of that of the Tiger; nearly all of that negligable difference is the result of the F16 being 4 inches narrow than the Tiger. The Blade F16 has more space between the beams and therefor closely resembles the deck space as found on the Hobie Tiger.

What some people forget is that while the Blade kept all the good stuff of the Taipan design, it also improved on all the less-then-excellent stuff. Boom height, boat width, jib sheeting system and trampoline space were all improved based on the Taipan 4.9 experiences. Actually removing the jib fearleads from the middle of the trampoline to the mainbeam made a huge difference in the sensation of space on the boat. Much more than the increases in width and space between the beams.

Several taller guys (6 foot 2 and over, 80 kg and over = 180 lbs) test sailed the blade F16 together and said that the trampoline space was excellent, they never felt that the space was too small during tacks, gibes, hoists and take-down. All who knew the standard Taipan mentioned the real difference in sensation of space.

Wouter