Doug,

You are really expecting a money ship to come in ! 2 new boats at the same time, WOW ! Personally I would just settle on one, but then I have to safe up for years when buying new toys like this.




The Blade is able to have this system as well. The hull moulds have specialized sections in de daggerboard wells to allow such a system to be fitted. I don't remember whether it is fitted as standard or not. The first Blade to the Netherlands had this system fitted. It is copied from the Taipans (4.9 and A's) which have this system as well.





For the F16's; all sail cloths are legal and therefor also Pentex. F16 class decided not to follow the Tornado and F18 class in limiting the use of sail cloths. In this respect we follow the A-cat class and we will continue to allow all sail cloths; as the A-cat class is expected to do.

I hear alot of good comments on the Kevlar hulls. It gives the lightweight hulls like those of the Blade extra impact resistance and pretty much makes them comparable to hulls of much heavier boats.

Carbon rudders ; nice upgrade. I've seen the rudders that are supposed to go onto the new Blades, I've held the prototypes in my hands and I liked the answers to the indepth questions I asked. I'm not allowed to tell to much about these new developments, so I won't. Matt, vectorworks and the European agent are the official contact points for this. However I'm going to tell that these rudders have quite alot of A-cat class development incorporated in them. As a matter of fact you will be hard pressed to tell them apart.

Carbon beams; I have not heard of this development at all. Are you sure that carbon beams are an option ? I'm sure everything can be done to your boat when you lay extra money on the line but carbon beams is not really something the F16 builders and buyers showed much interest in. In the way of F16 sailing there is not much advantage in having carbon beams neither in platform stiffness nor in weight. Performance difference between alu beams and carbon beams are expected to be completely negligiable when looking at the Blade F16. You can't glue the carbon beams to the hull per F16 rules and this makes carbon beams a whole lot less advantagious. This rule was included in the F16 class rules as otherwise we would have serious troubles selling and shipping the boats internationally. At 2.5 mtr width the F16's will not fit into a container when assembled (glued together); at 2.3 mtr the A-cat can only just be transported assembled this way but only at increased international shipping costs.

Carbon mast, that is allowed in the F16 class and I'm sure on can be had when so desired and when you are willing to pay for the upgrade difference. Nearly all A-cat mast building development is directly applicable to F16 masts as the two classes use the same general mast design and mast/sail behaviour. The crosssection are both of ellipical rather then teardrop shaped form. Both use the flexibility of the top part as an important trimming feature. The two rigs are actually quite related.

Wouter