-1- Don't try to point with the A's. F16's like to be footed off and achieve high vmg by boatspeed rather then pointing.

-2- On the start line luff them up. The new A-cats with their flat keel lines and narrow daggerboards tend to have a high rate of drifting downwind. The F16's suffer less from this. So the A-cat has to luff but can't, when he fails to stay clear then protest them out of the race. Ignore the frantic shouting of the A-cats sailor; if he (or his boat) can't handle the heat on the start line then he should start on the second row.

-3- When passing an A-cat do it through its lee, through its windshadow. For one thing they don't have much windshadow at all and they often very unwilling to bear away and defend their position. A-catters are pointing addicts. Best manouvre is to threaten to pass them on the luff side, they think "What, passing ME on the luff ? I'll show him some pointing" then when they luff even more bear off rapidly and blast through their lee and luff up again giving them bad air. Don't forget to keep footing and go for speed. A-cat sailors often won't follow and return to his first instict which is pointing giving you clean air again.

-4- Sail deep and fast downwind under spinnaker. Heat up till you lift your windward hull and then mildly steer down and keep the hull flying while making a deep pointing angle. Ignore the A-cats totally on this course UNLESS you can cover them with your spinnaker windshadow briefly. As a result they will fall of the wildthing groove and have to start all over again. This is a major setback; they have to point up high again and gain speed before they can get into the groove again.

-5- Let the A-cats go on the first upwind leg and try really hard to overtake them on the first downwing leg. If you round C-mark first then they have to work through your dirty air and overtake you. Don't point above your optimal VMG angle, which is lower then the A's. If they are close enough then they will eventually overtake you no matter how high you try to point. The trick is NOT to defend your position; it is to make them loose as much speed as you can by giving them dirty air. The A-cats need to win the race on the upwind legs; if you can have them sail a less then perfect upwind leg then you hit them where it hurts most. By the next downwind leg you will pass them sooner and extend your lead.

-6- Learn to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS pull a spinnaker on the downwind legs. Especially learn to do so in big wind. You won't believe it but this is major winner. The spinnaker stabilizes the F16 when overtaking ways in a huge way. The A-cats will try to ride the waves but will have to be careful not to trip on them. Their large squaretop heads can easily push them over when they drive into the next wave to hard. In contrast the F16 under spinnaker can be driven quite hard through the waves. Hull length has nothing to do with it, it is all due to the F16 driving deeper courses and the way the spi affects the saildrive and aerodynamics of the rig. In big wind you can sail really deep under spi when singlehanding and really fast when double handing, both make really good VMG.

-7- Protest any proposal to have a single lap race with an upwind finish. Sometimes the A-cat sailors really campaign for a triangular course in addition to this. Their reasoning is simple; they want to make the time spend on upwind legs as big as possible while not giving any spi legs away to the Formula boats. You want plain windward-leeward courses, with a downwind finish or a finish that is on a (broad) reach from the C-mark. You also want more then 1 lap, but nor more then 3 laps.

-8- If you are confronted with a triangle course then don't sail straight for the B-mark as the A's will be doing. Find a course that will make you go fastest and that is not too far above the rumbline. Then well before you get to the mark you'll arive at a point where you can bear down significantly and pull a spinnaker while later still clearing the B-mark. Do that. You'll be doing alot of speed under spinnaker and pulling a huge windshadow. Everybody below you will get dirty air and passing you will be as good as impossible. In addition to this you'll cover the A-mark to B-mark distance quicker then you would by sailing a straight line to the B-mark and only pull a spi afterwards. It will take a little training to get the course right but after that this approach is a winner. Especially when doublehanding.

-9- Under spinnaker then keep your individual legs shorts, stay in the middle of the course and gybe more then once. It is extremely easy to overstand the bottom mark under spinnaker'. Don't try to make the leg from A-mark to C-mark with only 1 gybe. Chances are you will overstand the mark and even have to douce the spi before you reach the C-mark. This is all very bad. Non-spi baots like the A-cat will typically go to outside of the course more. Make it their risk, by dominating the middle with your windshadow and speed.

-10- When finishing on a course with a (Broad) reach after the C-mark then try to keep you spi up all the way to the finish, this is one of the most spectacular legs on a spinnaker boat. For this reason it requires some skill in spinnaker sailing when the wind is above 14 knots but it can be done very well below 14 knots and after some training. You won't loose any time doucing the spi sail and when done right you'll blast across the finishline. Áim to just clear to leeward finish bouy. When you are too low then in the final meters let the spi flap and head up to finish on a beam reach. This is an emergency trick but will work quite well when you have too. You correct quite some distance to the line that way if you were to low to clear the bouy.

-11- When doublehanding, work that spi and go for speed. When singlehanding find a good spi setting and steer to keep it well filled and your luff hull just above water. Go for single trapeze only when doublehanding unless you are looking at 20 + winds and you really have to stay high to clear a mark or whatever. When singlehanding then going to the trapeze under spinnaker is a huge speed boost, but in a good breeze this will be the stuff for more experienced singlehanded spi sailors. No problemo though, as pinning yourself on the luff hull and sailing deep will work quite well. Build your experience up by sitting in even in 20 knots and when more comfortable with the spi in all conditions then move to the trapeze.

-12- When you overstand the mark then don't try to head up beyond the optimal spi course to make the gate. Gybe towards to mark and keep going for optimal downwind VMG, as long as you are going in the general direction of the gate (bottom mark) then you'll be alright. Then when the mark is just below a beam reach, douce the spi and cover the final distance by reaching at full speed. You'll cover more distance but you'll be faster then pointing high under the spinnaker. It is better to end up perfectly at the bottom makr under spi but the hit is not too big if you correct your earlier overstanding mistake this way. Basically this also means that you can opt to go wide at the bottom mark when it is crowded, this is especially handy when singlehanding.

-13- Practice on the spinnaker hoists and douces, you can win many boatlengths with this.

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