Wouter,
“I always valued the versatility of the F16 in the way of 1-up and 2-up sailing as the most important. I'm actually quite convinced now that we've done the right thing and made it work out on the water as well. Within limits of course as some difference will always remain.” Wouter
“But it is proven the sloop is a faster F16.” Robi
“I'm definately faster sloop, and I believe sailing uni is more challenging to do well.” Eric
“Of course a singlehander is always disadvantaged in the really strong winds” Wouter
These are a few quotes I found with a brief search of the F16 forum, however, you have posted so many times of such length that I must admit, it is by no means an exhaustive search. I just don’t have the time to read all that you write. I included some things that were in the forum by Eric and Robi (your lack of a post to disagree made me think you agreed, based on your past practices) so when I stopped reading the F16 forum, I left with the distinct impression that F16 1-up and F16 2-up were hoped to be equal, but that it is an impossible task and there will always be conditions where one is favored over the other. You have not convinced me otherwise, but go on and try. I expect this and am sure there will be great entertainment value for the forum.
Your problem with the yardstick and the probability problems you state are true with small sets of data, however, Portsmouth collect a year’s worth of data and only change the numbers when the data is compelling. The issues you have are minimized by this process. Any person schooled in probability and estimator math will be able to explain this to you.
Wouter, you posted “Example : Supercat 20 has been stable under Texel fro 20 years; Under yardstick it has gone from faster than (standard) tornado to ALOT slower then (standard) Tornado simply because the guys sailing the Supercat saw the good skippers change classes.”
You neglected to include that during this timeframe there were other factors that also affected the relative numbers, like the use of a stiffer Tornado platform from Marstom, the rig development and sail development that has been seen in the Tornado Class, even before the addition of spinnaker and 2nd trapeze. The competitive fleets and best sailors in pursuit of Olympic glory have all made the Tornado faster over the years. Since Texel uses ALL the data, it must also reflect this change in the speed of the boat. I contend that the data submitted to USSA and the Portsmouth number correlate. This is what is seen in the fleets using Portsmouth and serves those fleets adequately.
And you said “US PN have us 4% to 5% slower then the F18's.” Portsmouth is reflection of the data. Data is not wrong, it is data. As more sailors race F16 in the US (admittedly, a VERY small number so far) true capability of the F16 and F18 will be reflected in the data. For the time being, the data says that the F16 is slower than the F18, and the F16 1-up and F16 2-up are not equal. This is only fair to those who sail those boats.
