Bob,
You should add the F16 1-up specs :
F-16 (1-up) 240 165 161 350 0.40 0.86
Additionally, here some direct comparisons between A's and F16's at the nations cup 2 weeks ago.
http://www.mumblesyachtclub.co.uk./results/2006/200606_f16a.htmWinds tended to be light at the event starting at 6 to 7 knots and peaking out at 12-13 knots later.
I wasn't there myself but the reports have it that fortunes were reversed when the winds picked up.
So A's winning in the lighter stuff, F16's winning in the medium stuff.
However, to me it also appears the courses were short. For example in the last race the first finisher got in after 43:10 and after completing 5 laps. Such short courses do impact significantly on spi boats and favour boats like the A's. Your spi skills must be excellent if you want to make large gains on such downwind legs (less then 4 minutes longs).
But this is interesting data nevertheless, there is more but I nede to dig that up and I don't feel like doing that now.
Personally I think some more performance can and will be pushed out of the F16's. The Blade crews are still tuning their boats (they were only delivered 5 weeks ago). Also in the past the skill level between the two classes was rather significant with the A sailors just being better, but like Matt says we are closing the gap there. The boats really do look to be a close match around the course and that is good enough for me. As stated earlier we never looked to become the fastest kid on the block, just becoming the most practical one is good enough for us.
Gary Maskiel in Australia is running with the A's. My personal experiences are along the lines "below 6 knots A's win, between 6 and 11 it dependents, 12 and up F16 have slight advantage". But I must say that the last time I raced an skilled A-cat sailor directly was back in spring 2005. Since then I've seen more but the skill level was just to big and I finished many minutes ahead.
Here a video file showing the conditions of the weekend. It also shows some close singlehanded spinnaker dual between two F16's all the way to the finish.
The file is about 100 mb in size (it is a rough cut with camera man commentary !); Sorry we've haven't had any time to edit the files to a more manageable size.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~whijink/Formula16_Nations_cup_UK_2006_Finish_race_12.aviWouter
