The last few regattas I've been getting a lot of complaints about the F16 rating, mostly from A class and also H20. They don't like being beat across the line and owing time to us. The Portsmouth rating will surely come down, although I don't see it reaching the F18 rating here in the States.
All systems will be the source of intense dicussion after the race. The US system is based on results and will only start to fall as the class grows and more "good" sailors migrate to the 16. The amount of debate will be even more when using a correction for distance style racing. Here the results are much more condition dependant. i.e. no "performance" boat is ever going to beat a H16 in a distance race whne the course is a high wind reach.
My impression of the 16 so far is that it is pretty comparable to the F18 in most conditions. The boat is at this point no way optimized. Every time out we are learning how to sail it, and have done virtually no rig tuning to date. In the most recent regatta at Daytona we were soundly beaten by Robbie Danniels on a new Cap, but would have corrected out ahead of the Jasons on their new Cap using the portsmouth number system. This despite horrible starts and being upside down at least once. I consider myself a good seat of the pants sailor, not great or technical in any form of the imagination, but we consistantly are mixing it up if not ahead of the F18s on the course. At the JPOR race earlier in the season, straight up boat for boat we would have been second in the I20 class and 1st in the F18 class.
I love the platform and the class concept. I typicaly sail ight so F18 was out of the question for me and my wife. This boat allows us to be mixing it with with these guys anyway. You can argue numbers all you want. The only 2 times i have really felt a disadvantage was in the big chop with light air, and on a deep jib reach. The heavier platforms seemed much less bouncy in the big chop with light air as we could not get a good flow of air across that sails no matter what we tried. As the wind came up, the boat settled down and the advantage went away.
For the big distance stuff, I would not hesitate for a minute to run with my Blade in a T500 type race ---IF there were a fleet. Heads up with the 20 footers in the kind of conditions they typically get, it would be a very, very, very long race.
Matt
