windy,

All I can say is that the boats have held up in stuff where I and others have backed down. I'm sure there is a threshold somewhere but I haven't encountered it yet, nor somebody else it seems. I'm not a total expert on the Taipan 4.9 class but that class has indeed been going at it hard since 1988 and now major failures were encountered which are construction related. I'm sure however that if you try hard like blow the mainsheet totally and under spi in 30 knots that you are approaching the design contruction limits. However, I''ve actually done it in 20 knots, where my mast looked really funny but it remained standing and straight.

I've seen similar breakages of the Fox board. These were very tall and narrow which would make them MUCH higher loaded then the boards the F16's are using. As written earlier, I've sailed my boat onto the beach with the daggerboard down, no damage. I'm not going to do that several more times, but it still indicates to me that the breakage threshold of the boards is not close to sailing conditions.

I'm told first hand that the new Blades have been upgraded with more then a little A-cat building technology, resulting in more stiffness and strength. But they are still a relatively new design.

Lets answer your questions :





Honestly there is always a limit to be found and I don't know how abusive you are with your boats. I know I'm personally gentle with my boat on the beach, but throw it about during racing on the water. I have sand everywhere. Mostly my boat is covered in it. The Gelcoat layer on the F16's will not be as thick as on the TheMightyHobie18 and I don't drag my boat over the sand for hundreds of yards. Still I'm really convinced that the construction of the F16's is ample here. Sufficient without going overboard and carrying alot of weight. If you drag your baot out of the surf, over a few tens of yards, everytime then I don't expect you to touch up your bottoms more then every 3 years or so. Which is pretty standard among beach cats I think.

If you order Kevlar hulls then I'm sure you need to work really hard at degrading that. That stuff is immensely abuse resistant espcially in wear.





I can at 85 kg. The righting threshold for a Taipan 4.9 (=alu mast) is just over 70 kg which includes flat water and hardly any wind. It gets increasingly easier with addition winds and waves. I think the F16's are the most easily rightable beach cats after the A-cats. Certainly more easily then you are sailing now or what the other builders are offering as singlehanders.

Of course you can also get an F16 with a carbon mast. The "flat water no wind" righting threshold here is 60 kg and higher. So how important is righting to you ? If very important then get a carbon mast for it.




From what I've seen yes. I'm not kidding here. Again as I wrote earlier. I've seen blown blocks and shackle on F16's but no major failures like damaged hulls and broken masts as the result of wild conditions. In my boat I used Hardwood blocks underneath my beam bolts to sit my bolts on. These have been compressed by 1/5th inch over 1 year sailing. I actually had to hammer the rings out. I replaced them with metal blocks and everything is fine. But it does show the forces that has been put on the boat. Like I said I'm not pampering my boat on the water. I'm carefull that I don't do stupid things, but in a race in mot thinking twice about powering it full through a wave or launching my boat through the air of the top of one. But as said earlier, it has got to end somewhere, I and many others just haven't encounter that limit yet.



The F16's do have one strong advantage to their design. Everything is noticeably smaller then big 20 footers this means that both the leverages and forces are significantly smaller as well. It is often quite hard to break modestly sized parts like this. I think this is greatly helping the F16's in being both light and strong.





Well, then the downside of the F16's may actually be the greatest attraction to you personally. Because the F16's are relatively short and small the boats will feel more lively then their bigger brothers. In big wind and high speeds the boats will indeed feel very lively. You want to take your hands of the wheel of a porche 911 at full speed and the F16's are likewise to some extend. If you do flick your rudders over when travelling at high speed then the F16 rudder board will carve a violant turn through the water. The newer F16 rudders are just that powerful. They don't stall and their response is truly immediate. You'll be barefoot waterskiing along side the boat if you are trapezing and you are turning away. At least I've done this. Accelleration can be much the same.

I personally love this feel and at my club some F18 sailor are now order the same rudder blades for their boats after test sailing what they call the kiddies boat. Although they are using this identifier less and less these days. After a while you get used, even addicted, to it. I did. But you must learn to handle the rig right. When it is stalled then you are going no where. It is "on" or "off" and that means you are constantly trimming.

So I say their is challenge here for you (and many others)




That truly dependents on what you want. I still think the Taipan 4.9 is still a very good boat. But the new boats like the Blade F16 and Stealth F16 are just getting better and better. For the rough stuff the t-foil rudders of the stealth are really nice. Plenty of control and power at the same time in a big breeze. The standard carbon mast will be very nice as well. The Blade has more water surface clearance and will ride the waves better then the Taipan. Put a carbon stick on the blade and I think it is a truly fine platform.

I personally prefer the new and therefor modern rigs with large heads and selftacking jibs. I think I will jsut refuse to go out in a big blow without a selftackign jib adn the roomy tramp that that setup allows. Especially under spinnaker. You just don't want to fiddle about with jib sheets in conditions like that.



But there is one more comment I would like to add. A sailor best suited to F16's are those that appreciate a more sophisticated way of sailing. I found that sailors can be devided roughtly in two groups. One that can never have enough power and that like to meet any challenge head first. The other who is more interested in efficiency and looking for optimal pathways to an end goal. The F16's are best suited to the last group. The F16 is not a raw grunt boat. If you are a power rider then you really need to change your way of sailing. F16's like sailors who listen and adjust their style to the conditions c.q. situations. They are much like A-cats in the way that the right trim makes the rig really stream and the boat go fast, while the wrong trim makes the rig feel really slow. It is much like a motorcycle in the way that you are using your full body to ride the vehicle well. It is not like a drag racing roadster that has trouble rounding corners. Some like the first others the last. I really like the first.

I find that I still don't get bored on boat as there is so much to learn and each time when you do it right you find a new groove of speed. The challenge is to learn to easily switch from one groove to another in changing conditions and on different courses. I get a real kick out of the reward that comes from getting the team work done well. This is a boat for team minded sailors. You either work togeth al the time and go fast or you are just holding eachother back. WHen singlehanding the challenge is all yours, personally. Then it is "ride that baby" without losing it. Solo sailing from the trapeze under spinnaker in 10-15 knots is one of the best rides you are ever going to get. No theme park competes to that.

I hope this answers your questions

Wouter