Very good point Wouter, this was not the place for this thread to be posted. Most Taipan sailors do not post here as they do not want anything to do with the F16 class. a few Taipan sailors have, but the baulk of the Taipan F16 talk on this forum and the Taipan forum has come from over seas sailors wanting to bastardize a very strong class in Austrailia because they like the platform..... Insinuating we should change because that is what you guys want.

I am sure the AUS Taipan fleet are pretty fed up with you too.

I was on the beach at Forster Australia when spinnakers were brought up and voted upon several years ago and yes their were some very colourful comments made about you. It was voted against and thrown out that quick it will unlikely be brought up again. I was in favour of the change, but because I was a Tornado owner / sailor I kept my mouth shut. I was not aware of the best interests of the class and was selfish in my thinking.

Those few 4.9 sailors who were in favour have since moved onto the F18s which would have happened anyway because they were chasing international quality sailing.

The 4.9 class in Oz is a lot like the H16 class as far as it is quiet often used for dads to teach their son / daughter at a young age, how to sail whist still owning a high performance boat and having the ability of taking it out by themself if they like.

Adding kites to 4.9s would have watered down the fleet and reduced fleet numbers, because in Australia we don't have the market to sustain so many classes. Because of the decisions made several years ago, the class is still thriving today and remains the quickest 16 foot non spinnaker boat around.