Ed--



You're a brave man! JUST IMAGINE the potential of the N5.0 if some of the talented H16 skippers "jumped ship." (And by the way, how doesn't your righting pole work?)



For 16 footers, here's my observations: In light air, the H16 seems to have an edge. (Or maybe it's my blownout sails? yeh, that's it.) In heavier air the the N5.0 has more potential because it has a much better hull design and can be pushed harder without crashing. It doesn't do cartwheels (frontwards or backwards) like we've all seen (or done) with the H16.



Never sailed an F16HP caliber boat (eg Taipain 4.9) but they're surely in another league of performance, with their high aspect boards, fat head sails, canted hulls, lighter weight, spinnakers (and the know-how to use them), planing hulls (looks like it in the photos, at least) and all those saavy Australian and European brains tuning and sailing 'em....



'Course you'd have to spend more than a thousand bucks to get one of them super fast boats, unlike the N5.0 or H16...