In my set of Blade plans there is a drawing showing the general layout for the mast like height for the hounds, spi turning-block etc.

One of the great things about building your own boat, is the ability to customize and experiment. Having some default values for the mast and foils are nice, but perhaps you want a "fat head" mainsail and some other aspect ratio/outline or foil section to suit your own sailing style and opinions. Then you would want to look at the mast design again to optimize it.

The Blade plans are one of the better sets I have seen. They are by far better than some of the other plans I have buildt to where guesswork is a rather large part of the experience. They are not perfect, but of the plans I have seen only Ian Farriers plans are better. The plans describe a lot of the techniques you should use and how to do it instead of only the structure of what you are building..


Building foils are not really that hard, but it gets proportionally harder as your demands grow. If you want foils buildt to the same standard as e.g. a custom foil from Phils foils, you need access to amongst other things a CNC router. Phill has documented a nice method for foil building here: http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/phillbran...ander/my_photos


As you say, one of the great things about the F-16 class is the option of doing things yourself if you want to.

Hope to see you at Zandvoort next year! Looks like there might be a fair number of homebuildt ply boats there. Personally, I also hope someone turns up with some personalized "waco" ideas they have implemented on their boats. Adds another dimension to the racing and "apres sail".