My personal goal is not really an age group, but a target group of a certain weight and attitude.

In my view the F12 should cater for sailor in the weight range of 40 kg to 70 kg and of the attitude that it must be really inexpensive and easy to operate while still being a thrill to sail.

This certain will included relatively young person, but also women and light males.

Personally I would love to sail one of these things myself at 85 kg. I picture it as a boat that can used to sail for an hour or so after work. Overhere it has been tried to do that with lasers but these tend to have problems getting through the surf. The F12 will not have that problem.

Also for these short sails, quick rigging and unrigging will be paramount.

The boat will probably not lift a hull with me on it, but it could still be lots of fun to sail it as an adult. Not to mention the abdominal workout through hiking.

So no I don't think it is designed for a specific age group.

Even more so the class could regulate three sub classes based on weight so that even full grown adults could have fun racing their peers. Sort of like Class 1 = up to 50 kg, class 2 = 50-70 kg, class 3 = above 70 kg.

Sure the class 5 will be slower then the classes 1 and 2 but that won't matter as all the sailors in class 3 will be slower by the same amount and so racing will be fair again.

Additionally the unstayed mast design will allow different mast tips of varying stiffness to be used. So the heavier classes can use stiffer mast tips keeping more draft in the top of the sail.

The current mast design is such that each sailor can make his own tip from simple round alu tubing from you local hardware store.


Nor do I think this boat should have a jib or spinnaker. If a sailor wants that then the F14 or F16 should be looked at. I think we must look at this F12 as how the go-carts relate to the true racing cars like Nascar and F1. It emulated enough of the experience to be regarded as car racing but it is so much simpler that it is within reach or ordinary people.

Wouter