I've got an AHPC boat attached to said foils; they do great workmanship. I got my Taipan new, in crates and it went together flawlessly. My concerns is that the Viper hulls are going to be made elsewhere and AHPC is making no attempt to come near F16 minimum weight.
Well it is now known that Jim Boyer is no longer making any catamarans. He used to make those excellent quality Taipan hulls. In effect AHPC had to move shop to somewhere else. My hope is that with the capricorn F18 being build somewhere else from very early on that they have solved the infancy issues while doing that boat. Hopefully this will allow the Viper F16 to be done right first time around.
Still, the choses AHPC makes do add a little weight to the boat. They really believe that with the right design (hulls, beams and rig) the overall weight of the boat won't matter enough unless it is far away from the minimum. Experiences with the Capricorn and the much lighter Taipan 5.7 have taught them that, they say. I too would love to see the Viper at 107 kg ready to go, but even the standard Blade F16 doesn't get that low after a couple of year refining the design, pretty much they are 110 kg in standard attire. The special upgraded versions can get to minimum weight however.
AHPC hops to use the Capricorn F18 beams for the Viper F16 and thus get a very stiff platform. Greg had now put many many many years in optimizing the spinnakers and mainsails. Goodall yacht sails in confident that they have got the F16 rig just right now. Considering how the capricorns are doing in races they may just have a point there. Viper hull shape is said to have been upgraded with the experiences gained with again the Capricorn F18.
So this pretty much leaves the Viper F16 with only as drawback that it is not expected to be at the minimum F16 class weight. But neither is the spitfire (140 kg) and that is still a very fast design as shown by results in France and UK. So maybe Greg does have a point here, maybe being a little overweight doesn't hurt so much. And the Viper will still be noticeably lighter then the Spitfire.
I know the intended all-up-weight but I'm uncomfortable publizing it here without AHPC's concent. I personally would like to see just a few more kg shaved of it, but then again I'm not in doubt that it will be a bloody hard boat to beat despite its extra weight. If the hull is compensated in its displacement for this extra weight then the increase in drag could indeed be rather small indeed.
On the things I know I wouldn't write off this Viper F16. It will take a whole lot more for that to happen.
Wouter
