We were sailing on Blade 777 at the GC for 5 days and we were lucky to get a test ride on the Falcon and the Viper.
At home in Switzerland I sail 18HT Eagle fullcarbon with a M20 Marstrom mast.

I feel in no way that I'm a catamaran expert, but here is my little resume anyway...

We test sailed all the boats two up, so take my comments with that in mind.

The Falcon and the Viper felt roughly the same on the water.
They have much more volume compared to the Blade.
This made it feel like it is a much bigger boat.
Both boats felt very solid and stiff.

The helm felt light and they tacked better and faster than good ol 777, because the hulls didn't sink so deep in the water.
Upwind in the little chop there was, both boats were stable and didn't bounce. The inverted bows seemed to work.
Downhill is when they both really start to shine, the bows staye out and it was much easier to stay in control than on the Blade.

I liked the Viper Cunningham System 16:1, very little friction and easy to inspect.
I liked also the Godall mainsail. It was very powerfull and could be still trimmed flat when the wind was on.
If the wind is on, it was easy to pull the mainsail flat on both boats with the Cunningham/downhaul.

I liked the Falcons weight. (I’m 18HT sailor and don’t mind carbon ;-)…).
The rudders, stocks and blades are much lighter on the Falcon compared to the Viper and seemed to be perfect sized.

The beams and rudders on the viper seemed to be a little overbuild.

IMO The Blade is still an awesome boat and the best single hander compared to the newer ones.

Andi,

It was great to see you again and Gina and I had a great time hanging out with you for the week.

Hopefully you and Martin can swing a trip back here soon, or there was some rumblings about an F16 event in France maybe????


One quick comment on the sails. You did take out the Falcon on the windy day and Gina and I were one of the lightest 2 up teams, so I had the thing tuned as flat as I could go. The Viper teams were quite a bit heavier and you took out that boat after the lightest wind day. That wing mast really does make for a wide range of sail tunning


Matt

I'm thinking; Lake Geneva, Lake Garda or Lake Como ?

Wouter

Hi Matt

You two are definitly on the light side!

How did you adjust your rigg for the higher winds?
Did you just add tension too the diamond wires or did you also change the spreader angle.

One thing I liked also better on both boats compared to 777 was the central adjustable diamond wire, the bolt below the mast food. Makes it allot easier to adjust the tension.

We definitly have to stay in touch!

Lake Leman (next to Geneva) is half Swiss, lake Garda and Como are both Italian. Time to review a bit of geography

Marcus Towell of FCA (Aussie Blade F16) was the first to introduce that to the F16 class at the Global Challenge 2007 (Zandvoort). Apparently this trick comes from the Tornado class, but we all looked at the Aussie Blade and went : "ohhh, that is nice !"; fully expecting to see it more often on F16's in the future.

Apparently, this was a prophetic thought as now the Viper and Falcon have it too !

Marcus's Blade has another very nice feature. A captive mast foot pin without using any loose components. It works much like the old nacra system but without using a plastic ball as mast foot. It is still a stainless steel pin bearing like the Taipans and blades have. Sadly I don't have any pics of that. Do you have any Mark P. ? I know you photographed alot of the "interesting stuff" back then

Wouter

And none of them are in France either !