Darren,
In this seperate post I wish to give some of my view to the points you raise.
>>>Why has F16 not boomed in Europe?
Answer : Supply side and promotion issues.
I have always found that interest in buying these boats has always been around. I was involved in succesfully forming buying groups but issues in the supply side have often prevented sales from being finalized. I also found that demo rides were the best way to "seal the deals" but I stopped giving those about 3 years ago and no-one made an effort to reinstate that promo-activity. Best is to give demo rides with a skilled F16 skippers onboard to put the boat through its paces. The finish the program off, we need a visible support structure that customers trust and value. I refer to the history of Capricorn sales for details in this respect. Maybe the question :"Why was the Capricorn F18 boom halted" can be very entlighting. The F16 class didn't have such issues in the USA and the results are obvious.
>>>Why has F18?
Answer, why did it take the F18's so long before establishing viable fleets in say the USA ? Different times, different area's, different opportunities. A good number of developments (both good and bad) come down on luck. F18's also had early support by large builders in EU (but not USA), F16 does not mostly because we are indeed a customer driven class. We created it partly because we, the founders/sailors/buyers, felt that 150+ kg singlehanders composed of scrapped F18 parts were not attractive and the large builders were not about to provide the right boats for the target groups like singlehanders, light to medium crews, mixed crews etc. In short, the foundation on which both classes were founded is different. F18 was more a builders oriented class, created by builders (Mattia, Alado, etc) and actively pushed by it. F16 class was more of a correction of a skewed multihull scene and creating ourselves what the builders wouldn't not create for us.
>>I don't believe they compete against each other for sailors but should complement each other.
Yes, that was always the intention of the F16 class ever since the founding (among other things). The F16 class was actively engineered to fill in the remaining gaps, consolidate the catamaran scene around a few classes catering to all possible desires and act as a growth path to higher flying classes like the F18's, A-cats and any olympic class. Personally, I feel that truly entry level multi classes are still missing at this time. The SL16 class is mostly a French affair (nacra 500 would have been a better choice from an international perspective) and we still miss a laser-1 equivalent as the F12 class has not really provided that yet. See also the schematic that is attached to this posting.
>>>The F16 class will eventually come under pressure to become a bit more professional and now is the time to decide its direction for the future before it it happens.
I dare say that such considerations were already made at the very beginning. Several builders were consulted and indeed bought into that vision and truly believe in it. I name Formula Catamarans (Aus), Stealth Marine (EU), Catamaranparts (EU) and Falcon Marine (USA). Rumour has it that more are seriously considering it. AHPC was also consulted and did sell fully optimized boats to F16 customers at one time (Taipan F16's, modified at the factory). As such the class has a future for there are people like myself hwho will seriously consider boats made by these builders. I'm spoiled for life now since I've owned a F16 !
Not a weekend goes by that I don't thank the lord for my truly lightweight versatile boat. Often because other crews (of heavier) boats ask me to help them handle their boats from the parking to the waterline. I'm one of the very few that actually walks up his boat on the sandy incline; others use the electric winch.
The choice for these specific (lightweight) F16 specifications was inspired by professionalism. It aims at getting truly well made boats available from builders and the balance between the specs make it them very attractive buys. As such customers are much more willing to part with lots of money. All beach cats are expensive, that is a given, so it is much better to have a setup that speaks to the imagination of the customer. It just occured to me that maybe not so much the class but the builders/agents must expect to come under pressure to become a bit more "professional". Gone are the times where a 150 kg singlehander can be advertized as being state of the art.
>>>Do you want manufactures involved?
Yes, but on our terms !
The F16 class has a mission statement, if you will, and it doesn't want to end up back at 150+ kg boats composed of scrapped F18 parts and still cost 17500 Euro's.
>>>Do you want full development?
No, but we do want controlled development. Not evolving is equal to dying slowly. Heaps of multihull examples can be found for that.
>>>Do you want to limit costs?
Not really. We either want very well and purposed engineered boats for reasonable costs (say F18 costs or less) OR we want truly inexpensive boats (< 12.5000 Euro's) that are still sufficiently well behaved.
What we don't want is the worst of both worlds by giving up the best of both worlds as the F16 class currently appears to deliver. Afterall, I can buy a 15.000/112 kg Falcon F16 that has been specially developped for versatile 1-up/2-up sailing. A 40 kg less then the big builder alternatives and also 3000 Euro's cheaper.
Better still would be to work up such a market as the F16 class that customers are willing to pay more for these boats and thus allow the builders to earn more for their "professionalism". That would result in the ideal situation. Better boats with better earnings. Everybody will be more happy then. More happy then even with "less" better boats and more earnings.
>>>Who makes these decisions?
The class members do, but also to some extend the class founders. The latter do not have any special votes or whatever, but they did create the class with a clear vision that is now encoded in the F16 class rules. If they wanted to be part of the "old way of doing things" (heavy, expensive, mediocre and stagnant) then they would have bought into one of the existing classes that were around at the time (2001).
Transforming this vision into "the old way" by repeated votes and lobbying will not do any good. It will only make the class schizofrenic as it will try to act differently then what it truly is at its core. No one will benefit from that. Not the builders (who will first destroy a class and market in order to save it) and also not the boat owners (as they will resent them for it after knowingly buying into the old vision). Lets not forget that many of us have spend large sums of money to be part of this F16 class. It is not only the builders and agents with a sizeable stakes in how things are progressed. No-one wants to be grandfathered out of the class after having spend 15.000 bucks and often also lots of spare time as a volunteer.
I hope my statements are helpful in some way,
With kind regards,
Wouter
