MEDIA RELEASE Fun in the Sun Services

For Immediate Release North American Distributors for

AHPC Australian High Performance Catamarans

JUNE 25, 2011 Clearwater, FL USA 727-734-0799

www.ViperClubSailing.com





NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE CATAMARAN FOR YOUTH SAILING

By Australian High Performance Catamarans



Fun in the Sun Services (FITSS), North American Distributor for Australian High Performance Catamarans (AHPC) introduces the F16 VIPER Club to their line of F18 and F16 catamarans.



With FITSS and AHPC providing boats again for the 2011 U.S. Multihull Championships and Youth Championships, AHPC has developed a boat which fits perfectly for junior and lightweight

sailors called the VIPER Club. The VIPER Club will have significantly less sail area than the reigning F16 Global Champion VIPER.



FITSS has developed the VIPER Club program, a special package for Clubs and Schools to afford this exciting new boat, and has brought in catamaran champion John Casey to head the program.

The beauty and uniqueness of this design has many facets.



· With its smaller sail design, lightweight teams can have great control.

· The Viper Club allows junior sailors to enter into high performance spinnaker sailing on a fast, stable catamaran platform.

· The F16 has great resale value as it is one of the fastest growing catamaran fleets in the world.

· 2 VIPER Clubs can be stacked fully assembled with mast up only taking up 25 feet of area.

· The VIPER Club is a versatile solution for multiple sailing programs because the boat can be configured as either a VIPER, for advanced crews, or a VIPER Club for lightweight crews or

juniors by a simple sail change.

· The VIPER Club can be sailed single-handed for heavier sailors, double handed for women or mixed teams, and even triple handed for lightweight junior sailors.

· When the Catamaran re-enters the Olympic Classes, the VIPER Club will be the perfect training platform to prepare junior teams for future Olympic Campaigns or to compete in the U.S. Multihull Championships and the ISAF Youth World Multihull Championships.

· Lightweight for easy maneuverability on land, durable, fast and double trapeze excitement!

· Boats are delivered with a 2 day coaching seminar and supported by a nation wide dealer network.



FITSS will debut the boat in the Annapolis area at the West River Sailing Club Junior Regatta, followed by the Rock Hall Yacht Club Junior Olympics. The boat will be available for demos when conditions allow. The youth are encouraged to learn about the boat and campaign to attend the U.S. Sailing Youth Multihull Championships next June in Long Beach, CA.



The web site www.ViperClubSailing.com has just been launched to help bring this news to the masses.



FITSS has put together a subsidized program to help clubs get this exciting new catamaran into clubs and into the hands of youth sailors around the country. For more information, contact Jill Nickerson at [email protected] or call at 727-734-0799.


(posted for Jill)

Great marketing!!!

I would like to see this setup because our club is struggling for mast up space.

I think this is great news for the multihull scene, especially for the US Market.

Junior sailors coming up the ranks of Opti's. Laser's and 420's now have some options to get into High Performance sailing.

The Hobie 16 is widely available and modestly priced boat that many juniors already race. Indeed, we are expecting a good turnout of juniors at the Junior Olympics at Rock Hall YC in July on the Chesapeake.

The Viper Club 16 will prove the ultimate swiss army knife of catamrans for the clubs and families that make the jump.

Sailing the boat cat rigged, or sloop rigged with small sails and then finally adding the small spinaker should right size the boat for a huge number of juniors of any size or number. Moreover, Mom and Dad can grab the boat and put the standard F16 sails on and go racing when they pry the boat from their kid's hands. Juniors who are aiming for ISAF international competition will be quite comfortable in jumping to the ISAF youth only boats.

Great solution!

(One more reason for scorekeepers to thank god for flexible handicap rating systems and computers)

Is this a US special or does AHPC plans to provide this config for other locales?

Just curious, as my club is considering what to get on the beach as the next step from the Dart 16...

Near as I can tell if AHPC detects some interest... they will make it happen.

You'll be able to ask Greg in person when we arrive at Como.

"(One more reason for scorekeepers to thank god for flexible handicap rating systems and computers)"

Mark, God had nothing to do with that. You should thank Darline Hobock and the USSA Multihull Council for Portsmouth and similarly hard-working and dedicated sailors for other rating systems. As for computers, if religion had its way, you would still be using an abacus.

I believe there is also interest in France, where the Viper numbers are quite large, for a similar program.... But you may need to check with Francis Ferrari at Sailfast.

Well said.... Darline's careful voice is certainly missed!

(Still thank god for Colin's Sailwave... before that.... Jerry Bennet's Sailrace (DOS days)... before that... Texas Instruments...not quite old enough for the abacus methods)

I think this is one of the best things to hit the market in a long time.

I have always said that the Nacra 500 was pretty much the best (teenage) youth boat there is; I think it is better then the SL16 for example. Sadly Nacra never pushed the 500 to its full potential.

However, this Viper club may well be the perfect answer to a deadlocked situation.

I has the excellent superwing alu mast (shared by most F16's) that allows for a surprisingly wide range of tuning thus effectively making the rig suitable to a wide range of crewweights. This mast is also of the new mast variant (not tear drop shaped !) that all modern boats like the A's and F18's are using now. The youth will therefore learn to sail with this kind of mast from the very beginning !

The new club sail area is identical to the Nacra 500 (also just right) but the club version remains fully F16 compliant allowing the youths to upgrade their boats to full (adult) F16 specs by getting a new mainsail and spinnaker (jibs are identical). Probably while selling the old suit to a new young team if the sails are still up for it.

The Viper club is also lighter then the Nacra 500 (the single complaint about this skeg boat) and does have daggers which makes the Viper Club a true racing boat.


Smart move, guys and girls !

No doubt about it.

Wouter

How much does it cost?

While I don't actually know anything, I'd guess its the same price as a Viper. A few feet of cloth is going to be the only thing different. I thought I heard of some sort of program where the youth boats were going to get subsidized by someone, but that could all be heresy & lies as well.

My understanding is that the rep will be onboard shortly to answer these questions but the press release talks about aggressive pricing on two boats for clubs or sponsors.

I have no idea what aggressive pricing means.... call Jill

I think the idea is that some benefactor might purchase two boats for a club and flip them at the end of a season or two to the adult F16 market (taxes, resale, initial pricing etc). I am pretty sure that there was not a particular sponsor who would be providing boats at this moment. It's brand new.

Just passing on what I know

No heresay or lies in the press release. It is considerably less than the VIPER, way more than sailcloth difference. Less than 15K a boat, plus minimal delivery cost depending on where the club is located. That's with a two-day coaching seminar.

I have been enlessly promoting multihulls for quite some time, and this is a big piece of what's to come. I'm not the kind of guy to be in your face about products.I'm not a salesman. But I truly believe this is a definite step in the right direction with regards to not just promoting multis, but keeping kids interested in sailing. That's the end-game right? Keep sailing.

Since I started racing again nine years ago, there has been a lot of talk of growing multihull sailing, not only on this website, but all around the world, but not much has been accomplished. Here is an idea that is actually being put into action. My journey starts next week up the east coast to demo the boat. If I was a kid at a club and saw this thing, I would be on it before they could push it into the water. I absolutely love sailing the F16. I just want to carry the passion on to the next generation. For us. For the sport. For sailing!

maybe not so important but the youth is attracted by cool looking things. Please make all the metal on the boat in black. it gives the boat a much more faster or racer attitude. And if you do so don't forget the C2 ;-)

S.th. else: I would take care not to make the viper known as a "youth boat". Many guys like me are a little bit tired of moving their F18-Panzers around and thinking about a downgrade for their next boat. The titles "junior", "youth" or "beginner" for a boat could prevent some of the older sailors to change to the tempting viper or other F16's.

Adding the smaller sailplan has worked out great for the Laser class, adding the Radial and 4.7 option sails, that is. Nobody on the "Adult" version is put off by the addition of a slightly smaller sailplan, in fact, it made the boat more attractive to Mom's and Dad's as they could just buy a smaller set of sails for Junior to race with, then Mom and Dad could use the same boat for their racing.

Robie, good on you! Lots of people talk about "growing the sport" but few put in the massive effort to get kids on board, as you and Barb Short have. Thanks for that!

There is still one key piece of the puzzle missing. That is getting the programs around the country on board. I am very familiar with 3 large youth sailing programs in my area. The coaches of those programs have zero catamaran experience, and despite my best efforts to expose the kids in those programs to catamarans, the coaches have not been at all receptive. There are great youth programs out there with coaches able to jump right into catamarans. Jamie Livingston and Leandro Spina jump out as perfect examples. But I think they are exceptions to the norm. So getting the boat in place is a great step, the next one is to get the programs to sign on. With youth sailings focus right now being Opti's first then graduating to Hisgh School and College sailing(all dinghy), that may be an uphill battle. This was the case even when there was an olympic multihull, so that changing in the future may not be the spark we need. Thoughts? Ideas? Potential solutions?

Here's an idea, we put on "Catamaran Demo Ride Regattas" at local clubs when they are running their Opti/youth camps. The "Problem" would be, being invited of course. As Karl points out, lots of those managers have no cat experience and either see it as a threat to their own little empire or a "waste of time" when their goal is to put more kids into 470's, Lasers and keelboats.

Every kid I've ever taken out on my cat has LOVED it, just as I did the first time I got out on the wire of a Hobie 20 hauling butt on a reach. I never thought 8 knots was "fast" again after that. (Thank You Craig Hackett!)

The kids are there, at the clubs, the problem is going to be getting the adults who run the clubs to let us show them what "Fun" sailing really is. Most of the adults who have only sailed mono's are affraid of cats, so trying to get them to learn to sail one properly, then teach the kids, isn't going to happen. When the Wave first came out I had high hopes that Hobie would get it into some of the larger yacht club Youth Programs, to replace the Opti.

Maybe Matt can elaoborate on why that never happened, but I'm guessing it's because the Adults running those clubs didn't want anything to do with cats.

I heard last night that the Viper jr program may be coming to our clubs annual jr regatta next Tuesday which is great if it is true. There are a little over 30 catamarans (17 or 18 A Class, 8 or 9 F16s and 8 or 9 N20s) at our club. We self-proclaim ourselves as the home of performance sailing on the bay. Our Jr. Regatta gets about 100 jr. boats out racing for the day. Already emailed DUH, with a how can the N20 fleet help.