Stewart is right in his answers.
The Taipan 4.9 design is the basis for the homebuild F16's at this time; she will be followed shortly by homebuildable plans for a Blade F16 which looks a lot (in shape that is) like the Capricorn F18. The latter two designs are not related past their similarities however.
As Stewart indicates several advances have been made with respect to the Taipan building plans. Integrated trampoline tracks and alteration to the daggerboard case are just two of them. Several of these are documented on the web others are documented in the minds of former builders. Rest assured that you can get all of this info by reading the pages and contact the older builders by e-mail. For the plans contact AHPC at
ahpc@ahpc.com.au ; I think they costed about 150 USD$. For extra info go to
http://www.taipan.asn.au/~taipan/pages/timber_tips_index.htm and
http://www.geocities.com/phillbrander/ For comments try to contact experienced builders like James Sage, Phillip Brander, Greg Goodall.
When you want to upgrade it to full F16 standard then contact myself. Goodall yacht sails can supply you will sails and mast and most of the hard to make components like daggerbaords, rudders.
The Blade F16 design will also be available as a homebuildable design and the plans are planned to cost as much as the plans for the Taipan. They are waiting for the testing of the prototype before they release the plans. These plans will allow you to build a platform incorporating the new advances that one will have to gether himself from other builders when taking the Taipan design as a basis. Rest assured that these plans will be dependable; the guys doing the designing have both over a decade of design and building experience of crafts and rigs like these. If you want more info in this option than contact myself at
wouterhijink@hotmail.com . I'm not a designer of this platform but due to my position in the class I do know quite a bit of this design.
With respect to which one is better. Well we won't know till the test have been performed. Personally I feel that the Taipan basic platfrom is sound and with a few adaptions it will be a good F16 platform. The Blade I expect to come out level with the adapted Taipan platform with all the advances incorporated in the design. The Taipan is likely to be the better singlehander and the Blade is likely to be the better doublehander.
An alternative to homebuilding the hulls is to buy a set of hulls and finish the platform from that. Making it wider, different mainsail shape, selftacking jib etc.
With kind regards,
Wouter
