I think I'm going to help Wouter's posting total here. I have this friend who's in a quandry. He has a 20' racing cat and is getting frustrated with crew issues. He therefore is considering alternatives in a solo boat. Being shy, he wanted me to go online and seek some advice. Here's where his thinking is.

I17R, FX-1, or Taipan 4.9. All, at this time, would be sailed portsmouth as there is no fleet for any of these boats where he sails. He is not leaning toward an A cat because he thinks he wants a spin for downwind excitement.

I17R (DPN 66.7) is rated faster than FX-1 (DPN 68.3) and the 4.9 is rated at 67.6 as a uni with spin. The first question is which of these boats are faster? The second question is that everything my friend reads about F16 shows the class as a two up with jib. Does this class incorporate a sub-fleet for uni sailors? He also noted that the 4.9 nationals seemed to be only 2-up jib boats. Thirdly, what is the difference between a 4.9 and a Taipan F16? The forum's collective wisdom is needed to help my friend out of his quandry; he's stuck in indecision land.

David
H20 781
(for my shy friend)

The Taipan F16 has a 2.5 Meter Beam and a self tacking jib. Otherwise it is the same boat. There are several 4.9's in the bay area and it's a great boat. You can sail it solo cat-rigged with spin or sloop rigged with or without crew and with or without spin. It's very competetive in almost any configuration. We often see the 4.9 Unis beating out the Nacra 6.0's in straight time (both with spins). Check out Tampabay Catsailors Race Results to see some of the race results from down here. The biggest enemy of the 4.9 is a big chop - small hulls don't like big waves

The 2005 Australian Nationals had both Sloop-rigged and Cat-rigged classes, as well as an F18/Taipan 5.7 class. You can see the race results here:
Taipan High Performance website
The US Nationals only have had 2-up classes because of the still small number of Taipans in the US. If there are enough Uni sailors to race I'm sure they will run them.

Lance
Safety Harbor, FL

I've often thought the same thing, but I really enjoy sharing the race with a crew. Still, I'd like to get a solo boat for those times without a crew. If you're involved with a Hobie fleet, why not go for the FX-1. Sometimes it just takes someone to make the leap before a fleet starts to emerge.

A quick reply, please forgive me.



Welcome to the club !




He should add the US build Blade F16. That one will be the best of all 4 listed. US build with garantee and very attractive pricewise.





Were does he sail ? The first area to go class will be Florida and the area around it. In march we'll have the second Gulfport invitation F16 regatta (singlehanding) together with the A-cats.

I know I-17R has a class in the great like area.





Good choice, all who have tried it will never to back to sailing without a spi. We have a few F16 sailors in the (international) class that were very against the spi when singlehanding and now they are all doing the spi thing when singlehanding and will never go back. Downwind sailing without a spi is quickly becomming a thing of the past.





I'm sorry to say but USPN is all over the place with these boats. If we look at the Australian yardsticks (same system as the US version) than we see a standard sloop Taipan (no spi) being rated faster in relation to a F18 than USPN rates an F16 (WITH spi !) to the US F18. And both the Taipan and F18's are actively raced in Aus. In Europe we race F16 (in both doublehanded and singlehanded modes) of a rating EQUAL to the F18's and have a few race wins with this handicap. So basically The F16's should be rated quite close to the F18's; that means much faster than USPN rates them now.

Simply put we have peachy handicap just like the Supercats.

From my own experience and the direct comparison between the boats at the DCC event in 2004 and the races in Asia the listing appears to be (from fast to slow) : F16 and I-17R about the same, then FX-one (with spi) and Taipan 4.9 (No spi) on shared 3rd spot; I17 (EU version with spi).

I personally believe the F16's to be faster than the others in basis because it is a more refined design that holds its control over the full wind spectrum better. However that 30 ft 170 s.ft mainsail of the I-17R is some big rig. Surely in 0-5 knots this is going to help the I-17R.

The FX-one is noticeably slower than both the F16 and I-17R



Ohh very much so I think that 70 % of the F16 class regulary sails or races singlehanded. As good as all F16 sailors sails and races doublehanded at least several times a year. We are very mixed. The sailors do switch sailing modes quite often and also combine two single handed crews into a double hander crew for some distance races or regatta's like the Alter cup qualifiers.

Also gary maskiel in AUS just took line honours in a distance race while sailing singlehanded and in March we are working to have the second combined A-cat/F16 Gulfport championship. This event is only for singlehanded F16's. So we do try to have events for both sailing modes.




They Australian nationals always have both fleets and always had these.

The US Taipan 4.9 nationals did have only two-up boats but I don't think we will see many Taipan 4.9 nationals in the future. With the introduction and order list for the Blade F16 the growth is rather in the F16 framework. Here we make a point of having both setups and we mix both modes on the water. For some reason the two setups are rather close in overall performance.




The Taipan F16 is a modified Taipan 4.9 so that is fully optimized under the F16 rules. It uses a few Taipan 4.9 components but most of these have been modified. Beams are longer to make the boat wider. The mainsail has a different cut and a larger square top. the jib is selftacking, the rearbeam is a larger 80x2 mm round T7 section increasing stiffness and the mainbeam is put higher on the hull getting more clearence of the water, thus making the boat handle chop better. And Of course standard a spinnaker with snuffer.





My advice would be to arrange a test ride on all boats and then decide. Be sure to get a test ride on the Blade F16, that one is something else.


I hope this helps and I'm open to any further questions ( wouterhijink(at)hotmail.com )

Wouter

What we've seen on the West River is that the Taipan is an awesome choice. Those things are like Swiss Army Knives when it comes to finding a configuration that fits how you want to sail on any given day - 2-up, uni, solo, kite/no kite, etc.

They seem to do very well at the rating game as well.

But here's another idea - instead of getting rid of his current 20 footer, maybe he can consider a set of sails with reduced sail area, enough to make the boat easier to handle with one person. When he has crew, use the regular sails, when single handing, use the reduced area set. Since he's considering going Portsmouth anyway, a rating to use should be a matter of adding the corrections.

Something to ponder...

There are many good solo sailing choices out there. Personaly I owned several 20 ft spi boats before I bought an A class Cat. Best decision I ever made. All this BS about needing a spinnaker to be happy is just that. I would be willing to bet you that wildthinging downwind in 20 knots on an A cat will peg your fun meter at 11. I would agree that the T4.9 is a good boat,I 17R was OK but heavy they were fun to sail, but for solo work an A cat is as good as it gets. Try one. If you don't love it, don't buy it. I tried one and then hung a for sale sign on all 3 of the other catamarans I owned.

There is a reason why, Charlie Ogletree,John Lovell, Pete Melvin, Ben Hall, Lars Guk, Phil Kinder, Pete Johnstone,Jay and Pease Glaser, Jan and Meade Gougeon, Bob Hodges, etc all race these boats.
Go Light
Go Fast
Go A cat

P.S. I am well aware that there are other catamarans that are faster then my A cat. I owned a couple of them. I was happy to get rid of them.

Eric Anderson

I agree, Eric.

The A-Cats are certainly gaining in popularity for just those reasons. The only thing against it in this case is whether or not there's the desire for the boat to be dual-role - ie one person racing but also more than one person noodling around. If it's a dedicated one-person race boat you're after it's the choice these days.

F16 all the way!! SOlo sailing, and two up. Your choice really. Plus you get spin sailing when sailing solo as well. Small enough where its NOT a hassle to setup as well.

Plus the Blade being built locally in the US, and at an excellent price, its a extremely attractive boat. A second hand Taipan 4.9 will do the trick as well.

Good luck with your choice.

When's your Blade gonna be delivered? Thought it was supposed to be by Hagar. Haven't heard any stories from that event yet.
Which hull didja get?
CARY

I think delivery at hagar was never in the picture. I seem to remember early march was the date set. Right Robi ?

For the first Hagar news, go the F16 forum pages.

Wouter

Correct no news for Hagar, not for me. Maybe another person, but not me.

Matt is shooting for early March, hopefully the first weekend. Do not worry, once I go pick the boat up, everyone and there grandma will know about it.

As far as which hull I got, I really do not know which one it is. I know Matt is sailing the proto, maybe mine is hull number one or two. Not sure.

Aren't you the lucky one!
How did you get in on the ground floor of the new boat?
I was thinking you were gonna get boat #4 or 5. Guess production isn't as far along as I'd thought. Sounds like Matt's trying to get the bugs worked out on the prototype before he goes into full production with a hull that still needs design changes. You'll get a much higher quality product that way.
I had tried to talk Tim Bohan into testing out the Blade on the Hagar funsail Sunday. Guess that didn't happen.
Matt and Gina took an impressive second on corrected time, Anybody that beats JC on anything can be proud of that win.
CARY

Well my story started back in Oct. I bugged a certain Dutchman to give me Matt contact info. After a few emails I got waht I was looking for. Then came Matt, hahaha poor Matt, I have been in constant communication with him ever since maybe the beginning of Nov.

Once something is bugging you isnt the best way to get rid of it, is by giving it what it wants? the only way Matt could have gotten me off his back is by providing me with a boat. LOL I also showed Matt, how commited I am by providing the funds needed to start my boat.

Lots of commitment on my behalf has helped me help Matt get me a boat.

Plus being boatless, seriously sux!!

I get nuts about a week before I go through a boat. When I sold my first H-16, I had bought a H-17 within an hour.
Lot more complicated not that the boats are much more expensive, but I still try not to have a gap between. I now have filler boats for funsailing stuff and the kids.
It's OK sailing my other boats, but not OK because you HAVE to. I still get nuts.
I can't wait 6 months, Finally had to make a choice. HAd a decent offer for my I-20 to trade for a Tiger today, so I finally gave in and went with it. Will be trading them out in March. Maybe by the time Matt builds enough boats to have some local fleet action going, I'll be a couple years on the F-18 circuit and two years older, so that will probably be my time for a Blade. By that time the classes will be going and the boats will be in their third generation or so, and all the major refinements all since made.
Wish I could have been an owner there from the beginning, but it's a lot of fun waching it from the sidelines too.
The class and this particular boat can be a huge opportunity for the future of catsailing. Bringing one-design racing and a performance 1or2 up spinnaker boat together is quite an accomplishment. Can't wait to see it keep growing.
CARY
Soon to be new Tiger guy

Good luck with your Tiger !

And do drop in on our F16 forum once in a while.

Wouter

It was NOT my first choice, but I needed a smaller newer boat, and I want to race one-design with what's here today, so that's the only way to make it happen I suppose. I want the F16class to be established when I buy one., so don't worry I'll be in the background There are still unanswered questions I'm sure.

Ahh, no worries mate.

I dare wager a crate of ale that you'll be back some day.

You're not getting any younger.

But till then you must enjoy F18 to the fullest.

Promise us that.

Wouter

So Cary you mention you want to sail one desing. Are you going to be sailing that Tiger as a Tiger or as a F18? I always understood that a One Desing Tiger was not the same as a F18? or am I just loco? maybe so.

Robi - you are not loco. Around here (Eastern U.S.) it's very much an F18 thing and not so manufacturer biased. Pockets within the U.S. tend to lean toward a manufacturer bias instead of the F18 concept - but that's slowly but surely changing. I'm quite excited to have Cary join in the F18 fun. We're quickly headed towards reliably having 15+ F18s at LOCAL regattas around here!