It is not yet a done deal, but here's the report from the ISAF web site:

In 1999, ISAF formally approved the inclusion of a multihull discipline at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship from 2004 onwards.

In 2002, ISAF developed a criteria for builders to submit designs for the youth multihull, which led to a four-day trials in Quiberon, France in 2003, at which nine different designs from five builders were evaluated (including the Hobie 16 with added spinnaker).

The nine designs were eventually short listed to five, two, followed by a further process of assessment and evaluation which reduced the choice to two, including review of the production facilities, availability, distribution and price during 2004 by the Youth Multihull Evaluation working party chaired by Oliver Bovyn (FRA).

Olivier Bovyn (FRA) recommended the unanimous decision of the working party that the Sirena SL16 catamaran designed by Yves Loday be selected as the youth multihull for the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship. The ISAF Executive Committee supported the proposal and will make the same recommendation to the ISAF Council at the 2005 ISAF November Conference.

The Executive Committee recommendation will detail the Championship at which the class will be first introduced to replace the Hobie 16 and whether there will be alternative equipment for the multihull event, as is the case for the other youth events. Prior to use at the Youth Worlds, the SL16 will need to achieve ISAF Status. The SL16 is a twin-trapeze, three-sail multihull retailing at approximately EUR 11,000.

Mary, is this the Spitfire but with Skegs ?

Sorry, but I am not familiar with the European designs. I'm sure somebody else will know.

NO, it is not the Stream (spitfire with skegs) and that is a real pitty as that would have been so good for us F16's

It is this boat :



The specs are

Builder Sirena
sailplan : Main, jib, spi (asymm)
Skegs, no boom and what you see in the pic is black anodised aluminium, I don't expect carbon to be allowed anywhere.

Overall weight : 153 kg
Hull length : 4.81 mtr
width ; 2.32 mtr
mast : 8 mtr (alu extrusion)
Main sail ara ; 12.5 sq. mtr.
Jib area : 3.75 sq. mtr.
spi area : 17 sq. mtr. (with 75 % girth rule)

Texel/ISAF ratings about 115 to 118 (F18 are about 101-102 and H16 are about 116)

But I think the little boat is faster than this rating (That is why I designed to NMBR system to take out such errors)


It is the upgraded version of the KL15.5 - SL 15.5 ; The boat had a few name changes. The SL 15.5 is the boat that is show in that poupular French sailing DVD of a few weeks back. The youngsters are sailing that one. There is quite a bit of footage of that boat and it does sail quite well. My personal opinion is that it really is a REAL boat. The youths will appreciate that. And I expect it to be deceptively fast as well. That is when sailed at 110-125 kg. Two adults will not be thrilled by it.

I am just a little bit puzzled by the price though :

11.000 Euro's that is only 500 Euro's cheaper than a fully fitted Stealth F16 with a carbon mast. So much for keeping the boat simple to reduce costs. I fully expected this boat to be priced a little more attractively as adults will not really be draw to this design. And I don't see many 12 year old youngsters getting this baby for their birth day. On the other hand the European Hobie 16 wasn't priced cheaper as well.

Wouter

But there a zillion used Hobie 16's all over the world that can be obtained VERY inexpensively, whereas there will be NO used boats of this variety.

It is going to be a problem in many parts of the world finding appropriate boats with spinnakers for the kids to train on.

I did the conversion 11000 EURO=$14279 American Dollars. This is way too much money for a kids boat. There is not going to be any youth that buy this boat to practice on. You could buy an F18 cheaper and have more competition. They really should have picked something much cheaper. I'll send a letter but I'm not sure if it will do much. Perhaps the other members of the Multihull Council can get together on this issue. It really seems to be going in the wrong direction.

Mike Hill
www.stlouiscats.com

How much is a Tai Pan 4.9 these days? How much is the Mystere 4.3? I also don't understand why they seem to think 12-19 yr. old kids can't pull boards up when 8 yr. olds have been doing it in Opti's for years!

PS. Mike, still no title...I'll call them today.

The ISAF report does mention that "alternative equipment" might be designated. Maybe that will be the Hobie 16. But probably only if the ISAF Youth Worlds is ever held in a country that does not have the primary equipment. Since the ISAF Youth Worlds is usually held in Europe, and since that is where the manufacturer of the SL16 is, I assume the factory will be providing boats for the Worlds there.

There is a rumor that the new boat will not be phased in until 2007, so maybe the Hobie 16 will be used in the meantime -- but probably still with spinnaker?

Mary, I do not want to start bashing the Hobie 16, but I am sure that very few of the zillion H 16s are in good racing condition. In Europe these Youth Sailors are very competitive and would not consider sailing anything but a perfect cat. The article below from Yachts and Yachting last month gives some background on the decision.


SL16 versus Hobie Max
Long after trials were held at Quiberon to choose a new ISAF youth multihull in the autumn of 2003, the issue looks to be making some progress. The ISAF multi hull committee led by Olivier Bovyn (co-founder of F18) has slimmed the choice to two
contenders which will be presented to the ISAF council at their next mid-year meeting with the final decision possibly deferred until November 2005. It looks like a straight fight between the Hobie Max and SL16. The Max, which is like a scaled down Tiger, has been making the running since Hobie Europe have such a brilliant record for supplying fleets of cats to major events - not least the Hobie 16 which has been raced at all ISAF Youth World Championships to date, and continues as the current choice with asymmetric spinnaker. But there is a surprisingly pronounced anti Hobie feeling in some quarters, and a determination to field a strong rival which is the SL16.
Other contenders fell by the wayside, most notably the White Loday Stream which was clearly fastest and the sailors' favourite at Quiberon. However, it was a prototype based on the Spitfire, with no boats in production and likely to be relatively expensive due to its sophistication. Yves Loday also feared that selection of the Stream might knock a hole in the Spitfire market, ruining a class that's become established as a great twin wire performer for light or mid-weight crews with all the tactical advantages of daggerboards.
Most cat sailors in Britain have probably never even heard of the SL16, but it's a popular choice in France with a curious background. It started as the KL15.5, one of a series that Yves Loday designed for the large French boatbuilder Keltic. Everything
was fine until there were changes of parent company and issues with quality, with the result that Loday gave the manufacturing rights to a new French company called Sirena, which produced an identical SL15.5. In the meantime the KL 15.5 (now the SL15.5) had become established as the official youth cat in France for 14-17-year-old sailors, with
some 600 boats sold. The SL16 is the same cat with a bigger rig designed to suit 17-19 year old sailors. That means you can simply swop rig to change classes. All the existing 15.5s have that option and in addition Loday tells us there are now more than 20 'pure' SL16s being raced in France. White Formula built the first new SL cats in Brightlingsea, but part of the plan for ISAF adoption is that the SL16 can be produced by any licensed builder around the world - Nacra in California and New Marine in France have also agreed to build the boat - which sets it apart from the single manufacturer approach of the Hobie Max.

The writing was on the wall for the Hobie 16's demise when all those slick new designs were submitted for evaluation. And I think they were all by European manufacturers.

I don't think the Mystere 4.3 (manufactured in Canada) was submitted as one of the options. (Mystere sells a lot of them -- mostly as a youth boat, I think -- in Europe where it is called the Tyka, with a little less sail area than the 4.3 that is used here.) But the Mystere 4.3/Tyka have numerous boats already on two continents, and they are a LOT less expensive than the SL16 is reported to be.

Adults race them here two-up and solo. Plus, the manufacturer seems very amenable to providing boats for events to get fleets going in areas in North America.

There may be other options, too. But the snowball is already on its way down the hill, so it is going to take some serious lobbying to change its course at this point.

Wouter, The Stealth is quite a cheap cat - The Spitfire costs a lot more
In the UK, The Hobie 16 is £6950.00 and the Dart 18 is £6925.00
That is over Euro 10,000.00 - so 11,000.00 is probably a fair price for the SL 16.

Well you should take care to correct for the differences in taxes. That is quite significant.

If we to ship one to the USA I would count on spending about 13.000 US$ in total.

We all know in which league this puts the SL16. For that kind of money they really should have made the boat 120 kg or something. And why isn't the boat 2.5 mtr wide = allowed trailer width all over the world?

I'm glad they have chosen a truly modern design for the youths but they should really be able to produce it cheaper or more lightweight. Just my pet peve

Wouter

The original requirements for this boat were quite specific



see Multihull comittee Nov 2003
http://www.sailing.org/meetings/minutes/2003_MT_10_11.pdf

Gareth

While it looks like a nice design, I can't see any kid being able to fork over $14k for a rig like that.

Hobie admitted quite early on that they could not build the Hobie Max for much less than Euro 11,000.00

I checked out the site of a Hobie agent in France http://www.proust-sailing.com/tarifs/hccata2004.xls
One item is: "Hobie Cat 16 Max Race++ cost 15,600 €"

A Hobie 16 costs: "Hobie Cat 16 LE race color 9,977 €"
A Spinnaker kit for same with chute costs: "Kit de spi cplt avec spi trompette soft 1,867.00 €"
That come to Euro 11844.00
If you can get a SL 16 for Euro 11,000.00 that would seem OK.

quote from website
What will it cost?
In North America add around 30% to the prices below.

Around US$500 a year.

It works like this (very like the secondhand automobile market):


US$ 500 - 800 buys a good first boat (pre-owned) - and you can expect to drop $200 when you sell

Trade up every year or so. Reckon on adding around $300 a year to your investment

When you sell your last Optimist you have the price of a good secondhand Laser or 420 - and the path to a lifetime of sailing

If you want to buy new, beginners' boats start around $1,600 + any sales taxes. But see the warning on the technical page

Add a good buoyancy aid/PFD (personal flotation device) and some clothes according to your local weather
Check out fees at your local sailing club

_____________________________________________________


Now, realising that there's MUCH more boat with respect to the Sirene...nevertheless, in the US it will be a hard sell to get parents to get kids on a 5-digit boat as compared to the 3-digit one...

ouch,
sea ya
tami

Lets be honest,

How price sensitive do we think catamaran buyers really are, is someone going to not buy a boat that is $11,000, but be happy to buy at $8,000.

With regard to the optimist, correct me if i'm wrong but that is aimed at a younger market. The big seller here in Europe for youth sailing is the Laser.

But its a one man boat, so if you divide $11,000 by 2 crew you get $5500 per person. A laser costs $5000. At the kind of level of sailing we are talking about you have to have a new boat.

Gareth

Looks like a descent boat. Anybody know how they managed to build it that HEAVY ?? Weighs more than a Dart 18.

Hey, if you were looking for a boat suitable for juniors to train on and get into spinnaker sailing, the Mosquito would fit the bill quite nicely. Of course it does have daggerboards, so it would be unsuitable for those who are too stupid to remember to lift them while beaching, but I wouldn`t trust anyone of that intelligence on a race course either.
Difference in specs between the two is quite interesting :

Sirena SL 16 Mosquito 16
Overall weight : 153 kg approx. 105kg
Hull length : 4.81 mtr 4.9 mtr
width ; 2.32 mtr 2.185 mtr
mast : 8 mtr (alu extrusion) 7.3 mtr
Main sail ara ; 12.5 sq. mtr. 12.45 sq. mtr
Jib area : 3.75 sq. mtr. 3.37 sq. mtr
spi area : 17 sq. mtr. 13 sq. mtr

Texel/ISAF ratings about 115 to 118 114

The Mozzie is built in epoxy foam sandwich or plywood (homebuilt option), and would sell for approx. 7500 US$, or 5800 Euro. excl. taxes & shipping. Epoxy boats are reinforced with carbon & kevlar in all the important places.

It has an older-style mainsail, not squaretop, but that could be changed easily, just have to fiddle the class rules a bit .

Cheers
Steve

Sod it, I put spaces between the comparative specs, but they vanished. Just imagine them there ,and it`ll get clearer. ISAF rating for Mozzie is 1.14 as opposed to Sirena at 1.15/1.18, so the Mozzie is faster .
If I were a junior sailor I know which boat I`d prefer to pull up the beach at the end of a hard day`s racing (Hmm, the one which weighs the least ?)

I don't want to give them any idea's but if ISAF is really smart than they get some proper designer to looks at those hulls, get the weight down AND arrange for a production facility in Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa. Like you say Steve. That SL 16 can gotten down to 120 kg at least and be produced and shipped for under 8000 euro's and make a profit as well.

More and more I'm thinking that the SL16 hulls aren't made with foam but are just 4 to 5 mm solid glass (35 kg). That would explain the 153 kg weight for a 4.81 mtr long boat. Guys, this is ONLY my suspecision NOT fact. Then a heavy rudder system and then I'm at a loss of where to put the remaining 20 kg's. The Harken blocks and Sails aren't going to be heavier.

Wouter