Hi
My name is Russell and I am fairly new to this sport
I live in Brisbane Australia
I have a Calypso 16' cat thats 25year old, but in very good order and am waiting the delivery of a mylar square top sail, the next project is for the spinaker (probably about 2 months away), once fitted will that qualify my craft as a f16? (I realise that it will be slow compared with a lot of craft.) or is this formular only for the later model lighter craft? I am very keen to develop this boat to its maximum potential
Thanks
Russell [color:"black"] [/color]

Hi Russell,

I think I know what your cat looks like, it is likely your Calypso cat would qualify for F16. If you want to make sure you can check the meausrement rules at www.geocities.com/F16HPclass/. As standard your cat is unlikely to have any problems, but be careful with the size of your new sails if you are serious about racing F16, it could be possible to make them too big.

You are certainly welcome to join the F16 group, many of the class in OZ are Mosquito's which where designed before the Caper cat so your boats age is no problem.

As you say it may be heavier than minimum, you can get a rough idea by using bathroom scales, weighing your boat with all the rigging on it on a level surface one hull at a time and add both figures together. Assuming it is over minimum weight you comply with the rules, there is no maximum and alot of F16's are over minimum, but as you say it's competitivness will be affected if it is to heavy, but not it's eligibility to race.

Keep an eye on the Forum for F16 events in OZ would love to see you at one, racing will certainly be the quickest way to develop your cat to it's maximum potential.

Regards Gary.

The Calypso 16' in the right hands and in its standard form could really get up and go. With a different sail plan and a spinnaker I think that you would find that it has a few good points of sail against an F16 (even with its extra weight and its "years") They were a cat that could be driven extremely hard off the wind. They suffered mostly to windward against other cats set up "purely as racers" but with its downwind potentual AND a kite, who knows??