Sounds like a fun-event. There is no website of the club or event?

Arend

It was - a lot of fun. Some very close racing (perhaps a little too close in some cases... ) Many thanks to the organisers for making the effort!

The club website is http://www.dwsc.co.uk but I don't think there's anything there about the event.

Paul

Really interesting to see just how close the FX1's and the F16's are, what ever race we seemed to have there seemed a real mix of winners and losers, very interesting to see the FX1's are better upwind but slower downwind, perhaps the extra weight can keep them on the straight and narrow and then hurts them on the downhill stuff.

Race conditions were very nearly optimum for us with 10 - 15 knot winds both days, sometimes a bit squally but still pretty good for Datchet which can be affected by thermals off the concrete walls

In the few races we had a Stealth F16 1-up against a Taipan F16 1-up we found a similar behaviour. So I'm not to sure that the difference in weight is the cause. It may well be some other aspect that is causing this.

Personally in several instances I found that a particular I-17 pointed higher than me in several club races. (still won the contest by unmistakable margins though). He had a specialized singlehander sail while I was using my doublehanding mainsail while sailing solo (tuning it flat with downhaul). I had better VMG but I had to sail noticeably lower than him to achieve it. In the discussions afterwards with some other sailors it was suggested that the different cuts of our mainsails (singlehanded use or doublehanded use) could well be the cause of this. I haven't done enough direct comparisons to tell.

To make things worse. In the direct comparison with a FX-one I outpointed him. Sailor skills can so much skew these results, it is hard to make any firm conclusion. This FX/stealth event is one of the better experiments because so many boats raced. Actually I've run an analysis on it and the results are quite dynamic. The spread between FX-one and Stealth F16's is pretty nominal, meaning that there doesn't seem to be any basis to conclude that there is real bias either way. To some extend this is logical of course the handicaps of both boats aren't that far apart and these are therefor quickly overcome by differences in skills or by luck.


Wouter

An interesting footnote to the event - one of the FX1 guys is selling his boat and HAS ORDERED a Stealth from John P.

It was a really good show from the Stealths on behalf of F16s and a lot of interest was generated.

Come on the rest of you F16s, get out there in mixed fleets and make some noise! It is best if you can get a few of you together and agree on a particular regatta to 'hit' and spread the word

We've been talking about how the boats compare but more interesting is the fact that this has turned out to be a great event where sailors on different makes had alot of fun without any handicap calculations.

Arguably both classes had only a handful of boats but by combining the numbers the event had good participation; 12 boats.

This is an example to be followed. I'm counting on the Blade F16 group deal going ahead as planned for the Dutch sailors because one of potential buyers already mentioned that we should try something similar next year. I know several FX-one sailors personally and I'm sure Tony Mels and others would be willing to come to a Dutch FX-one/F16 event. Like I said it all dependents on finalizing the Blade group deal.

I'm sure my sailing club of Zandvoort would be willing to provide the RC support (bouys, start vessels and RC crew). Zandvoort is near to Scheveningen en Katwijk were most of the FX-ones seems to be anyway. So these can all sail over and sail back, no need to trailer the boats. Zandvoort will also be close enough to Tony Mels and it is indeed less then 30 minutes for me personally.

Indeed, an example to be followed.

Wouter

It should be possible to get more than 12 boats together, there are quite few FX1s in Holland and with Zandvoort being a central location turnout should be good.

What group deal are you referring to? The guys from Dynautic are parked next to me at the Octobercup at Muidersand (Wouter: less 30 minutes away ). However, they spent most of their time testing and tuning which makes it hard to get an impression about its potential. Coming Sunday is the last day of racing so I'm hoping they'll be there.

Sounds like you has similar wind to what we had at The Grafham Cat open.

Next year (I should have the soon) lets get as many as possible to Grafham.

(Maybe we could all come to Datchet a couple of weeks before - I am sure I can arrange a place to park your boat at Grafham for the weeks between the two if you were driving close on the way home - but let me check first)

Tony, I have some experience in these things and I've learned the hard way that it is never easy to get alot of boat to turn up for new events. I wouldn't claim it to be easy to get more than 12 boats out. In my experience there are only 5 FX-ones and 4 F16's that are truly active in the Dutch cat racing scene, despite the fact that more of both are around overhere.

Personally I think Zandvoort would be a good location because of the way it is central to all and the fact that I feel that I can arrange for regatta support with a start vessel, bouys, etc. However a location on the IJsselmeer (lake) would be really attracttive due to having no surf to negociate. Also I'm only willing to explore organising such a get together when I get significant (volunteer) help from some of the other sailors. Last time I had to do most things on my own and that is really alot of work. Besides, I want to have fun and get to do some sailing myself as well.

Tony, I once suggested such a get together to Dirk Pool (FX-one) and he seemed interested. I'm sure Geert Ruesink (Blade F16) will come. I (Taipan F16) will be there ofcourse just as you (FX-one). Bard will seriously consider such a event (Stealth F16) and I think Jaap will come over as well (Blade F16). I feel these 6 boats are very likely candidates. There is another FX-one at my home club of Zandvoort and I'm sure some of the Katwijk/scheveningen FX-ones can be convinced to come over. On our side (F16's) I'm thinking about Martien (BIM F16) and some of the future Blade owners as well as Nico with his demo boat. We may have something here, Tony, wanna give it a shot ?

Personally I think Dirk Pool will win this event as he is just alot better sailor then the rest of us, but it should be alot of fun fighting for the other places.



Currently a group deal is formed where Vectorworlks Marine Blade F16's will be imported from the USA by what looks to become the European support point for these US build boats. Group now appears to comprise of 2 Germans, 3 Dutch sailors, 1 Italian and possibly an UK based sailor. This is all very interesting. I'm especially looking forward to seeing the Dutch sailor get a Blade F16. There are 2 teams here that I think will do well in races, although they probably need a season to get fully up to speed on these new boats. They are still looking for addition members, the more involved the more attractive this all becomes. Contact Hans Klok at info@catamaranparts.nl . Hans has currently a demo boat available that interested party can investigate before deciding to participate in the group deal or not. This boat was also available for a test sail earlier this year, I don't know wether a test sail is still possible, check for yourself if you are interested. I think other parties are coming in to have a look at it as the demo boat is taken out of its winterstorage that was not accessible to viewers.

http://www.catamaranparts.nl/bladef16.html




I know ! Sorry guys, but I have two weeks of exames currently and that takes presidence. Say high to them, will you, Tony ?





Well, lets give them some time to fully tune up that boat. It took all of us 1 season or more to get our boats running at competitive speeds and Dynautic will not be the exception in this. Nico himself had been spending most of his time over the last 2 years in getting his company of the ground, sure enough he will be a little rusty.

Still a 6th and 17th placing doesn't sound too bad. Actually that 6th place is a rather good result.





I hope that you guys have some good weather then !

Wouter