Has anyone on the group raced their F16HP head to head with any F18's? Is the equal Texel rating actually reflected in equal performance on the water?



If they are performing equally do you think we'll see combined races F16HP and F18 - first home wins? This could make for some exciting races with big fleets!!



The F18 class is gaining momentum in Australia at the moment with the First shipment of Nacra F18's all sold I believe. If you are interested there is an F18 forum in Oz at:



http://www.catsailor.net/cgi-bin/fo...mber=10&DaysPrune=365&LastLogin=



Berthos

Yes Geert and his crew Raymond did last september on a Taipan 4.9 spi.



http://www.geocities.com/f16hpclass/david_and_goliath_cup_listing_2001_2002.html



He beat 39 out of 57 F18's on elapsed time. The winds were light and increased at the end of the race.



Also John and his crew Sue did last season on their Stealth R which comes very close to a F16. They did very well in the four UKcra races that make up the UKcra championship. They beat most of teh F18's when not beaten all of them. They've become UKcra 2001 champion on the Stealth R. They raced under ISAF



John just raced the F16 at the Carnac regatta and came in 12 th in the open fleet consisting of some 64 boats. I can't really tell how it held up to its reating coz they didn't list the boattypes or handicaps.



This is still to little data to base any final conclusion but it looks like the ratings are pretty close to the extual performance. At least these results don't point at any discrepensacy between the two.



I'm sure that we'll don't see any combined nationals or cup races. The F18 group is too large and selfsufficient for that. However, I do see (and is already happening) that F16's and F18's will start together and race eachother on elapsed time in regatta's, distant races and (maybe more importantly) club races.



And why wouldn't the clubs do this ? The ratings are the same and the little boats have shown to give the big boys a good run around the course already (Geert, John UKcra and John Carnac)



Personally I hope to see some friendly rivalry between the F18's and the F16's. The F16's would be the perfect alternative to light crews who feel that can't keep up with the over 150 kg's in the F18 class and the younger (youth) sailors who might consider the F18 to much of a handfull.



In 1-up mode we have less data , but that will change in the future I think.



Wouter

I notice that Yves Loday came 2nd in the open class at Carnac - was he sailng a Spitfire?

The spirtfire I know of Neill Mangan finished up at 31 out of 62.



Wouter