Ad,
- We want to sail a fast, exiting and challenging cat, which is competitive (rating wise) – F16 meets this?
- We are not familiar with the class (but maybe we will be at the Zandvoort event next year); is it at least as exiting as the latest generation F18?
What makes up "exiting" ? The F18 class is extremely large at this time while we are not, that makes the F18 exiting. But in the way of handling the F16's react faster to changes in trim and steering, that makes the F16 exiting.
Different people value different aspects of a class and therefor will call different things exiting.
I can assure you however that in the way of sailing the newest F18's are not more exiting then F16's. Afterall all the new gadgets on the F18 like wingmasts, proper rudder boards etc have been featured on the F16's since the begining. In those aspects the F18 is only catching up with us at this time. But "catching up" is definately the right describtion as the difference between the two makes is indeed getting smaller with Nacra going for a wingmast and Hobie getting new rudders etc.
- Is it as competitive as has been claimed (e.g. I could not find a F16 which finished in the top of the Open Class in this year’s Round Texel and Tiengemeten)? It would help if the class can point at some compelling examples (in my neighbourhood / the Netherlands)
None of us did Texel this year I think. Personally I don't go because I find it to be too expensive for what you get and I dislike the risks of some dummy parking his boat on top of your boat in the surf.
Rond Tiengemeente, well I was at a right good spot, racing Dirk Zwitser on his FX-one who ended up at 55th place in a 182 boat fleet. However I capized my boat a short while after rounding the halveway mark. I had been leading the F16 (and also leading the FX-one etc) for most of that first leg. The final F16 winner (Bard and Lonneke on Stealth F16) had just passed me and was right in front of me. I was sailing singlehanded.
As you say neither turned out to be a promofest for the F16's this year. But I want to say this about it. People expect us, a rather smaller fleet with average sailors at this time, to make convincing results against a huge fleet (over 71 boats if F18's) with all the "who is who" sailing in it. That is a pretty tall order. Without attracting a world class sailor to the F16 class I don't think we are going to achieve that.
This doesn't mean however that the boat is not up to it, that it isn't competitive. At this time it is definately the skill level of the crews, my skill level definately included. As sailors on Spitfire have done very well in the past and a very skilled Australian crew has done well at the Westland cup in 2004 as well.
Afterall look at what the guys need to do with the Nacra Infusion to get high place scoring ?
But after all is said and done the Texel rating puts us F16's at 100 (1-up) and 102 (2-up) and so it thinks we are fast enough compared to the F18's and such. In club races, = my skill level, I found that those ratings are justified. I would loved to have hung on to Christa and have proven that even in larger open regatta's this rating is justified but it was not to be ... ... Right now it is my own skill level that is insufficient to make a big mark in open class racing although I'm pretty proud that I was racing (leading) Dirk Zwitser for 70 minutes during this years Ronde Tiengemeente.
- Small fleet, while the F18 offers us lots of opportunity to sail in larger fleets, even at club event level (Muiderzand) and compare notes with fellow class sailors.
The same argument was (is) used by Hobie 16 sailors and yet 12 years ago the non-existant F18 class arrived in NL and grew and grew.
F16 is a new class and as such it needs to grow from "no-boats" to "many boat" over a span of quite a few years.
- Also (?) it seems like that F16 fleet is split up into two sub-fleets (1 / 2-up)?
We race together on a single start and scoring and quite a few race in both modes. With F16 it is not 1-up OR 2-up but rathr 1-up AND 2-up. Actually I've found this personally to be more enjoyable then I expected it to be when we decided to go that way. It is really great not having to worry about the crew blues.
- Risks regarding all-in costs, while I expect a full Carbon specs not to be much cheaper than a F18 (Carbon rig Blade goes for Euro 16.5 thousand), how well will the resell value of a F16 hold up?
It does dependent on where you order your carbon F16. Stealth offers a carbon mast standard on all their boats and they are the most inexpensive of all F16's. For 14.000 Euro you'll own a very nice Stealth F16 with carbon mast and carbon boom and spi pole as well as carbon reinforcements in the hulls. The Blade F16 with carbon mast is indeed significantly more expensive. But both are still waaaay cheaper then a plain glass/alu F18. We are doing something right here I say.
Resale value of the F16's, I don't think second hand F16's took long to get sold on to a new owner. I know of two exceptions to this rule where 1 of those boats is waaaay overpriced for its age.
I think it is much harder trying to sell on nacra I-17's and those kind of boats. Of course selling F18's and Hobie 16's is really easy but I really do think that F16's do come in 3rd spot in that listing nevertheless. So the resale value and ease are pretty good for F16's. At this time there is still more demand for secondhand boats then there are on offer.
Personally I would seriously consider an alu/kevlar F16 at this time as that is the most price attractive option for now. 14.000 Euro will get anyone an excellent boat that way and it will be in the range where resale value will be very attractive to the market after two years time.
But the best advice that can be given is to test a F16 yourself and see for yourself whether it is worth taking the risk to buy a boat in a emerging class. Zandvoort seems like an excellent place for that as it appears all new makes will be there. AHPC new Viper F16, Aus build Blade F16, US build Blade F16, Stealth F16 and some golden oldies like the Taipan F16 and quite a few homebuilds. Hopefully we can persuade Bimare to come with their (full compliant) F16 as well.
Regards,
Wouter