F16 cat

Gilo,

It might be worth taking a trip to Zandvoort to see several F16s that are based there. They have Taipan 4.9, Stealth and Blade F16s.

Also, go to www.formula16.org which is the official class website. This has a brief description of each of the F16 designs currently available and contact details for the builders.

The Spitfire is a really sweet boat, but primarily it's a one design class that happens to be close to fitting the F16 formula. As a result it has been offered 'grandfather' status within the class. This means that a Spitfire can race with the F16s although it is not a true F16 (it is heavier, has too large a sail area etc.). There will eventually come a time when it will be inelegible for F16 racing.

Are you thinking of buying a new or used boat? Bear in mind that there aren't very many used boats around at present, but I believe there is a Stealth F16 in Holland that is for sale.

Gilo,

If a Spitfire is competitive then any F16 is more than competitive. I don't know where you'd find results of Spitfire against F16, but from experience the two are very evenly matched although the F16 is rated faster. I suspect that there is a lot more to come from the F16 platform than has so far been found....

My own Stealth has T-foils and there has been much discussion about the pros/cons on the Catsailor forums - www.catsailor.com

If you do a search for T-foil you should find several good threads. The short answer though; no, they don't seem to slow you down at all (well maybe in really light winds >5mph), in fact they speed you up - in heavy wave conditions they keep the boat level upwind so no pitching, and downwind they keep the bows up so strongly that you can power much harder than you'd believe possible.

All the F16s sail well one or two-up. It is, after all, the central benefit of the class (a Spitfire isn't competitive one-up) and all the deigns handle both modes very well. I'm probably slightly more competitive two up, but that's just me .

Formula classes are undoubtedly the way forward, and of those, only the F16 can offer an ultra light platform that can be sailed one or two-up! Price wise, they also give an incredible amount of 'bang for your buck'!

The Blade and Taipan, like all F16s are regularly sailed 2-up.  Matt McDonald came second overall sailing 2-up on a Blade F16 in the Harken distance series last year in the US.