Wouter: "Personalities differ between sailors and so to the boat types that will give them the most enjoyment."

I fully agree with you on that, you caught me by surprise with that statement as so far I lacked to see that attitude in posts where you seemed to attack other people for sailing (& loving) those boats they do. I just think about your comments to some F18 sailors here and can't get rid of the feeling you try to persuade anyone to get into the F16 too ;-)


Zee:
The advantage of the F16 is also it's biggest weakness: it's neither nor! Any boat which will allow to adapt between singlehanded and crewed sailing will face downsides and that is where a basic decision has to be made.

If someone wants this flexibility there are not many boats around offering this and than the F16 is surely one of the best choices I would think about.

If someone is purely interested in sailing singlehanded, competitive in a well established class with a lightweight boat, fast to sail, fast to setup, easy to righten oneself. etc.., the choice might end up different. So it will be if two heavy sailors search for the best boat to answer their needs. Boats are different, so are people.

I recently sold my Taipan F16 without any tears because it simply never gave me the satifaction I was used from the A. A carbon mast F16 might be better but unfortunately class rules require a strange minimum weight decreasing the benefits the material could offer. So far the F16 class is just starting to establish herself and evolutiuon and refinement is simply not up to the level like th A class narrowed herself in within the last 15 years. Wouter might call it a lack of innovation but seems to lack to notice the far less visible developments in the mast and sail combinations tested and brought a step forward at the ECs and WCs every year. The F16 still bears all this potential and by time it will be discovered. While not all might be there yet, it might be already now a very attractive boat and the best choice for certain people. Again we agree it won't suit all.

A with spi can be done, has been done and has proofen itself as the boat to beat in certain conditions fo anything else in the market up to 20 ft so far. F16 comes with spi, so just buy and go and surely will be fun. Upwind, if you never sailed an 18ft and 25 kg lighter A, it still will feel fine. :-)

If you are still with the A, you might consider that nearly noone is sailing the A2 or A3 in Europe which is not only related to it's price.

If you are interested in a one off and money is no issue, take a look at an M18 too. Its a wider A with spi and 85 kg overall weight. Might be slightly more difficult to righten oneself. The spi drum sucks but for the rest the Marstroem A might look like the most outdated As but their daggerboards are positioned further forward than nowadays other designs which makes these high volume boats specially suitable for spinnaker sailing. The production quality and value for money I still consider the best of all production As. This might balance the believe that the boats as well as the mast sail combinations are said to be not as competitive as they would like to be.

Wouter, can you surprise me again? Maybe try to ignore this post instead of commenting on each sentence I wrote here today. :-) I already live in a country with a lot of censorship... ;-)