I have raced F16s and F18s among many other boats. Racing an F16 with a light weight crew is cool and it is light enough for you to move around. However an F16 with a heavy crew weight is not a lot of fun.

On the flip side, two grown adults can easily move an F18 around also and are very comfortable sailing it.

Different markets guys.......

I am not loyal to any class and race what I enjoy. The F16 is a cool boat, as with many other boats such as the Tornado. I could have found myself a light crew and raced F16s but against who. The F18 gave me the fleet racing which is what I wanted.

I am not an expert in the F18 class, however from what I have seen, something that made the F18 the success it is today are all the volunteers, international and local class founders that put in endless hours of work to get the class up and running and keeping it running. They were also assisted by several large catamaran manufactures that put in a lot of work assisting with the creation of the class, marketing the products, conforming to a formula, building the boats to meet levels of demand and distributing around the world.

If the F16 class is to get right off the ground, it will need the support of some of the large cat manufactures to work in the same way as they have with the F18 class. It will be tough though as racing cats are a very small market and the F18 has already snapped up large numbers of members.

Back to the weight issue. The F18 class is what it is and enjoys great racing being one of the most successful sailing classes around at present. Yes the boats can be built much lighter now, but at what cost will implementing it have on the class???? Why jeopardise what the class has worked so hard in achieving. Surely a lighter boat may be a little easier to man handle on land, however you barely notice it with good rollers. On the water, it will make very little difference in speed and the feel of the boat. Is it really worth it.

Lastly, all those who bitch about the weight of the boats…… Who has actually sailed them. I would imagine very few. Before I joined the class, I looked unfavourably at their 180 kg, however after sailing them, it was a non issue. What I did get was some of the best racing I have ever had.