Mark,

Having sailed against a very competitive F18 at Grafham a few times (BUT I was just on the boat so I was making loads of mistakes) I would say the following

1, Light winds the F16 is faster all around the course; this was also shown at the Datcht training weekend when we were sailing around with a couple of guys on a Tiger and I was just just about staying in front of them most of the time.

2, Medium winds Both boats have comparable speeds upwind and the F16 single handed is faster downwind, but they can tack and gybe quicker. The age old problem that the single hander runs out of hands and I was new to the boat. Thus, I need to get better "around the boat".

3, Strong wind. I was making more mistakes, but I could almost stay with them upwind (Max DH, traveller out about 18 inches, plates up about 18 inches) but they were faster downwind as I was not wiring - again more practice in the boat to be able to wire in more wind downhill.

I believe we should still be aiming to be in touch with F18's and "beat them on our day". We will struggle as there is a very great depth of talent in the UK/world F18 fleet. If you were to put yourself into the F18 fleet, where would you put yourself ? Top 20 maybe at the worlds, I bet no 20 is 300+ yards or 30 to 60 seconds behing the winners at the end of a 1 hour race.