Hi all,

I think, like a lot of you, that - for Europe - the mentioned countries will be very important to the future of the F16.

I've been active on the French “catsailor” and I must say there is interest in the F16 class.
Of course the 1.040 rating ‘class’ is also active. For the first time there even is a national championship for the 1.040 rating (the week after the Carnac regatta at 50km from Carnac, Lorient).
The ‘class’ is also backed-up by some big and/or close-by manufacturers or distributors (Hobie, Nacra, Mattia, Cirrus, Spitfire, …).

A first step to penetrate this market would be a French section on the .org site. (Kathleen is working on this at the moment).

Next to that I think the Carnac regatta will be interesting too.

But if the class really wants to penetrate this market the builders will have to look for companies willing to sell their brand in France and the other countries listed. Right now, all of the 1.040 rated cats are very well represented in France so why would anyone in France take the risk to order a cat that has its support thousands of kilometers away?

Next to that it could also be interesting to know which 1.040 designs are F16 compliant. I don’t know if that list exists or if anyone is willing to check this out?
That way we could promote our UK Global Challenge in France by targeting those groups. Manufactures like Cirrus or Hobie could get ears and maybe check it out…. (I guess they will only be interested if they see that the attendance list is big enough).
The risk is of course that the Boulogne brothers show up and win on their Cirrus on elapsed time…

Regards,
Gill