I use to live in the Bay area and was sailing my hobie 16 in the bay (from redwood city), in the ocean (from Santa-Cruz launch ramp) and in a reservoir in the mountain in between when sailing solo.
Would you sell an f16 to a noob cat sailor that has never raced, flown a spi etc, or even crewed on a high performance beach cat, and feel good about it in the aforementioned conditions?
F16 have a lot of sail area, but it is relatively easy to depower them. However a noob sailor in 20knots of wind will have some tough time whatever cat they pick. Maybe sailing a F16 2-up without the jib at the beginning could be a path to controlling the beast.
Would the boat hold up to the conditions here?
No question about it. I've seen F16 out in 25knots, no problem.
Would you store your F16 on the beach?
I wouln't recommend storing any fiberglass boat on a beach. Period. Get a rotomoulded one instead. Note that I would not recommend launching from the beach in Santa Cruz with any boat with a daggerboard either, the water is shallow and you can't make way, pick speed or tack without the boards down. Tacking out of the channel is not fun, but easier to do with a F16 when compared with a H16.
Would you compare the rigging time to any of the other spi boats, Tiger, FX, Infusion etc? How long (realistically)?
Exactly the same, faster if you are solo (no jib). The hardware is really similar to anything you see on a F18.
Monetarily speaking, should I pony up and support this class on the West Coast?
Please do. When people want something faster than a H16, but don't want something as heavy as a F18 (or requiring a crew all the time) the F16 shines. As a Solo boat it is way better than a H16 (hey, you can still tack if you take the jib down <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />, and lighter than a FX-one.
