Hi Kurt,

I'm not entirely sure of where we were picking up the ground (upwind or downwind) as Helen was only taking the times when we were going through the bottom gate mark.

Due to the lighter weight of the F16s (both boats and crews) I guess we power up a lot quicker in the lighter stuff whereas when the wind kicked in we were depowering while the F18s were just coming to their optimum wind range.

Dan has commented on several occasions that with the light weight and high powered rig of the F16 they tend to heel over really quickly with the kites up when a puff hits. Its almost as if they heel over and then start to accelerate. In contrast, the heavier weight of the F18 tends to slow the heeling moment down and the boat accelerates as it heels. But, not having sailed an F18 myself, I can't really say categorically. Plus, the F18s were sailing 5 minutes ahead of us so weren't sailing in the same patch of water unfortunately.

Just as a side note, the top four F16s were 2nd, 7th, 5th and 4th respectively at the recent Taipan Nationals.