Hey Wayne,
I use from the beginning 3 mm as main stay and 2,5 mm as front stays and this is more than enough to absorbe the load ( also in 2 up ) on the A-class i do use 2,5 mm mainstays and 2 mm front stays for about 8 years already and also this is more then enough to have no trouble. You are right that the spinaker kit in front is the biggest problem of drag on the F16, it is enormous and i do try to make a workable solution to get it reduced but not really found a good solution for it yet. In long distance races like Texel it would be better to have the spin in a bag on the trampoline because this saves a lot of drag and you never use the spin as much as in course racing where time of hoisting in more an issue.
Regards,
Hans
http://www.catamaranparts.nlhttp://catamaranparts.blogspot.com
