If all the manufacturers make boats at 120kgs then only boats can be purchased at 120kgs and therefore the manufacturers control the vote.
I guess I don't understand this logic. Class rules state a minimum weight of 107kg; therefore boat manufacturers are okay to build any product they beleive is sellable and marketable regardless of weight (albeit it must be > 107kg).
Using your logic if all boat manufacturers built boats at 107kg then only 107kg boats would be sold ... but that's not consistent with Class Rules. I believe, all manufacturers of F16's today are in compliant with Class Rules
AHPC set out and marketed their boats well, they had top class sailors win events, they discounted and made sure their boats were seen at events. They gave good backup and had a good design, albeit probably 20 kgs over weight. They had good manufacturing processes in a cheap labour environment, they took the marketing of there boats seriously and because of that they are now the dominating manufacturer.
I say well done, you deserve to be top dog and now you can dictate to what should be a long running class. Every other manufacturer out there dithered about or didn't have the budget to really push their products and thus lost the marketing campaign.
I'll give AHPC (and their distributors) all the praises for executing on a sound business plan. They're building and marketing a boat that fits the F16 Class Rules.
However, I don't think it reasonable that we make a major modification of Class Rules because a Manufacturer should be able to "dictate to what should be a long running class".
I think most of us had parents that encouraged us to participate in sports, theater, music, academics and to try as hard as we can to be the best that we can WITHIN THE RULES--NOT CHANGE THEM to fit our strengths.
Is there a valid reason to change our rules other than "top dog and now you can dictate to what should be a long running class"?
Maybe every years winner of the F16 Worlds should be able to make rule changes ... clearly they are the Top Dog.
If the class was to vote I would actually vote to increase the weight further to about 130kgs, its at this point the F16's suddenly start to become competitive in SCHRS and Texel handicap systems. At this weight the performance is not lost on handicap and it gives good margins on build durability.
From the Formula 16 HomePage:
The F16 is designed to sail equally well 1-up and 2-up, and what's more both configurations race each other on elapsed time.
"....race each other on elapsed time."
When did we care about SCHRS and Texel ratings?
Shouldn't we be building this Class for the benefit of the F16 sailors to race against each other.
Are there really regattas that a fleet of F16 show up and they don't race 1st across wins?
The ironic thing is that if the weight is increased to 125kgs, it will have the opposite effect to what the manufacturers hope, that of sealing off the market to just 1 or 2 suppliers. At 125 kgs the likes of Hobie and others will all have boats on the water within 12 months, afterall all they have to build is hulls and use components from within their own range for ancillaries such as boards and masts. Cheap cheap development and a no brainer to at least be part of a probably the biggest growing market in small cat sailing.
I say again, if we're part of "the biggest growing market in small cat sailing", what benefit does the weight addition really provide for us ... the sailors or the Class?
