Thank you, Steve and Wouter. The difference between dispensated and grandfathered is still a little fuzzy, and the respective rules could be made a little more clear to reflect the way Wouter explained them. And as you saw, even Steve misunderstood those rules.

And, Steve, we DO have a spinnaker for the Taipan 4.9. Dave White (Rick's son) used it when he won the U.S. F16 Nationals.

The reason Rick wants to use the Hooter when he singlehands is because, how shall I say this, it has been a long time since his birth, and he is not as agile as he used to be and has various physical problems. It is just much easier for him to use a Hooter. And if I sail with him sloop-rigged, I probably would not have the agility or strength to use the spinnaker, either. It's a heck of a lot easier to furl than to snuff.

In fact, one of the factors that helped Dave to win the Nationals was that his team had much faster spinnaker sets and take-downs as the regatta wore on, because female crews on other boats were getting too tired from the raising, snuffing process. Dave did not have a snuffer and launched the spinnaker from the deck, which was easier on his crew as well as being faster. (And easier on the spinnaker, too, I might add.)

As I have said before, I think a Hooter-type, furling headsail will attract more old folks and women and kids to the class.

Now, Wouter, you said the Hooter-type sail is supposedly faster than the spinnaker. What are you basing that on? I have seen no evidence of this. Has this been tested anywhere? If anything, I would think the opposite would be true. The purpose for using it is ease of handling, not speed.

Hopefully, Rick will get a chance to race against some other F-16's once in a while to get an idea of the difference.

In the meantime, maybe you need a rule that says dispensated boats using reachers cannot use them upwind. Of course, that would also probably require a corresponding rule that prevents people from using their spinnakers above a certain point of sail, even if the sail is cut flat enough to do so. It would not be fair unless all the boats are using their big headsails only on the same parts of the race course.