I figure that you were sailing at 230 kg and Geert/Raymond were sailing at 265 kg. Not really the same but also not enough to cause to big inequalities. Afterall you said that it was blowing force 4 (13 - 15 knots) and then weight differences are not too important.




Well personally, in force 4 winds, I wouldn't overrate these things. Especially not on the 2 mtr deep lakes you were sailing. I would expect a singlehanded uni-rig with spi to do rather well here. At least according to my own experience sailing solo in such conditions. Of course by the same reasoning as you give, you yourself will have an advantage by pointing higher upwind and pointing deeper downwind under kite.

Are there inequalities ? Yes I think so, however I also feel that most will cancel one another out when taken over a whole upwind/downwind course. Similar experiences seem to have surfaced at the UK nationals as well. But of course this is all a personal intepretation of the situation and without in depth 1 to 1 testing between F16 and FX-one we won't know for sure.



And having said all this. The rating difference between a two-up F16 and an singlehanded FX-one is (102 to 107) = 5 points = 5 % in time. This in itself is not very big; only 3 minutes per hour racing. Hence we invite FX-one's etc to race first in wins with us and always have done so as sailor skill can overcome this difference relatively easy.

The final placings suggest that you finished a little later than 5% but not too much later. So yes the Texel handicap appears to be validated when going on this Rondje Fluessen race data. No real surprises there. You said :"not enough to upgrade" and I can understand that. It isn't. But when deciding between a F16 and FX-one, when you haven't either one already, then this difference will be sufficient grounds to favour the first.

Actually I think this comparison to be very good fun. Especially since the sailarea's between FX-one and F16 are the same. So too the mast height and the width is only different by 4 % = neglectable. Even the hull length difference is not that big ; waterlength difference = 0.23 mtr (10 inches) = 4.6 %. Real diffences are only the overall weight, the mast section and the hullshapes (when comparing the older Taipan to the new wave-piercer hull of the FX-one).

It will be even more fun to directly compare the Blade F16 and FX-one to one another. Because they share the same modern hullshape leaving only the mast section and overall weight as differences. Even the shape of the mainsails (large squaretops will be very similar then)

But I guess we still have to wait a little while for that.





Darn, for some reason we always seem to miss eachother.

Pampus ? That is under consideration, but very much tentative at this time.

Mystere F16 ? Gee, I haven't seen that boat in real life for about 4 years.


Wouter