May I make a wild statement ? You were driving Brett, right ? I think you were able to get that rig trimmed properly and that caused your results. I have no idea on how good an A-cat sailor you are, but in my experience the A-cat sailors take to the F16 superwing masts much better then sailors coming of other boats. The A sailors understand the rig and they are sailing with a very comparable mast setup on their A's.

I found on my own boat that the right rig trim is everything. The difference between a good trim and a mediocre trim can be quite big when looking at the achieved speed. I feel that such a thing can easily overcome problems like you had with your rudders or even by being boardless.

Congratulations with this first shake-down of the G-cat F16 to you and Hans. Indeed, this craft allowing "easy family type sailing without boards and still compete with the Blade benchmark for the F16 class" can be a very attractive design.

Regards,

Wouter