Here's an interesting comparision table I did primarily for my own curiosity:
F-16 240 300 201 389 0.37 0.72
A-Class 165 165 150 150 0.45 0.45
F-17 320 165 170 337 0.35 0.69
F-18 396 330 228 454 0.31 0.63
F-18HT 285 330 215 430 0.35 0.70
I-20 390 350 246 516 0.33 0.70
M-20 253 330 250 500 0.43 0.86
Tornado 350 330 258 527 0.38 0.78
For each boat listed, column 1 is boat weight, column 2 is average crew weight, column 3 is upwind sail area, column 4 is downwind sail area, column 5 is upwind sail area/combined weight, and column 6 is downwind sail area/combined weight. The ratios are essentially horsepower/weight ratios. While this ignores several factors such as hull shapes, foils, and waterline length I thought it could offer a general indicator of relative performance.
My own personal conclusions (backed up by actual racing) are that upwind the A-cat obviously looks best and I think in under 8-10 knots of wind, it always is. Once the bigger boats start to power up, the Tornado is faster and I would say the M-20 should be faster. The I-20 and the F-18 get closer but the A-cat still has a very noticeable speed edge.
Downwind, the F-16 ratio looks impressive against the bigger boats and that is why I am so interested in its performance. Matt McDonald feels the F-16 sailors are getting better and better and are now really challenging the F-18's boat for boat in combined fleet racing. The numbers above seem to suggest that could be the case and the performance and suitability of the boat to lighter crews hopefully will continue its own niche while not really affecting the F-18 class which is better suited to a bigger crew. The I-17 actually looks pretty good downwind also. It should have a bigger advantage downwind against the A-cat compared to the advantage the A-cat has against it upwind. It begs the question why does the A-cat give the I-17 time on handicap with this upwind/downwind performance comparison. How does the I-17 do boat for boat against an I-20 downwind? On paper it looks faster and I would think its also faster than an F-18.
Am I wrong in this evaluation, what am I missing in the conclusions above? Fun stuff to play with.
Bob Hodges
