I have just read an email from Chris Sproat that I thought you might be interested in.

We have just won the Weston Cat Open which incorporated the UK Nacra Nationals. This was 57 boat mixed fleet start including most of the UK F18's. There were five races (one discard) and we won with 7 points, including one race won over the water!

The conditions were flat water with wind strength from force 2 - 4. Upwind we could match the F18s for height and speed. Down wind the F18 was marginally faster in the lighter conditions but not when the wind strength increased.

There were significant gusts in the wind which seemed to suit us.

I think we have made an impression by stealing the Nacra thunder. Bloody marvelous long may it last.

Full results can be found here

http://www.weston.org.uk/site/news/archive/2009/Catamarans_2009OpenNov.htm


Very well done by Chris Sproat and Georgina Burke indeed.

I guess this is what the F16 class needed. The best of boat design, sailor skills, regular training and an active cat sailing scene coming together in order to show what "it" can do in a respected fleet.

Marvelous !

Wouter

I'm not sure this did anything for the F16 class in the UK; it was sailed as a Viper and off the 104 handicap, had it sailed as a F16 I do not believe it would have won the event. Fantastic performance from a 16ft boat though and it does look great.

What was the difference between a Viper and a F16 Viper?

None. But the Viper is heavier than the minimum weight for a F16, hence its rate.

About 20 kilos in weight, has anyone measured the Viper yet ? as I beleive the one that originally came to the UK was a pre production heavy weight, still to beat the F18's on the handicap Chris used is still pretty impressive.

I wonder how many Spitfire sailors will jump on board the Viper bandwagon now that Chris is doing so well.

It could be 100kgs over min weight and it would still be an F16 if that is the case. Rules dont specify max. weight.

No, but it was sailing off a considerably more generous rating. None the less it takes nothing away from the boats performance or from it's performance at Grafham a few weeks ago when it was leading the many times UK F18 champion over the water until it took a swim!

Ah but by being 20 kilos over Chris can claim the softer handicap of the 104 class.

I have to say maybe we should all do that at mixed competitions. However it should only be considered if the 10 kilos of beer I have consumed trying to keep up with MarkP plus the 10 kilos of extra lard, will be considered in my case as to be boat weight

Not that I am here to stir **** but if you run the results from Weston with the fabled F16 yardstick you will see a different result...

So if a Viper wins the intergalactic challenge this week, maybe you should look at increasing the min weight of the boats as it clearly has no performance advantage and you will benefit from a ratings advantage which in this case has resulted in the best F16 result that I have seen to date.

I'd suggest that if Chris was sailing a fully optimised F16 on the F16 handicap he would have also won the event.

Chris is a feckin good sailor. Simple as that.

The boat has nothing to do with winning the "Intergalactic, Global, Universe, Championship of the all the planets in the whole wide Milky Way" look at the folks driving the Vipers...
John Casey, Gregg Goodall, Robbie Daniels, I bet if you put any of those drivers on a piece of plywood with satin sheets as sails they will beat all of us mortals.

I believe its in the best interest of the class not to go down the entire "that boat is better" road.

Maybe, but also maybe not !

Afterall, the report said ".... including one race won over the water!"

I'm not convinced that Sproat and Burke had much need for the softer handicap.

Of course it does help but I personally feel that a 2nd place score in this fleet would be just as impressive as their overall win. Note that the 3rd place holder is another 7 points further behind (14 points in total). That constitudes some leeway in their advantage.

I think Chris and Georgina did very well in a tough fleet of state-of-the-art catamarans.

Wouter

I know Chris and Georgina and they are great sailors.

My point is that they were sailing a 1.04 boat and not an F16 (as per rating)

If the Viper is quicker than the other F16 boats (as we will see this week in Florida) then why does the class persist with a handicap that is worse than it could be for the same or better on the water performance?

are you saying the the rest of the f16's should add 20 kilos of correctors to get up to 104 handicap and that they will be faster as well??? or not significantly slowed down???

I am still trying to come to terms with Wouter describing a fleet of F18's as "state-of-the-art"

The Viper is clearly the best "F16" boat at the moment and its 20kg heavier than the F16 rule permits as a min.

So if it can win regattas at its design weight of 125kg and its design handicap of 1.04 then I fail to see any advantage in using another F16 design that is slower on the water and has a worse handicap.

It may be possible that if you added 20kg to another design it wouldn't suffer as much in performance as it gains in rating...

And I too had a chuckle at Wouter's little comment at the State of the art F18.... I love them as a class but to call it state of the art is just a little out there!

With regard to the weight issue... How about checking out the weights of the boats at this years global challenge? There are very few boats less than 120kgs.

A couple of the older Taipans are near the weight limit, but the VIPERS, BLADES & FALCON are mostly above the 120kgs!!

As far as weights are concerned I have no idea where they are. I do know the Vipers are indeed heavier. But what makes them the best F16?

That is like saying the Capricorn is better than the Infusion or the Infusion is better than the Wildcat.

If viper wins the GC this week its not the boat, its the people sailing the boat.

Huh? I saw most of the Blades and Falcons weighing in and I didn't see one over 120.

Paul

All the F18' are built to the same weight so its not the same at all.