Kudos!

Nice sailing, interesting to see just how the front hull volume on the Blade really does keep the bows down in the water with the kite up compared to say the Viper which sees the bow well out of the water most of the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVylkeQBvvA

I don't think that is all boat design. Two up with one behind the rear cross bar and one at the rear cross bar in 10-14 vs solo at or in front of the rear cross bar in 15-20.
Then you have to consider which is faster, bow up or bow down. The viper has a flat aft section to induce planning where the blade does not and an increased water line may be faster.

Nice sailing by Emile and the Blade. 2-up Blade took line honors in Annapolis to Oxford last year, 30 mile race in breeze gusting 25kts with lots of short steep chop, no monster rollers but most of the N20 fleet spent some time upside down.

What were the other boats chasing the Blade? Didn't see any modern 2-up boats in those conditions...

Play fair you don't gain anything for Blades by sledging other classes, we were all out there, Emile out sailed us by a long way. The biggest problem facing F16's in Aus is the handicap, if you want to win on handicap you would not buy an F16, Emile would have had to trim his time from 60mins to 40mins to win that race which is impossible and I haven't seen him take a big race podium finish on handicap
Here's the link to the reaching thread where I posted my video of myself with my 17yr old daughter of the same race, the date stamp is wrong as I can't turn it off
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=259551&page=2

here's a shot of 3rd,4th and 5th boats Paul Short on A Class, Jeff & Maeve Southall and the Vaughan Brothers on Nacra 5.8's. There were about 30 cats out there only 4 retired, that wasn't an extreme day by Victor Harbour standards. I've sailed there when you can just see top of masts and we've come over a swell to find a rescue boat parked that we didn't know was there and pitchpoled avoiding it.

Jeff I'm not knocking the 20 at all it is my preferred platform for big waves. Just pointing out that in short chop a well sailed F16 is a weapon.

Looks like really fun sailing by all!

No worries Sam, back to the Blades here's a better perspective photo my daughter Maeve took of Darryl Barrett being chased by Emile Barrett at the Rum Race in 2011, wasn't quite as windy but still lumpy.

Results for the Rum race with Blade F16
http://vhyc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Rum-Race-2013-Div-1.pdf
Rum Race video shot from a Hobie 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPLa46sI20U
Darryn
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