Dear F16 Sailors,

Last year was one full of high and lows. We had a great series of events showing growth on the other
hand we face the fact that the N17 and N15 are having an impact on our class as well. The olympic multihull business still eats away parts of the F16 fleet, but on the other hand, the class may be lucky that professional sailors don’t jump on it these days. Outside the olympic circuit, the N17 class seems to be dead. Also in some countries the N15 has been chosen as youth class instead of the F16. But there we see great synergies between both classes hosting regatta’s together. The U.S: fleet is working on another combined event in 2018 as well. We are also convinced that after the N15 only few will progress to the N17 and we can expect many to enter the F16 or F18 class depending on weight. So let’s enjoy what we have: one of the best, most versatile and fastest sailboat classes worldwide, being affordable and serving sailors from kids to seniors.

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Four of the top five spots at the event recently completed in Clearwater, Florida were captured by
teams tipping the half century mark at both helm and typically crew. After three consecutive 4-race
days in double trapeze conditions, the team of Robbie Daniel (Florida) and Gary Chu (Wisconsin) came
out on top with six bullets and no other finish lower than a three. Second Place was captured by
husband and wife team, Matt and Gina McDonald (Florida), with impressive throws of just a three and a
four. Defending Champions, and the only Top Five team without gray hair on board, were youth team,
Mark Brunsvold and Dylan Heinz (Florida) finishing in Third. The single-handed Champion was Ken
Marshack (Washington).
Embracing the importance of attracting more youth to catamaran sailing, the Formula 16 Fleet invited
the Nacra 15s to participate in the event. The two fleets shared a single start, amounting to 23 boats on
the line. The youth teams sailed exceptionally well, gathering valuable bigger fleet experience.
Matthew Monts (South Carolina) and Carlyn Blauvelt (Georgia) claimed First Place in the N15 Fleet.
Great sportsmanship was displayed by all sailors throughout the event, as evidenced by the fact that the
Protest Committee was not called upon a single time throughout the week. The Race Committee also
conducted a flawless event, much appreciated by all participants. Special thanks go out to lead sponsor,
Red Gear Racing, and to Jill Nickerson for her never-ending support.
At the Class Meeting, which preceded a spectacular dinner, the new leadership team was nominated
and elected. Meeting Minutes will be published at USF16.org soon detailing all agreements.
Plans are also in the works for a 2018 Championship. The leadership team expects to make an official
announcement before year-end.

Results Link:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=14935&show_divis
ions=1&show_crew=1

Below you can find the link to the report of the Class meeting during the European event in Morges.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uiouhxvm78jep8m/WGM%20Morges%20F16%202017.pdf?dl=0

What a great event! The class keeps growing and the events keep getting better!

First a big thank you to the Voile Libre Morges (VLM) for the super professional organisation, especially in the challenging conditions of Lac Leman. Below a short report of the week.

Sunday we had 2 practice race in light 6 to max 8 knots. At the evening the welcome dinner was at the castle nearby which was a great setting and good food.

The 43 boats (46 subscribed but couldn’t participate) stayed on shore on Monday as there was no wind. A good call of the race committee not to make us wait on the water. They really adapt to the F16 needs to find a balance of getting as much as possible racing but keeping a true holiday spirit.

On Tuesday we waited on shore again in the morning and got 4 races in 6 to 8 knots again. Fairly stable winds so great racing (if you like the light stuff). The usual suspects (Lechapelier and Bague) were up there together with Eric Proust, sailing with his son. Swiss champion Andi Lutz managed good races and some lesser ones as the starting line was quite short making it extra challenging. But results showed mixed, youths, masters are all in the mix in this class.

Wednesday we got 4 races again in stronger winds (18/20 knots going down to 14 knots). The Dutch teams climbed up the ranking in these conditions.
Unbelievable how quickly the wind and wave conditions can change in Morges.

On Thursday the fleet, including all female teams and 4 solo sailors, had an early morning start at 9h30 as the wind was expected to die towards the afternoon. We managed 4 races in somewhat more unstable wind direction conditions. The race committee managed them pretty well, but racing was definitely more difficult than on the first days of racing where the direction throughout the race was much more stable.

Finally on Friday one last race was sailed to conclude the championship.

https://www.facebook.com/voilelibremorges/videos/1119905934820440/

In the end the results of the final days were in line with the first days and so the top teams managed to read the wind and get in the top spots again.

I can’t stress enough how great the hospitality of this club and organisation was. A great social programme and in the end a good series of races that pleased the racers and the weekend warriors.

A big thanks as well to the 2 Australian teams that made it over: FRA83 Jack Felsenthal/Shaun Connor – Bimare F16 and BEL101 Jake Liddell/Emma Jones – Falcon F16

As the F16 is all about diversity there were different prizes to be given.

First solo: Geert Ruesink – NED789 – 29th overall – Falcon F16
First female team: Anna Kroon/Doortje Hörst – NED11 – 16th overall – Nacra F16
First youth (both under 20): Guillaume Rol/Alexis Mégevand – SUI22 – 7th overall – Bimare F16
First master (over 100): Andreas Lutz/Andrea Lutz – SUI10 – 6th overall – Falcon F16
First mixed: Pierre Boublin/Rose Dorange – FRA68 – 5th overall – Viper F16

Top 3:
1. Emmanuel Le Chapelier/Eric Le Bouëdec – FRA89 – Bimare F16
2. Thomas Proust (youngest sailor)/Eric Proust – FRA17 – Viper F16
3. Alec Bagué/Stijn Vandaele – BEL202 – Viper F16

For next year Holland was chosen as location for the Europeans, again 3rd week of July. But first the worlds in Australia ofcourse! Contact Gill De Bruyne for more information about container shipment from Europe for this event: gill.debruyne@gmail.com
If the US does not manage a container some additional boats could be shipped from Europe.
Below a selection of pictures (credits to D. Carlier and Guillaume Fisher). The full result list and all pictues can be found here: http://www.f16europeans2017.ch/

Gill

Wanna race in Melbourne?

Here are some options:
Charter a boat. But as we will have very few boats available, quickly contact Gavin on
gavin@rietmans.com.au
Find a crew or helm: contact Gavin as well
Buy a 2018 Viper: Goodall design has offered to hand over Vipers to European customers at the
Worlds and take care of shipping them to Europe afterwards.
Ship your own boat: Go to Bordeaux in November, race at the GPA on the Lac du Maubuission, store
the boat in the container provided nearby, receive it in Melbourne and have it ready to sail again in
Europe in March. For this option, please contact Stéphane Etienne directly. We need 10 final
commitments by the end of August.
See you on the racecourse at the Worlds 2018!

From 28th of May untill 2nd of June 9 teams attended the F16 spring meeting in Domaso, lago di Como.
This 3rd edition of this type of event builds on the previous successes with a mix of leisure sailing and training on sunfilled lake of Como.
For this edition teams from Belgium, Germany and Switzerland attended.

It was a good representation of what the class is about. Mostly mixed teams, 2 all male teams and a father and son took part. With winds ranging from 10 knots in the morning to 18+ in the afternoon there was a wide, sometimes challanging, range of sailing conditions.

During the week Silvia Sicouri, fifth at the Rio Olympic games in Nacra 17, trained the teams for 3 days. What a great coach she is! The programme consisted out of morning briefing, on the water training and than a video debrief at the end of each day. A huge amount of info and tips to get everyone confident on the boat in any condition.

Nothing but happy faces at the end of the week thanks to the good atmosphere and great training. For sure we will organise a similar event next year, so keep your eyes open!

Dear Formula 16 sailors and friends,
another year has passed and yes the class is alive and growing. Not an easy task to perform as competition within the sailing world is still growing and everybody wants to pick up the kids leaving the Optimists. In 2016 we have seen quite a lot of new boats on the market. And while most builders still dream the one design dream where solid monopolies secure solid earnings, the F16 class this year presented seven different brands and numerous suppliers to choose from. With activities in Canada and Russia, the F16 community has entered two more countries. And we are proud to have the Swiss RACES organisation taking care of the F16 sailing in Switzerland.

This year saw a lot of racing activities. Thank’s to the National Class National Championships were organized wordwide. Australia started in European Spring with Jack Felthensal and
Shaun Connor winning the title. In May the French Nationals were held in the famous spot of Hyères with Emmanuel le Chapelier and Theo Constance managing best. Germany and the Netherlands followed in September with Katrin Santiago and Thomas Koenig finishing first at the German Nationals. With Henri Demesmaeker and Isaureen Mannaert first the Dutch title went to a team from Belgium. Those two grabbed the National title in Belgium as well. Andi and Andrea Lutz won the Swiss Nationals.

The famous resort of Knokke saw the 2016 F16 Worlds. One of the biggest European catamran sailing clubs, the RSBC organized an event, that again provided warm sun and fun in Northern Europe. With more 45 boats from eight countries registered, it was the biggest F16 event ever. . And again the F16 fleet covered sailors from eleven years up to the age of 63. Exept for the Hobie 16 no other catamaran class has managed that so far. Australia sent three teams managing the challenging conditions with big winds, waves and currents very spectacular But knowing the venue best, it was Henri Demesmaeker with Alec Bague outclassing everybody else in the fleet. Thank’s again to Jasper van Staveren for the awesome series of photographs about this event.

Next to racing, the class updated the class rules within the regular five year period. The must have in 2016 was foiling. Big monohulls and small dinghis, the AC and Extreme Series, the British Whisper, the Flying Phantom and the S9: floating seems to be out of fashion. But a closer look draws a different picture: those boats are expensive, they ask for additional skills from helm and crew and they rquire stable winds in order to fly. And apart from the Moths racing in uniform fleets is still the big exeption. The Class Officers are watching those developments very closely. But at present, we believe that foiling at this stage of develpoment does comply with our core values. And these still are: having fun on the water, taking friends, the beloved or the kids along and boats that are safe, affordable and easy-to-sail.

At the WGM in Knokke, foiling of course was an issue. If the builders can agree on a reasonably framework, we plan to launch a new class called F16-f, sharing the racecourse with the floating boats. But for the reasons mentioned above foiling was not on our agenda when changing the class rules in 2016. We are still awaiting WS approval, but the main changes were lifting the minimum weigth and limiting sail head and daggerboard length. Now the minimum weight for singlehanded sailing will be 119kg, the minimum sloop weight will be 123kg. Next to that, we changed a couple of minor issues in order to improve the measurement process and we skipped some rules not beeing necessary any more. All changes proposed serve our core value of making things as easy as possible whilst preventing soaring production costs.

Besides discussing the changes of class rules, the election of the executive commitee was on the WGM Agenda as well. All officers were reelected and the management team will be serving the class at least another year.
As our constitition requires a ballot for changing the class rules we filed the proposals after the WGM and then asked the National officers to circle the ballot. Exept for minor topics the changes proposed were accepted by a 2/3 majority of the sailors having voted. As soon as we have WS clearance, the new rules will be published in detail.

In 2017 Switzerland for the first time will host a European Championship in Morges at the shores of Lake Geneva. Next to that F16 sailors will be able to attend lots of events in Europe, the U.S.A. and Australia. We will offer clinics, Championships, fun events and long distance races. As the boats have similar performance the German F16 Class and the German F18 Class will continue their close cooperation. We will watch the technical develpoments and it looks as if we will see a couple of foiling 16 foot catamarans in 2017.

One of the most important projects for the Class Associaton will be preparing the 2018 Worlds in Melbourne. As this event will be held in January, boats from overseas should be shipped in October at the latest. Therefore the Class is working on „boarding events“ to finish the sailing season and have the container on site.
Have fun in 2017 and stay tuned on www.formula16.net and fb.

Royal Brighton Yacht Club, in conjunction with Elwood Sailing Club and the Australian F16 Class, will host the Formula 16 World Championships in January 2018.

The F16 classes are very active in Australia and there are strong fleets in Europe and around the globe. It is expected that the 2018 Worlds fleet will comprise approximately 65 entries including Viper, Taipan 4.9, Mosquito and other classes.

RBYC was selected to host venue for this important event for a variety of reasons. Brighton’s depth of experience with event and race management is further strengthened by partnering with their neighbouring catamaran club at Elwood.

“We are very excited to see the F16 Worlds held in Australia”, said F16 Australian President Simon Dubbin.

“There has already been strong interest from F16 sailors overseas and Melbourne is a great place to host the championship. Conditions in the racing area are typically perfect for the F16 and RBYC will be a great venue”, he said.

There is ample boat storage and a modern clubhouse with outstanding social facilities at Brighton. Substantial renovations are now underway, designed to make RBYC the perfect venue for major “off the beach” championship regattas.

Within a few minutes of the beach and marina, the sailing waters of Port Phillip are up there with the very best in the world. January has regular southerly sea breezes, with most days seeing light winds in the morning building to moderate to fresh in the afternoon. The race areas are clear of commercial shipping and there is minimal tide.

The club is located 12km from the Melbourne CBD and 5km from St Kilda where there are a wide variety of accommodation types available. Melbourne is one of the world’s most vibrant cities right and known as the Major Events Capital of Australia, hosting a range of sporting and cultural events. There is plenty to do and see in and around Melbourne, and wineries, Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas and Phillip Island are all within a day tour. The International Airport is just 36km away. Middle Brighton Station is a 1.5km walk.

For more information about the 2018 F16 Worlds, visit the event webpage – http://www.rbyc.org.au/sailing/regattas/f16-world-championships

The F16 class will be present on the Paris boatshow from 5 till 13th of December! Come and visit us!

More information here: https://sites.google.com/site/assofrf16/actuality/laformule16sinviteaunauticparis2015

20th to 24th of July the 2015 F16 Europeans are hosted by Circolo nautico Cesinatico in Italy and the event promises to be best ever organised in Europe.