FORMULA 16 CLASS
Early in 2001, a small group of sailors felt the Formula 18/20 and the A-cat classes left a part of the sailor community wanting. A need was felt for a design that could be sailed effectively in both singlehanded and doublehanded. Some expressed a concern that an affordable entry into modern spinnaker sailing was missing. Others felt that the existing Formulas could be improved upon, in particular by reducing weight. However lightweight classes had been created before and went without much impact. This time something special had to be done to make the newly born Formula 16 class a stayer.
At the time a group of catamaran sailors from the USA, Australia and the Europe were already experimenting on their own with F16 alike setups. These sailors saw the common ground and joined forces in order to work out the international F16 Formula framework and build up the class. Thus, in the spring of 2001 the F16 class was born and the first draft ruleset was made public in July 2001. The “special character” to make the class a stayer was found some months later. It was discoverd that the F16’s were capable of performing on a level with the A-cats and F18’s in respectively the singlehanded and doublehanded setup. F16’s could race both of them without the need for handicap calculations. Also the two setups of the F16’s can race each other on a first in wins as they are that close in overall performance.
