I'm just wondering how many people an F16 can carry just for sailing around, reasonably well. We have never done it with our Taipan 4.9, but I wondered whether it would be feasible to take out my daughter and my four young grandchildren. I know I can do it with my Hobie Wave, because I have done it several times.
What do you guys think about using the F16 for this recreational purpose? It should be able to carry more weight than the Hobie 16; right?
If you give weight carrying estimates, please do it in pounds (at least for my benefit). Thanks.
I have sailed my Taipan F16 (121 kg clean) with the 90 kg of myself and about 125 kg of two ladies I took with me. That would make 230 kg of crewweight on a 107 kg minimum weight F16. Say 505 lbs crew weight.
The boat sail surprisingly fast under mainsail alone and on the downwinds the spinnaker was able to get us going at good speed as well. Still the boat was starting to bog down and especially under spinnaker I would have to use all my tricks to get some boatspeed and apparent wind going. Once succesful the spi would start pulling harder and then boat would keep moving at a reasonable speed. There was some decent wind that day 10-14 knots and the ladies were very willing to move about the boat to get the weight balance right.
This is my personal record and the newer F16's like the Blade will indeed carry weight better. Having said all this I would not really consider putting more then 200 kg = 440 lbs on the F16's if I wanted to do some fun recreational sailing. Above 200 kg it will become work to get some good F16 performance out of the craft. Of course that criterium is a @#$* load more performant then the performance a Wave can offer at the same crew weights.
Also a try F16 will feel alot more roomy then the standard Taipan 4.9 which is more narrow and has those jib sheet leads on the trampoline.
Wouter