F14 results at "Sauna Sail" June 06

[Darryl J Barrett]

Follow the link below for the results of the “Sauna Sail” held in the Latrobe Valley in Vic’ over the long weekend in June.

The first three races were the only races that we competed in, and the third was a real "bummer" for us for several reasons (read report earlier posted). Check out the elapsed times for the first two races and count the cats "across the line" behind the F14 Alpha Omega. In the results they list the F14 Alpha as Alpha Omega 4.3 with spinn’ named "lone Wolf

www.topyachtsoftware.com/results/2006/saunasail/series.htm

The results should give anyone thinking about a "high performance" 14' cat, an idea of just what sort of potential is available when it comes to competing head to head with EVERY other size of "off the beach cat”. What I can't understand is why would anyone want to buy any cat that doesn't accommodate the current available technologies and design parameters that obviously optimise the performance potential available right now. There seems almost to be a “wall” of resistance against obvious improvements.

When a 14’ cat can go out and regularly beat cats of much larger dimensions, power, and cost, (not to mention weight, or lack of it with the A class – which we beat all three of), ACROSS THE LINE, it should say something, right. I mean to say, Berny did it 5 or 6 years ago with his 430 in its non spinnaker form by stepping up to an entirely higher performance than any of the other 14’ cats (and not just a few larger ones as well) that he raced against, and now with the spinnaker he has the potential as an F14 to “mix it with the big boys” on an equal basis. What the performance of an F14 says to me mostly is that there is still an awful lot of performance improvement available in the designs of all the larger classes of cats racing today that we are just not seeing in the current designs.