In the world of F16 sailing there are a lot of choices. There are many great boat builders that have tremendous designs and intriguing use of the simple box rule of this development class. The sails, the blades, the spars and even the tramps and the way they are attached all make a difference as the manufacturers battle against each other to develop the fastest and most accessible boat around the globe!
When I started sailing multihulls just about a year and a half ago I went to a training camp in Clearwater, Florida run by Robbie Daniels and Red Gear Racing. Robbie is the US Importer of AHPC boats and so my first exposure to cats was on a Viper. While this certainly influenced my decision on what boat to buy, I have to tell you that I just purchased a new Viper (my 2nd) so that is a statement that I am happy with what I have experienced 
AHPC has designed the Viper to be a stiff and strong boat all around with just enough room in their design to allow me to customize the boat to fit my sailing style. Just as importantly, their boats are the perfect combination of weight and strength, so I can sail with confidence in big fleets where there will probably be a few port-tackers not looking in front of themselves (I am not mentioning anyone in particular)!
Sailing my Viper, I can compete with the F18’s here in North America and not be too far behind the pack. In a sailing community where there are often not too many 16’s that come out to play at competitive regattas it is nice to know I can still keep up with everyone!
In planning my summer sailing, I am thrilled to see that I can travel to Europe to sail in some top level F16 events (like Worlds this July) but I can augment my schedule to sail in many exclusive Viper events to help me get ready for worlds! While I would love to see many more people sailing Viper’s here in the USA, it would be great to have more and more F16 sailors show up at events to compete and enjoy the companionship of fellow sailors.
I am excited that at Orange Bowl this past December several youth sailors from the USA came up to me to talk about Multihulls and to ask if there were some weekends that they could come try the boat out with me. Emmett, Sophia, Lucy, Nic and Josie will all soon find out how addictive it is to be flying across the water at 20+ knots. It is a sign that there are some exciting things coming down the road for Multihull sailors in America and I am hoping to be sailing along side all of these amazing athletes in the near future.
This fall I am planning on spending some time in Australia to do some training and hopefully spend some time with the Gregg and Brett Goodall (the designers/builders of AHPC boats) to better learn how I can tweak a little more speed out of my boat and then hopefully beat them at the Aussie National Championships!
That photo above was taken of me in the Gulf of Mexico while sailing in from the US Sailing qualifier for the 2013 Youth World Champs. I had just realized that I made the US Sailing Development Team and my partner (Taylor Reiss) decided to “fly” home like Superman while I kept him as dry as possible!
