Formula 16: The Falcon

by Editor · Published January 30, 2009 · Updated May 24, 2019

Brand new design from Vectorworks Sail. Until now they were building and commercializing a Phil Brander´s design, the Blade F16, in the US.

Recently tested at TradeWinds in FL, racing against other F16s and F18s too.

Invariably racing beach cats are converging to a common hull shape: Wave Piercing hulls with added volume, main difference from early wp designs that lacked bow volume and are prone to pitch-poling.

WP designs are reaching a stable and proved evolution point, the Falcon is a good example of that along the Infusion, GelTek MK II and the latest Hobie Wildcat, although this last one has gone a step further with an extremely raked bow, that to my opinion removes too much volume in front.

The perfect double handed WP shape is the evolution of the Capricorn/Blade with these 3 designs mentioned aboved.

We can say the Falcon design is the defacto wave piercing hull now a days.

The Blade was already a refined wp shape, It can´t get better than this.

From the matt McDonald form VW:

The Blade F16 is an awesome ride. Several of the top F18 and I20 drivers who have spent some time on them will attest to their incredible speed potential especially up wind. But, the boat off the wind in a blow, especially gusty conditions, and in short period steep waves can be a handful to handle.Taking some design queues from the highly refined A class boat hull shapes we made some of the following changes to the boat from what we are building with the Blade:

– Moved the rocker forward to smooth out the ride
– Carried the volume lower, especially in the mid and forward hull to help add dynamic lift and help the boat to plane at speed, as well as keep as much volume active as possible.
– Carried the volume forward in the bows to help with pitching resistance.
– Added additional depth to the hull
– Raised the beams to prevent slap
– Blended in the beams to add styling and help stiffen the platform.
– Rounded the gunnels
– Moved the forward beam back
– Moved the rear beam forward to add room for additional tiller arm length to help improve the helm feel.
– Added a foot step at the stern that is at an angle where it can actually be used.
– Narrowed up the transom to help prevent the hulls tripping in short period waves.
– Increased the forward triangle to fit a max size jib
– Lowered the bridal attachments to provide longer legs and less hull stress.
– Revised some of the rigging layout to make it cleaner and easier to adjust.

In addition to the styling and design refinements we have done some extensive laminate and process testing. Our new proprietary hull build process uses a denser and thicker core along with 5 different fabrics weights and styles that produces a larger and stiffer hull at the same weight as the Blades. (This boat weighed in at the same weight as the Blades, when the tooling and components are complete, we will be able to produce this platform at min class weight)From Formula F16 Forum. More info about the Formula 16 at https://www.formula16.net/https://www.vectorworkssail.com/