No no no... this is Mike Worrel and Petrucci (Bimare) fiasco.
Talked Mike into the F18HT???
Are you kidding me... Mike decided that the race could grow and what was needed was Euro and Aussie sailors to make it an international event. So he needed charter boats to make that happen. For him, there was no future for the race without a big change because of the time and money to put it on. He wanted ONE of the F18 builders to give him a deal on F18's because that was the emerging Euro class of boats... They would not. That was the status as conveyed by Mike in Va Beach to me personally.
After that the Bimare F18HT charter deal was announced... Remember, the F18 and F18HT Classes were just getting started in the US. Bimare probably figured that a successful Worell 1000 would shift the North American market to use the F18HT formula rather then the F18 Formula. The Bim owner, Petrucci? and Mike Worrel cut a deal for the one design Bim F18HT. Obviously, Bim grossly overestimated the boat they built for the ocean race ...not to mention Mike Worrel's management skills and the result was the fiasco. Remember it was the cheapest F18HT boat using the HT forumla. Thus the equipment problems.
Mostly.
"I said, now, I said ,pay attention boy!"
The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea
Isak Dinesen
If a man is to be obsessed by something.... I suppose a boat is as good as anything... perhaps a bit better than most.
E. B. White
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