The 2007 F18 North Americans starts tomorrow at East Beach, Galveston Texas. Saturday and Sunday will be registration and measurement, with a practise race on Sunday Afternoon. The racing gets underway on Monday morning and lasts all week.

This years event is a little different - the venue is a beach next to the ocean - a return to the true roots of the sport.

There is a great list of competitors - with several having already here and rigging their boats. Look out for more reports and photos during the week - posted here and on the Texas City Dike Yacht Club site.



Chris.

Registration, weigh-in and sail measurements today. Interesting to see the new sail cut from Performance. The regatta volunteers have been exceptional in their accomodation of the fleet, paticularly those of us from far afield. Only a handful of boats sailed today - Tomko and Mischa were the first out in the late afternoon. There are at least a dozen Infusions already set up and several more showed up as the sun was setting. This looks to be a Tiger v. Infusion event with a couple of Nacra F18s and Capricorns thrown in for colour. Alot of new faces in the class this year - could be the venue or maybe we just got new sailors. I'm enjoying the relaxed, Texas attitude.

Tina and I are fully rigged, weighed and measured - looks like we'll be sailing a bit before lunch. Then dinner in Brian's killer motorhome and some Adventure Online video production. Brian has (no kidding) an inflatable couch set up with a green-screen for pre- and post-racing interviews. Have to wrap it up before the sun sets - the freakin' mosquitoes are sudden and vicious! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

what is different? curious.

Guys:

John/PTP I will be down Wed taking pics and will try to hook up at Wed night party. We have to leave by 9 though as Bob has long drive back home.

Doug

JW, I am so looking forward to those reports! Will you be anchorman again? Best of luck to you and Tina! This is going to be great! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Guys:

What are you sail numbers so I can find you guys easier? See you Wed.

Doug

Nothing is different, Sails for the Infusion have not changed since launch in 2006

Sorry to disagree - I stood by as a new sail was measured. All the other Infusion sails were around 15.5 sq. meters. the new one is at 16.6 - completely legal under the class rules, but clearly and measurably different. Not stirring the pot, mate - 'dems jes the facts. Thanks for chiming in, though.

I'll back John up - A new nacra main that was measured had a slightly longer head, a little less in the foot and a longer luff - and it is certainly legal, but closer to the maximum area allowed. Will it make a difference? I think the biggest performance differentiators are talent, time on the water and big event experience, but the big dogs certainly look for every performance edge available.

All boats and sails have been measured - bar a couple of stragglers, and most teams hit the water today to enjoy some great wind and waves.

We then fed 'em all some Texas BBQ and serenaded them with sounds of Rick's band (Rick is a TCDYC member).

There is a great mixture of teams from all over the continent who will be duking it out over the next week. Our photographer got some good surf action shots today - we should have some posted tomorrow evening.

*yawn* time for bed - we still have some last minute tweaking to do on our boat tommorrow - and I'm feeling stiff from all the dancing tonight!

Chris.

Everybody,

If the new mainsail is 16.6 sq. mtr. instead of 15.5 then is completely illegal. Unless john has made a typo. The F18 mast has a mast area of about 1.5 sq. mtr. So that needs to come out of the 17 sq. total as layed down in the class rules. This means no mainsail (ex mast) may be larger in area then 15.5 sq. mtr.

Do you have access to the area measurement ?

Wouter

I would have never thought to subtract the mast from the allowed sq.mtr allowed to the sail.
Is this spelled out somewhere?
Thanks

http://www.f18-international.org/F18_2007_Class_Rules.pdf

See page 6

Hopefully, the reported 16.6 includes the mast area and it is semantics on how it was reported...

Looks like a great crowd and a LOT of fun.

An extra 1.1sq. meter is quite a bit more sail area, especially if some of it is put at the top (wider square top). I'm guessing John mistyped and the actualy measurment is 15.6, not 16.6? The new wing type masts do develop quite a bit of lift on their own, so that area should be included in the total sail area.

No typo, it is 16.5.

Is this what you're referring to?

B.4.1. MAINSAIL

B.4.1.1. [color:"blue"]The mainsail shall have a surface area of maximum 17.00m² including the mast.
[/color]
B.4.1.2. No part of the sail shall be above the upper mast band.
B.4.1.3. The aft head point of the mainsail shall not be above the head point.
B.4.1.4. Maximum Upper width at upper leech point 1500 mm from head point : 1290 mm
B.4.1.5. Maximum Top width : 1000 mm
B.4.1.4 & B.4.1.5: Sails with larger measurements can be measured and used until 01.01.2009.

And in reference to the mast:
[color:"blue"] B.2.1. MAST
The perimeter of the mast section shall be a maximum of 385mm. [/color]

Sooo...is 16.6 leagal or not?

The total allowed area is 17m2, so if your sail is 16.6 that only leaves 30m of mast surface (For reference, a Tiger's mast surface is 150cm).
It must be a typo, although 15.6 would still be quite large The Tiger's mast perimeter is 33cm, the Infusion mast is wing shaped
to its perimeter must be at least the same if not more (The maximum allowed is 38.5cm).

The Capricorn wingmast has a circumference of 0.365 mm (I have a section cut-off at home !) on a 9.15 mtr tall F18 mast this makes a total mast area (as defined in the F18 class rules) of 1.669875 or rounded off to 1.670 sq. mtr. The Tiger mast area (0.330 mtr circumference) is 1.51 sq. mtr.

If the Infusion mast has the same dimensions as the Capricorn superwing (very likely) then the cloth part of the mast+sail combo (= actual mainsail size) may only be 17.0 - 1.67 = 15.33 sq. mtr.

Anything over that will be ILLEGAL under F18 class rules.

If 16.6 is no typo then somebody is going to get very busy with a pair of sissors.

And 16.6 sq. mtr may well be enough grounds to start analysing whether this is indeed a simple cutting mistake. 1.3 sq.mtr difference is like adding two feet of cloth at the foot of the sail or halve a foot at the leech. You don't easily achieve that by an "oops" mistake.

Wouter

I've seen the measurement form which is automated and clearly adds the mast and sail area for a big bold total area. I would assume that the 16.6 figure provided also includes the mast.