Island Fever Regatta Report 2008 – F17 Perspective by Bob Curry
8-9 June 2008, Navarre Beach, Florida (Juana’s Pagoda)

Hello everyone!

A great time was had by a small group of intrepid sailors on Saturday and Sunday, 8-9 June 2008 in Navarre Beach, Florida. The weekend races were held in winds of 6-12 on Saturday and again 6-12kts on Sunday. A distance race and buoys were the soup of the weekend!

Race 1, Distance Race – 12.5 miles.

We started at 1130 in winds of 7-12kts downwind and headed west towards Intercoastal marker 125. A pack of 4 boats quickly emerged as the front runners; Nacra 20, Nacra F17(alum mast sailplan), F16, and a singlehanded F18HT. As the winds shifted, came and went, a 4 boat gybing duel commenced keeping this pack together with no more than a 10 boat length separation at times for 6 miles! With all the sail testing done in the beginning of the year, it was very gratifying to see the F17 keep pace with the faster rated boats.
At the marker, it was the 20, HT, F16 and then the F17. The 20 immediately tacked to starboard heading east (and into the westerly headed current, oops!), the HT and F17 headed south and the F16 lost headway and stalled almost into irons before following the F17 and HT towards the beach. At the ¾ point, The F17 was the first in this group to tack on to starboard for the long leg towards the finish line. It was a hoot pacing with the HT again and most of the time we were matching upwind speed. The 20 ended up tacking 4 times coming into the middle and going back losing about 6-10 boat lengths per tack. Thank you!! In the end, the HT finished with line honors (he wasn’t registered so it didn’t count!) with the F17 finishing a very close second followed by the F16 and Nacra20. If the 20 had simply gone to the shore then tacked he would have smoked us! We all headed for the beach to enjoy the scenery and have some eats.

Race 2 and 3, downwind start - buoys.

This was cool! Everyone was very careful around each other with this type of start. It was very competitive on the F17 versus the crewed 20 to see who would get the chute up and flying first! For the weekend, it was a draw!! Racing was much like a drag race with the F17 staying in contact with the 20 and finishing within approximately 1:20, 1:30 of the 20 and correcting out for the win! We all came back to the beach exhausted and popped a few tops.

Sunday, Races 3-4-5-6 – buoys.

We continued racing with the downwind starts and drag racing around the cans. This made for a lot of quick work and was very physically challenging! The F17 even won a few starts and would arrive at the leeward buoy even with the 20, then put it into point mode to close the gap upwind. In the end, the 20 only won the last race when the course became a reach-reach. Hats off to Cameron Farrah sailing with her Dad on the Weta 4.4 trimaran. This was her first race with the “big boys”! I think she is hooked because there is interest from her dad for a future F17!!!

It was an awesome weekend! The new rig is proving to be fast in a variety of conditions sailing against faster boats. Get out and sail folks; it’s going to be a great year to be associated with the F17. The weekend results are below with all the boats.

Regards,
Bob <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Island Fever
Overall
Sailed:6, Discards:1, To count:5, Ratings:USPN, Entries:11, Scoring system:My scoring system
Fleet Class SailNo Helm Crew USPN R1
R2
R3
R4
06/08/08 11:30:00 R5
06/08/08 12:26:00 R6
06/08/07 14:45:00 Total
open NF17U 23 Bob Curry 66.7 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 (2.0) 7.0
open N20 11 Mark Smith Bubba Barberi 59.3 (3.0) 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 13.0
open F16 6 Chris Amador 65.2 2.0 (7.0) 2.0 3.0 3.0 7.0 24.0
open N5.7 479 Ray Brememan Justin Gish 72.5 (7.0) 3.0 6.0 7.0 6.0 4.0 33.0
open N6.0NA 172 Mike Clark Dean Crouch 62.6 8.0 5.5 5.0 8.0 (9.0) 3.0 38.5
open F18 1047 Kenny Boudreaux Mark Edder 62.4 4.0 5.5 4.0 4.0 (12.0 DNS) 12.0 DNS 41.5
open TheMightyHobie18 8487 Damon L. 71.4 5.0 (12.0 DNS) DNC 6.0 7.0 5.0 47.0
open P19MX 409 Robbie Holstead Dully Chaltain 64.4 6.0 4.0 (12.0 DNF) 10.0 8.0 12.0 DNS 52.0
open F18HTU 5 Joe Pocreva 59.6 (12.0 DNF) 12.0 DNS DNC 5.0 5.0 6.0 52.0
open Weta 4.4 Clear Cliff Farrah Cameron Farrah 78.5 9.0 8.0 (12.0 DNS) 9.0 10.0 8.0 56.0
open F18HTU 49 Mark Murray 59.6 (12.0 DNS) 12.0 DNS DNC 12.0 DNS 4.0 12.0 DNS 64.0

Was the F16 a blade?

Clayton,
The F16 was a Blade.

Bob <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bob,

Do you know if the elapsed time results are given anywhere ?


Also may I ask what you think of the USPN = 66.7 handicap number of the Nacra F17 ?

66.7 to 62.4 (=F18) is quite a difference => +7% => over 3 minutes in a 45 min bouy race.

That is alot of (spare) time for a boat setup like the F17, in my humble opinion. Of course, for the same reasons I'm on record of judging the USPN F16 = 65.2 (= 2 min per 45 min) as pretty soft compared to the F18's. And have even campaigned to get that rating lowered to a more reasonable number. As a counter example : under Texel the F17 rating is only a good minute slower then the F18's, that rating didn't seem to hold back the F17 much at Texel this year.

Just as the better crews on F16's are racing F18's to the line on elapsed time I seem to remember much the same happening in events at the great lakes where F17's and F18's are involved. Indeed, much like your own report is showing you racing the bigger boats on elapsed time.

I wonder what your appraisal of the situation with respect to the F17's is.

Wouter

Good job Chris! Hope to see you in November.

Thanks Pete. I was wondering who was going to come up/down for area D. I think Pensacola is a good central location for the F16 group.