2009 F18 Worlds

I thought it would be interesting to see how many boats are represented at the 2009 F18 Worlds in Belgium and what their numbers are:

45 Nacra Infusion
38 Capricorn
30 Hobie Cat Tiger
28 Hobie Cat Wildcat
10 Cirrus B1
5 Cirrus F18
5 Shockwave F18
4 Alado F18
3 Diam 3
3 Nacra F18
3 TBD
2 eXploder F18
2 Mattia F18
1 Bimare X4
1 Nacra Inter 18 (turns out to an Infusion)


180 total

14 different boats

Later,
Dan

I'll put money on there being at least 4 different designs in the top 10.

I'll take that bet. You have to look at who's sailing them. ;-)

Shockwave : Wilson and Lynch
Capricorn : lots of talent, best bet for a top ten Goodall.
Hobie (either or both) : To much talent to justify a list.
Nacra : See above but don't count out Catsailor's very own Macca.
and thats without mentioning the best crews on each of the 9 designs.

Dan,

That inter 18 is actually an infusion, the boys fouled up the entry form somehow!

Paul

The Inter 18 would have made it an incredible story.

The talent is indeed deep. I still think that there will only be three boats in the top ten finishers.

For the US (those who wish to wave the flag), we have sometime-seppo John Casey on his new Wildcat. The boat's been seriously tricked out - a benefit of working at Hobie. We also have Robbie Daniel on a new out-of-the-box Capricorn. In the warm-up regatta, JC was top ten for the weekend until he got hit by the black flag. Robbie made the top ten with three 10s, a 3 and a 2. He's getting over an infected cut on his leg, but he happens to be sailing with Gary Chu, who can write perscriptions - how handy is that?

This is going to be a hell of a week.

And then there's this...

Only if he can coral Taylor from chasing skirts. For that matter if he refrains from chasing too much himself.

They could have a serious sailing campaign, but I would bet on a serious partying campaign.

Good luck either way you choose it guys!

Later,
Dan

My bets for top crews by design:
Styles - Infusion
Heemskerk - Wildcat
Wilson - Shockwave
Daniels - Capricorn

First three in that order title contenders (obvious selections those two... ) And wonder how Asbhy will do without Bundy
I know... 'solo' he is the best, that´s why I want to see him as an F18 skipper.

This is no Infusion if registered to race:

Does anyone know what Gashby is sailing, from memory the web site says "TBA". Gashby will do fine on his own, IIRC he won an Aussie Titles without Bundy.

the one in the foreground is a nacra F18, the one behind looks like a diam

Yes, just noting there was an old Nacra, but the Inter is older right?

Race started

Seems the one pointed as partying is really focused (provisional)

1 - FRA97150 Villion Julien
Viat Louis 1h08'44'' (+00'') (+00'')
2 - FRA8 Lamotte Benjamin
Amiot Benjamin 1h08'46'' (+02'') (+02'')
3 - FRA111 Morvan Fran?ois
Vandame Mathieu 1h08'57'' (+10'') (+13'')
4 - AUS1 Booth Taylor
Bernier Jacques 1h09'00'' (+02'') (+16'')

Looks like very current news from the course.

http://www.f18worlds2009.com/153

Race 2 canceled due to lack of wind. Boats are on their way back to the beach.

http://www.f18worlds2009.com/155

Looks like boats are off the beach...

John

How can they manage not to join the top players all in the same fleet? as in this 1st race in the blue fleet.
I imagine they'll change fleets every day?

In the past, I think it has been random draw... not sure about that at all. I expect that they try not to make one fleet harder than the next because that would be unfair - the bullets count the same if your sailing all the hotshots or a fleet of marshmallows.

Exactly my concern.

De Koning, Styles, Heemskerk, Goodall, Mourniac, Ashby, Daniel, McPherson, both Larsen in the same fleet/1st race
To me this fleet right now is way more competitive than the other. Hope they split soon.

There are in fact 4 groups of 45, every time 2 groups will start together, at the end of the qualifiers every competitor will have sailed against each other.

Also see the NoR:
6.2.1. Qualifying Series: The fleet will be split into 4 groups which will be selected by a seeding committee. The 4 groups will form 2 rotating starting groups. Each group will sail a minimum of 6 qualifying races. The qualifying races are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. If at the end of any day 6 qualifying races have not been completed, the qualifying series will continue the following day.
6.2.2. Final Series: Once the qualifying series is over boats will be split into the Gold Fleet and the Silver Fleet. The top half of the fleet will race in the Gold Fleet and the bottom half of the fleet will race in the Silver Fleet. In the event of an uneven number of boats there will be one extra boat in the Gold Fleet.

That's fantastic! Go Guys!

Jon Casey...Represent!

This system means that they have to sail a multiple of 3 number of races in the qualifiers to be fair.

Great picture of JC from todays racing:


Mitch seems to be pointing the finger here after dropping the stick, I wonder what he is saying:

"I want redress!" What else?

US is in the top 10!

Results.

PUUUUUUULLLLLLL!

20 black flags in race two, there has to be a story behind that. With that many people over it would be really hard to work out if you needed to go back. Normally if there are a few people in front of you your pretty sure you weren't over. Not in this case.

In my opinion, that indicates good committee work. Assuming that the line was square (it looks like it is in the GPS Replay) then it isn't fair to the teams that start correctly to keep giving OCSs another chance. I'm in the school that believes even if one OCS out of 20 "gets away with it" because they can't be identified, the remaining 50 deserve to keep their start.

I'll bet redress was filed, though - Larsen, Styles, Proust... big names. I'm not assuming these guys are guilty - I'm aware that sometimes the RC misidentifies OCS boats or makes a mistake in procedure.

I followed live, they had 2 gral recalls starts previous those BFD in that fleet, so the rc just let it go to complete 2 races.

Someone might correct me, but once the BF goes up you can't have any more general recalls can you? So the committee had no choice but scratch a quarter or the fleet. I bet there won't be as many recalls for the rest of the regatta.

Black Flag gets you a DSQ without a hearing even if the race is restarted. Some RCs will give you a warning by throwing the black flag, then postponing, then restarting the sequence with the I or Z flag, letting you know that they have the black flag on the boat and ready.

General recalls can happen after a black flag, but unless changed in the SIs, the RC has to display the sail numbers of the BFD'd boats so they know they're not supposed to start - if a BFD'd boat starts after her number is displayed in the restarted race, she gets a BFDc, which can't be dropped.

Thanks.

harsh...but them's the rules.

There is quite a lot of current along the Belgium coast, that combined with little wind, and black flags are almost inevitable.
Had the same situation at Texel this year where the whole fleet got pushed into the pin-end like a harmonica.

Again very little wind today, according to the webcam knots only 4-6 knots.
Tomorow however should be a good day with 15-20+ winds.

[quote=Tony_F18 the whole fleet got pushed into the pin-end like a harmonica.

[/quote]

thats a beauty, you hum it - I'll play it!!!!!!!!!

For me some interesting points to today’s sailing:

Taylor Booth with Jacques Bernier (1/2 USA-G) sailing great with a 4th in race 1, 12th in race 2, could not find him in race 3, then 3rd in race 4. I think they are not partying with results like this.

Robbie Daniel (USA-B) got a 6th in races 1 and 2, beating Ashby by 7 and 4 places. Then a 47th in the Third.

Jon Casey (USA- W) – 21st in race 1, 10th in race 2, could not find him in race 3, got a bad one in race 4…boat issues?

Don Dull (AUS-G), friend of mine, got a 19th in race3, 22nd in race 4…go Don!

Micha Heemskerk (NED-B) – 8th in the first, 2nd in race 2, WON the Third race, 2nd in race 4.

Carolijn Brouwer(BEL-W) got a 15th in the first race, 32nd in race 2, 22nd in the Third, could not find her in race 4.

Louis-philippe Ethier (CAN-G) – 19th in race 26th in race 2. WON the third race! 6th in race 4!

Greg Goodall (AUS-W) 4th in race 1, 5th in race 2, breakdown in race 3?, 6th in race 4,

Later,
Dan

Just Found out that Taylor and Jacques as well as Jon Casey got Black Flags in race three.

Robbie Daniel and Carolyn Brouwer did not finish the last race.

All too bad.

Fighting Wild Cats

So I was wrong - there are more than the "big three" builders in the final top ten. I'm surprised, but very pleasantly - glad to be wrong on this one, as that bodes well for the class overall.

Top 10
4-Nacra Infusion
3-Hobie Cat Wildcat
2-Shockwave F18
1-TBD (Mourniac-Wildcat?)

Top 20
7-Nacra Infusion
4-Hobie Cat Wildcat
2-Capricorn
2-Diam 3
2-Shockwave F18
1-TBD
1-Hobie Cat Tiger
1-Mattia F18

Top 30
10-Hobie Cat Wildcat
9-Nacra Infusion
2-Capricorn
2-Diam 3
2-Mattia F18
2-Shockwave F18
1-TBD
1-Bimare X4
1-Hobie Cat Tiger

For those keeping score...and who isn't? I thought it would be interesting to look at the top 10, 20, and 30. I went to 30 because I think this is a fair representation of the leaders. Some had bad days and luck. I think Mourniac was on one of the red sail Tigers. I had a hard time reading those numbers in the video and his boat was not listed.

As John W mentioned with such diverse finish places in the fleet it bodes really well for the Formula 18 class. Hopefully translating to continued fantastic growth.

If you are on the Fence about getting into this fleet the Worlds website should change your mind. 2009 Formula 18 Worlds

Later,
Dan

Hope we see all of you this September in Long Beach.

I'm Doing the same thing...
Mourniac is Wildcat

Shockwave was for sure the Rockstar: 2 top ten of five boats, and almost the crown.

Our experienced (1 World) crew was 50! we started racing F18 in 2008, and these two guys were Laser sailors...

Regarding black flag, see RRS 30.3, what John said and more...

BTW, the correct scoring codes are BFD (per 30.3) or DNE (per 30.3 and A11)...

Mike