The day Chris Allen goes F-18 will be the day that the N-20 disintegrates at WRSC or he moves to another location where N20s do not roam.

Or maybe 12/21/2012.

There won't be a "batch." There will be one for testing, then mods, then a second for two-boat tuning. I wouldn't expect a production run in 2010.

In the mean time, we had a great F18 clinic this past weekend in SoCal; three Caps, two Infusions and two Tigers in some focused drills with a coach in a power boat. Incredibly, it seemed like it actually still matters who is driving the boat.

awwwwwwww, come on, we all know the newest boat is the fastest and it has nothing to do with the driver.

FYI,
Notice my smiley faces and stuff!!!!

C'mon JW it looks like the "driver" of your boat is getting a bit of a jump on the lineup.

LOL! Not me, Matt - that's Steve Hansen and Nat Shaver. They didn't get the sequence and jumped the gun. Unfortunately, Dennis and I are getting run over by both Tigers in this shot.

How Pete Melvin went with that 3,45 jib? on that "blue" Infusion

Pete and James Melvin are sailing on the small sailplan - they weigh 129 kg.

Who did the clinic? What drills were covered?

Sorry , re phrase: how they did with that small plan on those training regattas?

Drills: Starting with rolling 5 minute clocks, short course racing to work on boat handling (pics and vid), four-boat racks for straight-line speed and on-the-beach chalk talks and tuning.

Coaches: Jacques Bernier and Pete Melvin with additional commentary by Bill Westland and Jeff Newsome. More sailors than boats, so some traded out coach boat and sailing duty.

How does Pete do under the small sails? Pete is extremely fast in all conditions. At the last regatta, we had eight races in great breeze. Pete threw out his only second place finish and won the event with seven points. In all of history, two people have walked on water - only one of them was not Pete.

jajaja Ok thanks for the info. That´s for sure, and the other one is a catasailor too, I know cause he told me: "..Follow the cat sailing path.."

Hope to see Pete at next F18 Worlds riding his own design.

If your talking about me Jeff, wrong Chris. I used to have a Tiger but the point behind my post and a comment I've made regularly is that the F18 rule is so well constructed that any of the complient boats are more than competitive. If you're looking second hand, look for a boat that is already in the "outdated group" Tiger, Nacra F18, Capricorn (by the sounds of it) that way you won't loose out finacially and you'll end up in the same location on the result sheet as you would on a Wildcat/infusion/MkII Cap. Ask TA how much he lost between buying his boat new and selling it to Dazz.

Haha I can see where I went wrong now, I know theyre all much of a muchness with my sailing ability and I did consider the Tiger.
I'd attend a coaching clinic like that John, infact any coaching clinic but I've never heard of one in Aus
regards

Coaching clinics are something we (A.H.P.C) would definitely look at putting together. We have had a little interest over the last 12months so it maybe something we look at doing something this summer. A central location is always difficult though (being that Aus is so large)

Jeffs - Would you have enough interest in SA to warrant one over there or would you be willing to make the trip to Vic?

I figure after 2.5 years of ownership I can set fire to the boat and walk away from it and lose less money than TA did. New boats/cars/TV's are always bad investments. such is life.

AUS-CAT we would welcome a training clinic in Hobart!!! Could help out with some accomodation and alchol!

So your not a ghost thank's for the reply. AHPC is only a bit further distance for me than Adelaide, I would travel without hesitation either way and can be there Friday morning. I would love to promote cat sailing in SA, I'd probably get five 18ft boats together at Kingston SE on any weekend in summer depending on the cost. We have a distance buoy race, our Earthmovers race is 3 x 25-30km laps on Saturday the 17th of April 2010 so the perfect date for the last coaching session would be Sunday 18th of April 2010 with a lot of visiting cats. I'm sure some of the Stingray guys on their way back from the Nationals would be interested also. Would you consider a series of coaching lessons a month or so apart at different clubs?
regards

Boat halfed in value over the first 2.5 years of ownership. You definatly do not buy a new boat (or any) as an investment, but there is nothing like stepping onto a new boat. By the way, if you calculated the total of money I lost in resale and compare it to the $$$ spent in the 2.5 years I had that boat, then you would want to close your eyes. Not saying the Cap or F18s are expensive to campaign, but I certainly did not stick to a budget.

We have had several coaching sessions in Long Beach on the Formula 18s. This last weekend was the fourth, I think.

To get a Clinic together you just need 4 or more boats and a willing coach. In this case the coaches were also got to sail the boats.

We went out last night, Tuesday, with three boats. Practicing straight line speed mostly. I will be out tonight practicing tacks and gybes, as I do not believe there will be another boat out in the evening until Thursday. Friday we are packing up to head to a regatta in Santa Barbara.

Sabot Nationals going on at the Club this week but all those boats are on land and put away by about 4:00PM so there is no problem sailing.

There is some video of the sailing but not the coaching at: Long Beach sailing Long Beach sailing

Later,
Dan

Hard to beat the service that AHPC provides, Greg and Brett Goodall are coming here to Lacepede Bay Sailing Club and running a high performance training clinic for 2 days on the 28th and 29th of November 2009. Brett sees it as a pre nationals tune up clinic. I'll post full details later but feel free to PM me if you want to attend.
regards

Sounds like the 1st one on show will be at the Forster Wildcat Regatta October 3rd-5th in NSW. New super duper rudders too I hear.