San Francisco, California June 27th 2010

Team Red on the Head... Hobie Wild Cat Wins the West Coast F18 Champs in San Francisco NOOD regatta.

Showing some serious performance advantage, the Hobie Wild Cat sails to another impressive win. This time the SF NOOD and F18 West Coast Championships! This follows close on the heals of two other big wins on Hobie Wild Cats in rugged offshore long-distance sailing. Most recently, the Great Texas 300. John Tomko and Ian Billings "Team Roughrider" took the win for both F18 and Over-all. Earlier this year, and sailing yet another Hobie Wild Cat in the Tybee 500, Team Bugaboo... Mischa Heemskerk and Eduard Zanen took both the F18 Class win and First to finish honors beating all of the Nacra 20 class as well.

At the SF NOOD this weekend, Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier sailed their Hobie Wild Cat F18 a nearly perfect series for the win at the West Coast F18 Championships / San Francisco NOOD. Starting Saturday with a 1-1-2 they were just ahead of 2nd place Pete Melvin and his son sailing an Infusion at the end of the day. The third race on Saturday saw some real carnage on the course as the wind increased to 25 plus with many capsizes and damage including a broken mast on the C2 of Ian Sammis taking him out of the racing. Greg and Jacques nearly flipped as Jacques was pitched out ahead of their boat and he was run over... they were able to recover, drop the chute and get moving again for the only 2nd place finish of their series. Only 4 boats finished that race.

Sunday saw more of the same with Greg and Jacques dominating nearly every leg of the racing on their Wild Cat. They finished the day with a perfect 1-1-1!

Now it's off to the F18 Worlds and more Hot F18 action!

Go Hobie Team Red on the Head!!!

Wow Hobie Wildcat mentioned six times in your post. Man those boats really make the sailors so much faster, where can I get one? I mean its all about the boat isnt it... That is the secret to winning!

"Showing some serious performance advantage, the Hobie Wild Cat sails to another impressive win."

all boat, huh?

Wow, you've just done what you never do lol. You forgot to mention though how easily it is snap Wildcat boards

Ask Nacra how many N20 J-boards they broke during their worlds a few weeks ago.
As I saw again last weekend all new F18 designs are very well matched in terms of speed and handling and it is the teams sailing it that makes the difference.

Anyway, all the builders have these cheesy PR success stories.
(Yes Robi AHPC too (Facebook fanpage)).

"Showing some serious performance advantage, the Hobie Wild Cat sails to another impressive win."

OK, time to lower their handicap, right? I guess all the other F18's will have to get faster or die, and if they get faster, well...have to lower their handicap too, right?

;^)

Tony, lets be sure to differentiate. The curved boarded Nacra is the Nacra F20. The Nacra 20 (or N20) does not. Please lets be sure to make the distinction.

Second,

How many?

Mischa broke... carry the one... three wildcat boards during the T500 and had to get his wildcat boards sent overnight from Europe.

As someone that was there this was a great event. The Wildcat with Jaques and Greg was flying with Pete Melvin and his son right on their tail all weekend long. Pete was on an Infusion. Ian Sammis was flying up in a tight battle for third on his C2 till he lost the mast in a flip recovery. The tigers represented well with Jason moore and Charles Froebe coming in third and fourth.
The wind was light at the start of the day arround 13 and filled to 20+ during the 2nd and 3rd races.

The St. Francis Yacht club were gracious hosts and can really throw a race.

With racers from San Diego to Canada it was a true west coast championship. Congrats to all who made it and WTG team Hobie Wildcat Red on the head.

Link to results?

It's a major bummer that Greg and Jacques (and the red sailed WC) will not be at the North Americans in Racine. It would have been fun to race against them.

Video Replay Link

Results Link

It's a nice boat, but that initial thread post registered very high on the self congratulatory cheese-O-meter.

Buy an ad.....

(someone had to say it)

Hey... just trying to make up for some of the dis... reporting at the other events where the Wild Cat won... but was not even mentioned in some of the reporting. Gotta set the facts straight sometimes. Just trying to keep it simple as suggested.

Division: F 18 (20 boats) (top)
Pos Sail Boat Skipper 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Pos
Points
1 91 Red on the Head Greg Thomas 1 1 2 1 1 1 7 1
2 1143 Infusion Pete Melvin 2 2 1 2 2 2 11 2
3 2591 Tiger Jason Moore 6 7 4 6 6 4 33 3
4 2490 Kaos vs Control Will Baylis/Charles Froeb 9 9 3 7 5 5 38 4
5 667 Sweet Siren Daniel DeLave 4 5 21/DNF 4 3 3 40 5
6 70 Spun! Dennis Key 5 4 21/DNF 3 4 21/DNF 58 6
7 1799 Barely 18 Ben Colwell 7 6 21/DNF 8 7 9 58 7
8 2218 Phillip Meredith Phillip Meredith 12 11 21/DNF 5 9 7 65 8
9 2384 Team Storm Brian Hunt 11 10 21/DNF 10 11 6 69 9
10 2587 Nauti Gear Mark Jones 10 21/DNF 21/DNF 9 10 8 79 10
11 2540 For Play Frank J. Ternullo 21/DNF 12 21/DNF 11 8 10 83 11
12 222 Kansas Ian Sammis 3 3 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 90 12
13 2538 Laser Tag Bryan Colwell 8 8 21/DNF 12 21/DNF 21/DNF 91 13
14 2477 Temptress Ian Sloan 13 13 21/DNF 13 12 21/DNF 93 14
15 2507 Highly Catfeinated Don Atchley 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 14 21/DNF 21/DNF 119 15
16T 651 Sweet Siren Daniel DeLave 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 126.00T 16T
16T 1682 Gonzo Alex Van Brunt 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 126.00T 16T
16T 2215 Cat-a-strophic Eric Thor 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 126.00T 16T
16T 2584 Team Storm Brian Hunt 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 126.00T 16T
16T 5150 Gettin' Tacky Richard Vilvens 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 21/DNF 126.00T 16T

Windy!

This is a general question and not aimed at the resutls posted above.

"Do multihull events have more DNS' and DNF's as opposed to other sailng events?"

It seems like there seem to be more and more of them in posted results in all classes. I know it depends on the weather, but it seems these types of finishes seem to be jumping out at me more and more lately.

Again, I am not dissing any one in particular - I am just curious to know if any one else thinks there are more of these finishes than there were 5 or 10 years ago.

I have raced a lot of regattas on a lot of different boats, and the cats are not really any different from many other classes with regards to DNF and DNS's.

I agree with Karl, and from Matt's original post

The third race on Saturday saw some real carnage on the course as the wind increased to 25 plus with many capsizes and damage including a broken mast on the C2 of Ian Sammis taking him out of the racing. Greg and Jacques nearly flipped as Jacques was pitched out ahead of their boat and he was run over... they were able to recover, drop the chute and get moving again for the only 2nd place finish of their series. Only 4 boats finished that race.

Sunday saw more of the same

I'm pretty sure if I had pitched sweetness to the front of the boat and then run her over, my day and probably my season would be done, then there would be the couples therapy to look forward to.

When things start to get sporty things break and the attrition rate shoots up, and let's face it a lot of us aren't kids anymore ( as much as I hate to admit it )

I certainly agree with all the above. I have left my sails in their bags on many occasions. No shame in that from my perspective.

What a great event! It set the bar for things to come here on the West Coast as far as F18s are concerned. Full report on SA in a few days after I recover from stress and rum. Video here.