Ah! That's a good question. I have a feeling things could get shaken up if the breeze turns on. There are some teams doing very well in conditions that probably don't suite them and when they get what they want things could change significantly. Regardless how this shakes out we are looking at the future stars in the US beach cat world.

It is nice to see our younger sailors doing well. I'm also thrilled to see Sarah and her sister doing so well, the Newberry/Livingston's are good people (I'm a fan). She has also been doing a lot of racing in the highly competitive H16 class and it shows.

+1 ladies are good for sailing.

Sara and Elizabeth sure do seem to be posting very consistent results in what appear to be challenging conditions for sure.

Yesterday's protest did not involve Taylor and Matt (better get that memory chip checked Jake). A request for redress following a prestart foul was denied.

Today's forecast is for 10 knots or so at noon, building a little into the afternoon.

Thanks Philip for linking to the results, They should be up after every cycle.

Not really. You have a boat with no minimum crew weight requirements and you have light air. Light teams have a huge advantange especially on a boat like the F16.

This.

[this is me making absolutely no comments about the "W" word]

Anyone want to speculate what the crew weights are?

How about crew weight and their current place?

Anyone?

Mike

sssshhhh!

Don't you know when to be politically correct! The F16 class does not believe that boat or crew weight is significant.

Underway at noon in about 8knots. Not near as much gloom today and it's trying to burn off.

You're wrong here cupcake, its just not a set number. You have to be capable of righting the boat. In extremely light air and flat water I probably wouldn't weigh enough sailing singlehanded, and therefore under weight.

The Viper class rules do have a minimum weight for both configurations, however I believe this event is being sailed under F16 rules.

are there two score drops or one this year?

http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2011/2011_Multihull_Preview.htm

"Twenty races are scheduled. Three races must be completed to constitute a championship. When fewer than six races have been completed, a team’s series score will be the total of all scores. When six or more races have been completed, a team’s series score will be the total of its race scores excluding its worst excludable score."

The issue for ISAF will be... what is the optimum weight for a two up viper... It sounds like they have had 5 knots in all of their races, so they would be above any wind limit.... Some argue the optimum for a 16 footer will be 260 ish... for obvious reasons the class would argue that the optimum is closer to 310. The jury is still out.

The optimum for the Tornado and F18 class boats are pretty well known... As Vipers go through ISAF trials...events like the USSA championships will be analyzed to figure this key point out.

Olympic sailors know the average wind at the ISAF gold cup events and since most have to score well at these to qualify their country and win their countries slot.... they will want to be at optimum weight.... if the Olympic venue is a big wind place... they know they can bulk up.

Any one heard any updates?

I sure hope they get more varied conditions for the remaining races. Another reason for having it as a five day event...

No Mark, it isn't.

got some regatta results and team weights to share... this championship has a pretty even set of top racers....
light seems good so far!

post some numbers ... ISAF will be looking for them as well.

Results are up. See link above

One of the challenges with the F16 is that it seems to have a very large 'optimal' crew weight range. The optimal weight greatly depends on the conditions. The lighter the crew the sooner they're trapping and able to sail much higher and faster than the heavier teams. On the flip side, when the wind gets over 10kts the '260 teams' become at a disadvantage which only grows as the wind picks up. To some extent this applies to most cats, but it really seems magnified on the F16 due to the variations in speed it is capable of producing.

Glad to see the youth teams doing so well. They've been training a lot and it is definitely noticeable.