Hi all,
it was Australian sailing, that great sponsor of Mosquito events. They published a photo of all the spinnaker cats starting as well, if you look closely you can see at least one Mossie out front of most of the fleet.
I wrote the article which was heavily edited by the mag, about the F16 states, Mossies get a few mentions but had even more in the un edited version which I posted on The F16 Forum. The Following is a copy of the original text.
Formula Sixteen Catamarans Challenging Sauna Sail.
The 05-06 Formula 16 Victorian State Challenge, was held at the Latrobe Valley Y.C. Sauna Sail at Hazelwood power station cooling pondage, on the Queens Birthday weekend June 10th – 12th. This was the third running of the Victorian F16 Challenge, which is used in place of state titles for this fledgling class. It promised to be the most competitive yet, as for the first time, the boats from the F16 hotspots of Gippsland Lakes and Frankston Yacht clubs where racing at the same regatta.
The eight F16s (Three Taipans all sloop rigged, three Mosquitos, one Cobra and Altered all cat rigged.) sailed in division seven. Which consisted of 21 catamarans with spinnakers, the largest of the three cat fleets at this year’s Sauna Sail. It was good to see the growing interest in spinnaker cat sailing across Victoria is finally showing up at regattas.
As always with the Sauna Sail the shifty changeable conditions made for some challenging sailing. Most races consisted of two triangles and two windward and returns, a course not normally popular with spinnaker cats but with the shifty winds at least it guaranteed some spinnaker legs. In one lighter breeze race, it allowed spinnakers to be carried on eight of the ten legs of the course, great fun! Amazingly the wind seemed to pick up before each race through out the weekend, providing one of the few Sauna Sails with wind for every race, allowing all six races to be completed. Of course the wind was probably not to the liking of all cats but that is one of the great things about F16, the addition of a spinnaker to a light weight cat, really gets them performing from 8kts upwards. So you don’t have to wait for 15kts to have fun.
The first race Saturday afternoon set the mood for the weekend. The starts were difficult with most of the 21 spinnaker cats being bigger, but from there on the F16s proved what a potent package they are, with their high performance power to weight ratio allowing them to compete for positions at the front of the combined fleet every race. Taipan Macatak from Frankston skippered by James McDonald, with crew Campbell Wolf set the pace, leading all the way to finish first. An outstanding effort from Mosquito Karma Cat from Gippsland Lakes sailed by Tim Shepperd (the winner of the 03-04 challenge) allowed him to finish second over the line, ahead of Altered from Gippsland Lakes sailed by Gary Maskiell (winner of the 04-05 challenge).
Before the second race Saturday afternoon there was a major wind shift with 15 kt gusts, which caused a spinnaker start. After one wild general recall, the second start with less wind allowed the fleet to get away at high speed but with some control. Again Macatak was first over the finish line which they continued to do, making a clean sweep of the series in their first season of F16 sailing. Years of experience in sailing I14 skiffs giving skipper James McDonald, the invaluable high performance sailing experience needed to excel on the F16 cat. His young crew Campbell Wolf, also handled the conditions well, highlighting another advantage of the F16. The loads on these cats don’t need gorilla like crews to pull on the sheets, allowing a mix of crew sizes to be competitive. Seeing this 11-year-old on trapeze holding the kite sheet with a grin from ear to ear was testament to this. Altered was second. Third place was Taipan Tasi Oci from Frankston, skippered by Gordon Barret with crew Jenni Duthie. Less than one minute separated these three over the line, in this high-speed race.
Sunday morning dawned freezing literally, water droplets on polished decks had turned to ice. But as always the water was warm and the competition was hot, despite lighter conditions, race three finished the same as race two. With Macatak first followed by Altered and Tasi Oci and again less than one minute between first and third. The Sunday lunch break defied the usual routine for the Sauna Sail, as it is often a difficult time to keep warm, but the winter sunshine and light wind made it an enjoyable break.
As the start of race four approached the sun disappeared and the wind picked up yet again, building to its strongest for the series, Macatak and Altered battled for the lead, with the strong gusts testing them under spinnaker downwind. Until Altered pushed to hard, nosediving so deep that the sock was blown off the spinnaker chute, a capsize followed and after checking the depth of the pondage with the tip of Altered’s 8.5m mast (there was mud on the end). Altered retired unable to pull the spinnaker in to the chute. Tasi Oci finished second with Mosquito Immunity from Gippsland Lakes sailed by Neil Joiner third. After the previous races challenging conditions, numbers were down for the start of race five, as the strong winds and the cold took a toll on the starting list. The wind had moderated from the peaks of race four, but was still fresh, Macatak and Altered where at it again with only 27 seconds separating them at the finish, Tasi Oci placed third.
Monday morning it looked like classic Sauna Sail conditions would prevail, as fog and light winds greeted the hardy sailors that had stuck it out to the last day. The Monday morning race is notorious for light fickle winds, but as the sailors hit the water wondering how they would get to the start on time, the wind appeared, building as they approached the start line. This helped the fog to clear and by the start time visibility had improved and the wind was moderate but patchy. Macatak had a major problem at the start allowing the fleet to get ahead, but even with the series in the bag they would not let up, catching and passing each F16 in turn, until only Altered was left ahead of them. Macatak took a higher line on the last beat and tacked inside Altered on the lay line with only 100m to the finish, to again take first place. Immunity made the most of its chances to finish third over the line, again proving how competitive a package the Mosquito can be in the F16 fleet. The Mosquito has a smaller rig than the maximum for F16 but it is also lighter, giving it a similar power to weight ratio. This makes it a excellent choice for those sailors wanting to try out spinnaker sailing for the first time, as it’s lower aspect rig doesn’t overpower as quickly as the fully optimised F16, some one metre taller.
Overall the F16 Challenge was a great showcase for the positive attributes of this growing box rule formula class. With it’s mixture of one up and two up sailors, male, female, adult and youth crews all being competitive on a variety of designs. Showing the F16 class has unrivalled versatility and has to be the most inexpensive way of getting into high performance spinnaker cat sailing, just fit a spinnaker to most up to 5m cats and prepare to get excited. For more information on this exciting new class visit the website.
www.formula16.org/Overall Results.
Place Boat Name Design Skipper Crew Club
1st. Macatak Taipan James McDonald Campbell Wolf Frankston
2nd. Altered Custom Gary Maskiell Gippsland Lakes
3rd. Tasi Oci Taipan Gordon Barrett Jenni Duthie Frankston
4th. Immunity Mosquito Neil Joiner Gippsland Lakes
5th. Karma Cat Mosquito Tim Shepperd Gippsland Lakes
6th. Splashes Too Mosquito Philip Warren-Smith Rosebud
7th. 4 Play Taipan Col Johnson Bryce Densley Frankston
8th. Scream Cobra Wesley Miles Parkdale
I hope I have attached a copy of the start photo.:p
Regards Gary.
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