Team Red on the Head / Hobie Wild Cat Wins F18 Champs

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.

Check out the highlight reels. A lot of the live stuff is junk.

This is one of my favorites:
http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchywest/b/265969250

And this:
http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchywest/b/265971679

I think the commentary of the video reveals all. Photo finish, 2 boats, rockstar sailors, where is 3rd place?

I have developed a pill that increases your ability to sail catamarans really fast, it is only $19.99, and if you call in the next 30 minutes we will send you 2 bottles for the price of 1.

If you have a winning streak of more than 4 races, consult a physician.

Outstanding job of fleet development.

Sounds like some of the key's were
1) Buy in from the racers that this championship had to be on your schedule and supported by the hot racers up and down the coast.

2) Killer Yacht Club with a reputation for great racing.

What other factors (behind the scenes leadership stuff, scheduling, etc. etc. went into making this a signature event and a keystone for building the F18 class on the west coast?

The west coast cat sailors have been leading the trends in the US for years... we need to crib their strategies ASAP!

By my accounting two big success stories ... They started the trend to join Yacht Clubs and race with rest of the world.. (On the Chesapeake... we noticed and copied)

They have the CISA clinics.... (Still a dream on this side. sigh)

We have a CISA equivalent clinic in the North East called the Brooke Gonzalez Advanced Racing Clinic. http://www.sailnewport.org/npt/cliniclanding.aspx

We also have a group of guys that have build a fantastic F18 fleet (virtually forcing me to buy one).
15 boats registered for the Newport Regatta right now. http://www.sailnewport.org/npt/m/_general/clnptregattaentries.asp
We had 17 boats at my first regatta with the new boat a few weekends ago. It's all happening. Finally people are gravitating towards a few good classes instead of 30 boats in 20 different classes.

As too alot of the letters in the finishes. The first two races I sailed the wrong cource. I miss red the sailing instructions.(I'm an idiot)
The third race I lost it at the gate and damaged my back and lost my jib sheet. One crew blew out his knee so my wife sailed in his place Sunday.
Alot of people did the port rounding instead of the proper Stbr rounding as per sailing instruction. Also when it piped up and the flood stacked it up it got nasty.

The winners with 5 bullets out of 6 races.

I thought I saw people rounding A-mark to startboard on the live coverage. I thought it was some special mono-hull regatta funny handshake deal. No protest about the port roundings then?

Chris.

A port rounding is your idea of a weird deal!?

flump, thanks for watching. Sorry it was so choppy. You'd figure that in one of the world's largest cities we would have been able to get decent internet; not so apparently.

Here's an explanation of why we rounded stbd.

http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchywest/b/265965857

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

Just plain funny! Those boys are good. Don't take it away from them. Check: Wassenar last weekend.................

It is funny, but not in a ha-ha way. When we beat Greg and Jacques at this event last year, nobody jumped up and down and said, "the Capricorn beats the Tiger! Oh, and there were some sailors involved..."

First rate event. Dennis and I sailed poorly, but we had a tremendous time. The real credit goes to Don Atchley, who invested serious time building the San Fran NOOD F18 presence. Way to go Don!

As ever with F18, it was a sincere pleasure to see all my Hobie, Nacra and AHPC friends at one event, racing heads-up. Congratulations to Greg and Jacques, and Pete and James. They put on a solid show of mastery in difficult conditions. I would love to see an event where we all show up and then draw to see who gets what boat... oh... maybe we already have that, and the two teams at the top of the event last weekend have both done pretty well under those circumstances, too.

Rum party - epic. Not one breath about who was on what boat. We were all F18s that night and the whole damn regatta knew it.

Number 2. kiss yeah!

Ole, ole, ole, ole.....ole ole!

kiss yeah!

No one is taking away from the awsome sailing Greg and Jacques did this weekend. They had it dialed! That is the performance advantage... you guys are too funny... and no...not in a ha, ha way. Way too uptight sometimes.

Largest NOOD regatta San Francisco 2010. Largest class F-18 at 21. 3 different manufactures represented. 4 different designs. 2 Different countries represented. 3 states represented. A great event for everyone. Several of the big boats said it was great to have us out there tearing it up. I spoke with the commodore and he said he was pleased to have us there.
One of the nicest clubs on the West Coast said we are welcome back anytime. Good on everyone whatever boat you were on.

Winning form.

boat porn at its best

And, to boot... You already know Pete Melvin is bad butt. Look at
this crossing. On the way to try and catch Greg and Jacques, who were utterly hauling butt.

Our DNF was because a jib sheet got sucked into the spinnaker block so tight we had to go to shore to fix it. After fixing it while sailing down to the start line we saw them start our fleet. I thought they were going to wait just a bit, but...

We did not go in, by the way, it was so nice out there we just sailed around for a while watching the race and ready if they were going to have another.

Jeremy thank you for the publicity support! It was a better event than I even thought it would be. I will put it on the calendar for next year, if all agree.

Later,
Dan

Nice sailing Dan!
http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchywest/b/266021207

JUNE 26, 2010
Back on the Bay - Dave Reed

It's been six years since the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta was raced on San Francisco Bay, and with classic San Fran conditions for the opening day, it sure felt good to be back.

© Dave Reed/sailing World
Enlarge Photo
As I scanned across San Francisco Bay from the race deck of the St. Francis YC, with winds whipping through the gates and numerous classes short tacking the City Front, only one thought kept coming to mind: it's great to be back in San Fran.

After a six-year hiatus, the Sperry Top-Sider San Francisco NOOD, a two-day affair here, is back on, hosting the most diverse collection of classes of any other NOOD (with 164 entries). We've got trimarans (Corsair 24s, Wetas), beach cats (Formula 18s), dinghies (Lasers, Finns, and Flying Dutchmen), IRC boats, new and old one-designs (J/105s, Olson 25, Folkboats, Express 37s and 27s, J/24s, J/22, and Melges 24s and 20s), and yes, even kiteboarders. It's not the big-boat fest it was way back when, but the diversity of the 18 classes is a perfect snapshot of the sport today.

As far as the numbers go, the Formula 18 catamarans have rallied the most entries (19) and they've come from far and wide to set up shop on nearby Chrissy Field Beach and take advantage of the primo racecourse between the Golden Gate Bridge and St. Francis YC. With the F-18 class being a “box rule” design, there's a lot of variety in the fleet in terms of hull shapes, designers, and builders, but by design they “should” all be the same speed around the racecourse.

Boathandling is still the dividing factor, though, as evidenced by the finish deltas as winds kicked into the mid-20s by mid-day today. Leading the teams vying for the West Coast title are Hobie Cat team riders Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier, who are using the event as a final tune-up to the massive 150-boat F-18 Worlds in France next week.

The bright-red sails of their Hobie Tiger were easy to spot as they front of the fleet in each of the first two races. They were leading on the final run of the third and final race of the day as well before pitchpoling on the last jibe into the mark, allowing all-star multihull sailor and designer Pete Melvin's blue Nacra to sneak past.

“It was a big puff,” said Thomas. “The bows went in and Jacques went flying around the front of the boat.” They managed to get back on the racetrack quickly, and were nipping at Melvin's transoms as the two reached into the finish. “It's awesome sailing here,” added Thomas, a first timer to the City Front, “and really cool to have people sitting onshore watching.”

The Weta 4.4s (a New Zealand-built 14-foot trimaran and SW's Best Dinghy in it's 2010 Boat of the Year program) and the Corsair 24s have assembled for their West Coast Championship as well. The Weta, fleet, which has a strong local presence, spent the day chasing the boat's designer Chris Kichen, who swept the four-races of the day, and

As the onsite rep for the magazine, the SW editor onsite plays host on the sponsor VIP, so that's where yours truly spent the day, motoring up and down the City Front circle with spectators and sponsors from Sperry Top-Sider, Essex Credit, and Mount Gay Rum. We jealously watched the close racing of the classic white-sailed Knarrs, and Folkboats, hooted for F-18s as they went tearing by, and ogled the big hardware of the 7-boat IRC class, namely Dan Woolery's Summit 40 Soozal, looking in fine form as usual.

It was impossible not to get excited about it all: the big flood tide, a snotty 25-knot westerly, and, of course, a thin veil of fog shrouding the Golden Gate Bridge to make it feel like home. It's good to back. Tomorrow we get to see the action of Berkeley Circle, and we're looking forward to it. Meantime, check out the results, and the replay of the live City Front feed from City Front feed from Surf City Catamaran's Jeremy Leonard.

Some more great sailing from the SF Bay.

http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchywest/b/266086442

Thanks JW!
But I need to say some thanks too.
Thanks to NAF18 NAF18, and HCNA HCA for supporting the idea of a West Coast Championships with Sailing World at the 2010 San Francisco NOOD.
Thanks to Mike Krantz of Zhik.USA
Thanks to Matt Miller and Hobie USA
Thanks to Jeremy Leonard of Surf City Racing Catamarans

Thanks to Dan DeLave, John Williams, Rich Vilvens, Mark Jones, and many others that worked the peer pressure in the background and kept the information flowing.

And especially for the 22 skippers and crews that signed on to a new venue and a new format. Truly appreciated.



We got the F18's into a major venue at the St. Francis Yacht Club, with a City Course venue and Crissy Field launch. And the real surprises came when they invited us back!
Sailing World is proposing a 3-day event next year. And StFYC was suggesting they would like to be considered for our Nationals at some point. Now they do have nice toilet amenities there I'll admit.
But that warm water at the ABYC was very soothing to all of the Pacific Northwest guys. It would be a tough call...