2011 Austrailian F16 Championships

The 2011 Austalian F16 Championship gets underway tomorrow at Gosford on the Central Coast of Australia. 12 boats of varying platform configuration have registered for what will be the hottest contest in Aus F16 history.

More details & photos tomorrow

Marcus

Congratulations! Glad to see the class growing down under.

Thanks for keeping us posted Marcus! Now, about where on the Google map of Oz, should I start looking for the venue? ie. where is the "central coast", east or west? Thanks.

best of luck to all..

Keep working on the google skills Timbo. Found the NOR.
Gosford, NSW
Gosford Sailing Club

Thanks! My kids call me a Caveman but I know this internet thing is just a fad, I still have lots of pencils and paper.

Looks like it's about 50-60km north of Sydney.

Australian F16 Nationals, is being held at Gosford sailing club. Situated half way between NSW two major cities. Sydney, an hours drive to the south and Newcastle an hours drive to the north. The F18 are holding their nationals as well.
I live in Umina Beach, a 15 min drive to Gosford. My crew and I arrived Thursday afternoon to be greeted by the relatively small, but well grassed rigging area. (mainly a laser and a sabot club)
There were around 15 boats already rigged or being rigged.
F16's there were 5 Vipers and Russell. We found a spot and proceed to rig. We planned to sail Thursday arvo but time got away from us. Russell has only been on the water 6 times and never with a spinnaker and we needed to get some time on the water.
It was a good afternoon, meeting and greeting, having a chat, a beer,checking out the boats and just hanging around. Even though we didn't get on the water,I felt strangely satisfied.
Friday morning and the rigging area was swelling, Three blades from South Australia had arrived. But to my surprise Marcus had brought Simon's boat and not the Razor. It was a shame, because there was a bit of buzz around, looking forward to seeing the newest Aussie design.
Desperate to see if the spinnaker and new jib settings was going to work, we waited a little while for a breeze to fill in and we hit the water.
A gentle 8 to 10 knots of breeze from the east, perfect for checking things out.
I should point out that my crew is a good mate of mine, and over drinks one night explained that he would love to give sailing a go. With him being a champion surfer and his understanding of weather conditions and being used to the water and the good balance that surfers have, I explained that the national titles are in our back yard in a couple of months times and if he was serious he could crew in the regatta. He has never been on a sailing boat before, but was very enthusiastic. We spent many afternoons putting the finishing touches on Russell.
Together we weigh a casual 170 kgs and it soon became apparent that the 4 times we had been on the boat together our crew work sucked. I decided that he would skipper and I would take care of all other duties. This we practice a couple of times without a spinnaker. Which brings me to Friday morning.
We left the sailing club and made our way to lake proper to be greeted by the consistent but light easterly. We were the only boat on the lake. We made our way up wind with me on the wire and, just checking every thing out. With the jib settings the boat felt good.
Time to turn around and head down wind, we were both a bit apprehensive, but I pulled on the halyard and away we went. We ran pretty deep to start with, but everything looked fine. The only problem was some control lines got caught in sheet pulley. We powered it up, not enough to trap, but enough to lift a hull and for me to watch what was going on and for Glen to get a feel for it. We got to the bottom of the lake, doused the spinnaker and just sat there talking about what we would adjust when we went in for lunch.
We headed back up wind with the breeze filling in a little more and turning north.
Half way the lake I thought it was time the two of us trapped, so I asked him to come out. Disaster, one slip and one knee through the port hull just above the water line.
Russell was built with four water tight compartments, so I knew we would get back.
I only sponged out a bucket of water, but that’s it for us. Regatta over. Plenty of people offered their help, services and materials to get us back on the water. But I am pretty bummed and I just couldn’t be bothered.
I was offered a ride on a brand new C2 for the afternoon, which I jumped at. Very well set up boat and Russell will get a few modifications.
I will continue to turn up, get some photos and some reports.

Regards tony

Sorry to hear about the hole in the boat. How was the F18 ride?

A skiffy would say. spinny patch over lay with masking tape and its good to go..
its a bugger to have happened.. enjoy the C2

Hi all,

wish I was there, but just got back to work from Mossie Nats.

Good to see a Taipan winning, allways said the sailors on the boat where more important than the difference in the boats.

You have found a results page somewhere ?

Wouter

results after first 4 races

http://aus-f16.blogspot.com/

Results after 9 races

http://aus-f16.blogspot.com/2011/01/australian-f16-nationals-results-after_23.html

What sort of wind conditions for the event ?

Today's conditions were very "trying" for the sailors, but they still managed 3 races.

First 3 place getters are:
1st - Matt & Chris Homan sailing a VIPER
2nd - Current Australian Taipan Title holder, Andrew Williams & Chris Monroe on their Taipan.
3rd - Adrian Fawcett & Jesse Dobie on a Viper.

Full results should be available soon on Australian F16 Catamaran

Looks like AHPC have a great system going, get the top Taipan sailors and stick them on Vipers = great results.

And, its called marketing.

Race report and piccies guys and girls or in true SA terms " it never happened "

The TWO Top Taipan guys were on TAIPANS

Andrew Williams is the current Taipan National holder, and Daniel Van Kerchoff was runner up. Both these guys were on TAIPANS at the F16 title.... and both sailed incredibly well. They really showed what a great boat the Taipan is....

Thanks Helen.

Well Done to Matty and Red Dog. They did well to come out on top. The taipans were very fast. If you want a cheap F16 it has to be the best option. Im glad they came to make it the toughest Australian F16 regatta yet.

The One up blades managed to sneak in to get some good results as well.

Race results and a report will come later today. Phil Brander also got some photos but i have not seen any yet.

Looking forward to photos. Any videos?

These are the photos Phill sent to me.

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That's it for the F16 photos.

Disappointing about the Razor not being there. I live in Hawaii and I would like to build one. No F16s within a couple thousand miles but that's the only way I know to win races . How do I contact Phill about plans? He hasn't answered emails at the email address given on this site.
Thanks
Barry Lay (ex-Aucklander)

you could always try sending him a PM on here.

http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showprofile&User=37

alternatively, drop me a PM with your contact details and I'll pass them on to Phill for you

Thanks John. I've sent him a couple of PMs and he hasn't responded. I figure maybe he's too busy and just hasn't completed the plans yet. But I will send you my email also.
Thanks
Barry

Phill's mother is very ill, I am sure he will contact you when he gets a chance.

I just spoke to Phill.. Give him a few days.. It is not my place to explain what is happening.. But I am sure he will get back to you when his mind is a little clearer..

Thanks for the photos!

I forgot I took a few shots with my camera

Some more

The AHPC crew

Blades & Viper

wind strength of the race days ?

Sorry for the lateness and the format. Had manor dramas getting a copy of the results. Should be able to work it out if your interested. A better copy and report will be posted on Australian f16 website soon.

Scoring system: Appendix A
Rank BowNo Fleet Make SailNo State Skipper Crew R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 Total Nett
1st 12 F16 TBA ALO166 QLD Matt Homan Chris Homan (4) 2 3 3 2 1 2 1 1 3 1 (4) 27 19
2nd 4 F16 TBA AUS 312
Andrew Williams
Chris Monroe
1 4 2 1 (7) 4 1 4 (5) 2 3 1 35 23
3rd 2 F16 Viper AUS 165 QLD
Adrian Fawcett
Jesse Dobie (5) 1 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 1 4 (5) 33 23
4th 7 F16 TBA AUS 334
Dan Vankerckhof
Kings Pursh 3 3 (12 DNC) (12 DNC) 4 2 6 2 3 6 2 3 58 34
5th 11 F16 TBA TBA
Pim Hagenaar
Marleen Buizer
(8) 5 4 4 5 (8) 4 5 4 5 5 6 63 47
6th 5 F16 TBA AUS 406
Antony Barrett
NA 7 7 5 5 1 5 7 (8) (12 DNC) 4 6 2 69 49
7th 10 F16 TBA AUS 408
Marcus Towell
NA 6 8 8 7 8 7 5 6 6 (12 DNC) (12 DNC) 12 DNC 97 73
8th 8 F16 TBA AUS 403
Emile Barrett
NA 2 6 9 6 6 6 10 (12 DNC) (12 DNC) 12 DNC 12 DNC 12 DNC 105 81
9th 1 F16 Viper AUS 164 QLD Don Dull NA 9 9 6 (12 DNC) 9 9 9 (12 DNC) 12 DNC 7 12 DNC 12 DNC 118 94
10th 3 F16 TBA AUS 180
Graig Milton
NA 10 10 7 8 11 10 11 (12 DNC) (12 DNC) 8 7 12 DNC 118 94
11th 6 F16 Viper AUS 182 NSW
Patrick Boutonnet
Judy Boutonnet
11 11 10 9 10 11 8 7 (12 DNC) 9 (12 DNC) 12 DNC 122 98

Results are up at Aus-f16.blogspot.com. Much easier to read.

Whose boat is 403? How do you like the sail? I've been talking to Glenn about using the same cloth on a mozzie main.

403 would be Emile Barret I think. Could be Tony Barret. It's been a while since I have been down the Local sailing club.:)

Seems that one single handlers managed to mingle with the doubles. Was there a big difference in finishing time between the first doubles and first unis?

Gill

Really, from what I see with one exception (which included 3 DNCs) There is no mixing in the final results. 1-> 5 double handers, 6->10 single handers. Tony and Emile both managed to buck the trend a couple of times, but generally it was two seperate fleets. I agree though finishing times would be helpfull.

Yes it's an older mylar main I believe. Not cheap but much much stiffer (and less forgiving) then the Pentex.

There would be more around except for the price and the fact that most get destroyed long before their time by crew falling into the mainsail during capsize. The pentex are cheaper but even less durable especially with the size and shape of the window these days.

Really, from the photo it looks like MAXX. In theory price should be very competitive. More for the cloth but less for the labour.

in my experience, half the cost of the sail is labor. Take a crosscut main- the number of seams is MUCH less than a radial cut. New fabric with a laminate which is designed for cross cut will cut labor costs.... provided one can get the shape desired...
A cat mains are going this way and it is a great development.

Our experiance with the F12 sails is the labor is more than half.

The crosscut cloth costs basically twice as much to comparable radial cloth. So it evens out really. I sometimes wonder tho. A good sail maker can stick up a radial sail pretty quick.

I really like the pentex maxx. Nice to work with and nice to use on the boat.

Aido in your opinion what is the life expectancy of crosscut MAXX sails compared to radials?

Maxx does seem a bit more durable than the radial varieties. It's a bit more crush resistant. However Crushing mostly occurs during transport and putting the sail up and down so if your careful it doesn't matter.

The thing i like about maxx is that it seems a bit easier to trim. If your sailing a boat where the helm trims the main it makes life a bit easier.

There is another cloth called Flex which is also worth looking at. I expect it to be much the same.

Maxx is made by Contender. Flex by Dimenion Polyant.

Maxx was the "original" cloth, Flex is the competing product.

In my experience Maxx stretch a bit under load. Depending on cloth, layout and reinforcement of course. Lifetime was the same for our Maxx Pentex and radial Pentex sails.

Interesting note on lifespan. Since the original cloths (Maxx and Flex) Contender have released a mainsail specific cloth with a very asymetric fibre layout.

The problem with it after doing more research is it appears to a little heavy with the lightest cloth being 4.9 oz.

Its definetly Maxx that Glenn is using, although I'm not sure if it is the mainsail version.

Contender also supply a stiff Pentex tape to be used for luff reinforcement.

Our Maxx sails was lighter than radial sail. Not by much though. For ease of build and smooth surface when set Maxx was really good. Fewer seams and less work.