2015 F18 Worlds - Kiel

Killing some time over lunch and checked in on it. Race tracking is up for the practice races.

Link here: http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=558

Red race seems curious. Kinda looks like SWE2 hit USA111 (Tomeo/Tebo) near the gate. Also looks like USA1870 Laura/Alex had a technical issue. Any reports?

It was a practice race today. Laura and Alex didn't have any technical/boat issues. She is happy with the boat tune and speed she is not happy with her mark roundings and some of her tacks which I have no doubt she will get cleaned up in short order. This is her first World Championship and it's a big one so you'd expect a little pre game jitters.

Tomeo/Tebo had a solid practice race, Ricky seemed a little off his game but it is a practice race so you really can't take too much away.

The tracking is awesome and I'm really looking forward to the start of racing.

Holy bullet Batman, Easton/Byrd caught a bullet in the first race!

Reiss/Whitehead 5
Daniel/ 10
Ricky/ 11
Tomeo/Tebo 21
Strobel/ 27
Muma/Shafer/ 28
Uli/Seabass/ 37
Piche/ 41

Amazing to very solid numbers being posted by the US teams. Very nice to see.

http://f18worlds.kyc.de/index.php/results_f18/results/

Only one race today on each course. They are done and back on the beach.

Really light air today... maybe 4-7... we were worried they might blow it off on the second beat.
1 General on both courses.
Steve Piche had a senior moment and took my tracker in the morning. Someone else took my tracker for the practice race too.
We tacked right after the start, Mike & Tripp tacked a bit after and both of us crossed the fleet. We were punched out but had a little different pressure than them and managed to round in sixth while they rounded in first. They led the whole way around. We lost a couple boats downwind and a couple more upwind.
Tomorrow looking better with 10-15 forecasted

Hellllll Yeah buddy, keep up the good work!

+1 reh-prah-sent

Nicely done! Nothing like getting away from the pack in a big fleet.

What's it feel like to have 80 boats breathing down your neck??? I panic when there's only 20!

Mike

From Steve Piche's FB Post

Top Ten List for Day 1 of F18 Worlds:

Good morning Germany! While you in the US rest your weary heads, the sun has popped back up here in Kiel, Germany and we are about to embark on Day 2 of the F18 Worlds. However, before we get into Day 2, let’s recap the action from Day 1 (oh and thanks to Lorelei for giving me my cowboy hat before leaving the house today!)…

1. Team USA Bullet! After the racing only one race yesterday due to light wind, I came ashore and pulled my boat up next to Michael Easton and Tripp Burd who are storing their boat next to mine. I asked Michael how they had done. He casually said “pretty well”. I asked him what “pretty well” meant. He said he got a bullet! Whew, I started cheering and letting everyone know that he had gotten a bullet! Good job Michael and Tripp. Great way to start the regatta! (However, it is only one race and we have many more to go!)

2. Regatta Site: What a beautiful place for a regatta! We are located on a large bay in the East Sea (Baltic Sea) in northern Germany. This place lives, breathes and eats sailing! Kiel Week, which is the largest regatta in the world, is held here every June. We are based out of the Olympic center which was developed for the 1972 Olympics. We are actually sailing outside of the bay in a more open area – it is about a three mile sail to the course each day. Just a really nice location for the regatta.

3. Team USA Part II: We had some other good scores from Team USA! Taylor Reiss took a fifth and Todd Riccardi took an 11th. Charles Tomeo and Laura Muma were on the race course with me and scored 22nd and 28th respectively. Juke and I survived with a mid-pack finishing in very light conditions which is usually one of our weaker points of sail so we were actually fairly happy. The wind is supposed to be up more today so we are excited to go racing in some breeze. (Sorry I don’t have the rest of the Team USA scores – no internet at our beach house so I have to go down to the regatta site to see the scores.)

4. Opening Ceremony: On Monday evening, we had a parade of nations before the opening ceremony. We all gathered together under our 24 different flags and then paraded to the hall where the opening ceremonies were conducted. It was fun for everyone including Juke’s son Lux who got to carry the USA sign for part of the parade!

5. Black Flag! As is usual for the start of any large regatta, many people jumped the starting line early on the first race and the race committee called a general recall to restart the race. However, what was unusual is that the starting line is so long, almost a half mile long, that at the far end of the line you cannot see the flags. After starting down by the favored pin end for the first start, we heard a horn and saw everyone sailing back. We started to sail back towards the committee boat and as we got closer we realized that they had a black flag up – automatic disqualification if you are over the line one minute to the start. I immediately got myself below the line and no sooner was I below the line then they took the black flag down indicating one minute to start. We tried to get ourselves in position for the start but really did not get full back up to the line in time for the start. From now on, we just have to assume that the black flag is up and get below the line good and early and be ready to go. There really is no way to see the flags on the committee boat unless you have better than 20/20 vision. We will have to work off horns.

6. Germany comes with Free Air Conditioning and Lighting! Besides the lack of wind yesterday, the weather has been quite beautiful here. It has been in the mid-60’s and partly sunny most of the time we have been here. Also, the sun sets at 10 pm and comes up at 5 pm. For this reason, I think the people in Kiel must not have an electric bill because they get free air conditioning and free lighting!

7. Fitting 100 boats through a tiny gate: So the fleet is divided up into two groups for sailing each day. During the qualifying series, which consists of the first 6 races, the fleets are divided based upon ranking and previous results. After the first 6 races, the fleet will be divided up into two groups, top half and bottom half, for the remainder of the regatta. Given the split fleet, we have 100 boats on a half mile long starting line which is fine but it is a disaster trying to fit 100 boats though a 50 yard wide gate. In the mid fleet where we found ourselves yesterday there was virtual no wind at the lower gate. We rounded the gate and just slowly poked forward in the lee of the massive number of boats coming down wind with spins flying. It took us several minutes to get going. With so many boats, the gate rounding becomes critical to how well you do in the race especially if you are in the middle of the pack.

8. Our Beach House: Juke and I are sharing the top two floors of a beach house just two blocks from the regatta site. It is really a pretty location and perfect for Juke’s family. We have a wonderful beach right in front of the house which is only slightly used due to the free air conditioning!

9. DPI: You may have seen that I got a DPI penalty on my score card. If you don’t take your tracker out or forget to return it at the end of the day, you get a one point penalty. I accidently grabbed tracker 183 instead of tracker 182 yesterday and was given a one point penalty. I will be more careful today!

10. Today: As I have been writing this top 10 list, the wind has been building outside. It is a beautiful blue sky day with wind building out of the west. A great day to go sailing! Four races are scheduled for today!

Not a bad day for the US teams: After 4 races, 2 guys in the top 10, 4 in top 14.

Results

Apparently Uli got holed on the way out to the course in the morning - knocking him out for the day, including any chance for the Gold fleet.

Great time of year to be there.... middle of December.. different story

Thanks for the update and good luck

All of today's races are now in the results,
Reiss/Whitehead are second!

2 - Reiss/Whitehead
9 - Easton/Burd
11 - Tomeo/Tebo
18 - Riccardi/Aras
51 - Stroebel/Woodguard-George
52 - Daniel/Madwell
55 - Muma/Shafer
95 - Piche/Ball

Uli didn't sail today, he got hit on the way to the course he will be back tomorrow.

Again, solid showing by the US teams!

??? I see Easton in fifth (tied for third).

Is Uli getting some sort of redress, and do you know what that is going to be?

Thanks for all of the info!

Mike

Tomorrow the first start is scheduled for 10am(!), its unlikely that there is any wind so we'll see how that goes.
This notice went up at 8pm and I wonder if everyone saw it.

Had four races today on the yellow course with shifty conditions and some annoying chop at times.
Pretty happy with the event so far, currently sitting in 34th place which should be good enough for the gold fleet.

Why did they bump it forward, do you know?

Mike

They did a recalc with a throwout. Big shuffle, Reiss/Whitehead got bumped down Easton/Burd remain 9

Robbie dropped his BFD which moved him way up.

http://manage2sail.com/en-US/event/cf4c17df-97ca-42f8-b24f-273f1c8fd232/#!/results?classId=020b3519-02c5-4e7c-adcb-354d59eb7ede

According to Uli's Facebook post the jury denied his redress request.

I'd really like to hear more about the reason for the denial.

Mike

Team USA hanging in!

Good news / bad news for Easton: another bullet, but also a new throwout...

Mike

The 23 is from yesterday they only did one today and it was shortened.

Daniel and Stroebel caught black flags today which hurt them both but Robbie with two really sent him tumbling.

Tomorrows forecast looks great hopefully they will get a fair amount of racing in.

Great to see Taylor and Matthew hanging in, still tied for third!

Qualification round is done, correct?

Mike

Correct, they made the cut yesterday.

from SA this morning on the F18 fleet:

...if you’re looking for a fast fleet that allows out-of-the-box boats and decade-old designs to race competitively, this is the one

is this really a true statement?

The class was built on that premise 2 decades ago and it's a formula that works and works well. No, it's not a class for everyone and if you want the latest and greatest go fast with steep price tags the class is not for you.

The Infusion is 10 years old and in my opinion is the best all around shape.

Clearly I'm a huge fan and very bias so take the opinion for what it is worth.

Well there are probably 9 year old infusions here that are being competitive.. we had a bad race for us yesterday, but still mid fleet and were nearly beaten by a 2001 Hobie Tiger. So yes it's true. It comes down to almost entirely the sailor.
Absolutely brutal conditions today. Just like the second half of yesterday, light wind with brutal chop that is difficult to steer through, though the chop was smaller today. I was lucky enough to spend my first day on the blue course where we had 5 general recalls and spent over 2 hours trying to get a race off while the yellow course got a race off with just one recall. Luckily we had great starts every time and the 6th start finally went off managed to force a hole and win the left side against some really good sailors. We were 6th around the windward mark, the wind died way down on the downwind and it became a crapshoot. Not sure where we rounded the leeward mark as we were a bit busy, the course was shortened at the windward mark and we were able to finish 11th but the wind nearly completely died and a lot of boats didn't finish. IMO the race shouldn't have happened but our RC was under pressure to have a race to match the yellow course.
Looks like 15-20 the next two days, will be good for the top 4 American teams. But the Euros are all fast in this stuff, will be fun racing at least, not the head pounding of the last 1.5 days.

Only one race today in very light conditions, a lot of BFDs on the yellow course (+/-10).
Finished as 28th that race so not too bad considering.
Happy to have made the gold fleet, next two days are suppose to be quite windy (15kts-ish).

Good luck tomorrow, I've enjoyed watching!

If the RC could add a mid-line RC boat, that could help with the generals, but not a guarantee. Black flag and chip away is sometimes the only thing to do in a large aggressive fleet.

I've seen races go inside out, and still be shortened and counted, at a few Worlds, under several highly respected IROs. Nobody's first choice, obviously.

Mike

Sounds like the US team is having a tough one today- lots of broken boats.

From Todd R:

Laura and Alex: Damage to hull, mast, and broken pole
Taylor : Broken pole (unconfirmed)
Mike and Tripp: 3 broken rudders
Mischa: broke spin halyard
Max Loiselle: hit and transom ripped off
Todd: ripped spin

Holy Sh*t! That's a lot of bad juju for one day...

It sucks to see so much broken gear in one day heck one freaking race!

Take a look at silver fleet... Uli is posting very respectable numbers! It looks like wind and waves might be Uli and Seabass's thing!

Steve and Juke are also rocking the silver fleet.

Right on! You know those two are having a freaking ball! All those 300's make you strong! :-)

I was looking at the results earlier, but they aren't sorted in a way that makes sense, not sure if that's because they were still entering data? But, I did see a DNF and some DNCs for Mike and others. I was hoping there was better news coming...

Knowing nothing about the incident(s), all we can do as fans is hope for redress, but even if they get it, it will be hard to maintain, let alone improve, overall position in the regatta.

Big time bummer for those guys...

Mike

good lord.

Really bummed to be out of the running for a top result but we are very happy with our event and it is what it is. The intensity in gold fleet today was insane... racing was super tight and aggressive. Paired with the conditions of 18-23 (some reports of 25 but I'm not sure I believe that) it was really easy to make mistake and break something. We had 2 crappy starts and I thought for sure we could lean on our upwind speed (which was fast against all the boats around us). But in these conditions all the Euros are fast! I considered myself lucky to make it out of the windward roundings alive as 3/4 of the fleet arrived at nearly the same time with lots of boats coming in on port within the zone.
Mitch Booth broke both daggerboards in race 1.
Taylor did break a pole but was second around the windward mark and still finished 21st in race 3.

I love suicide port approaches at weekend regattas, but with a fleet of 30 or more boats, especially if they're good, nothing good happens in the middle third of the fleet. Unless you're the jury looking for hearings for your resume, or own a fiberglass repair shop...

Mike

Lots of wind yesterday and short steep waves, we broke our mainsheet shackle so didn't finish the 2nd race.
There was quite a lot of damage on the course, mainly broken spin poles though.
Although this Wildcat had it a bit worse:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dyvdvjaksbgf9yt/f18-wildcat.jpg

Reiss/Whitehead got a bullet in the first race on Saturday! Doing very well in the next race

Sweet! Uli/Seabass got a 3 in the first silver fleet race.

Reiss-Whitehead 4 in second race of the day. Looks like there will be at least one more today. Lots of wind today but flatter sea state

I understand that this is an international site, but I have a question for US sailors.

Was this the best showing for US sailors at a F18 Worlds? 4 boats in the Top 50, 2 boats in the Top 20 and 1 boat in the Top 5 - not including Easton/Burd who had equipment failure, but were looking like Top 10/15. Is the US F18 sailor talent the deepest it has ever been?

What were the best finishes for Team USA at the H16 Worlds or Tornado Worlds (historically)? I know there have been some good finishes, but don't know specifics.

Tom, the short answer, yes. Excluding the 2012 F18 Worlds in Long Beach, CA this was the deepest and best showing of US F18 teams. The F18 fleet has come a very long way in the last 10 years.

So if you're getting beat by an F18 in a handicap race it's probably not the F18 number that's beating you, right Mr. Hart?

Here the three videos which sum up the event:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/134634996
https://vimeo.com/135227282
https://vimeo.com/135049291