F 16 Worlds about to get rolling in Newport

Are you going Bert?

Mike

Wish I could, but I am busy with local sailing this year so far. I hope they do enjoy a bit of

Chamber

weather. My son is using our boat in his summer sailing camp at Pensacola Yacht Club, and Michael is now the captain of his high school cheerleading team. I hope we get the J 29 in a race or two this fall.

I'm rolling out in about half an hour. Newport via Nashville, makes sense right?

The Great Circle route? ;^)

Southern version

I'm filling in as a last minute crew replacement, should be fun

Ahh...the Great-er Circle route!

When you get to Oprey Land, say Hi to Dolly for me!

NOR has several options for courses: W/L and America's Cup (even one day for distance race).

Anyone attending wish to share their preferences?

Mike

Holy smash-up, an A.C. course with a fleet of F16s!? (or F18s, etc.)? That would be awesome to watch but would probably result in a lot of carbon and fiberglass pieces floating in the water. Consider me intrigued at the thought.

I see a sailing version of one of THESE coming

Watching the AC45s fleet race on that course was awesome, with surprisingly little carnage. Reaching starts tend to be harder to perfect, allowing for some natural separation to occur.

Maybe they'll get drone footage...

Mike

Webcam of today's Red Gear Racing Practice with the Newport to Bermuda race start in the bacground.
Looks like 6 F16s out in 8-9 knots.
http://old.riyachting.com/newport-rhode-island-webcams.html

Reaching start in a high speed fleet? I don't think so. I had enough trouble with the reaching finish at Sarasota.

Reaching starts don't work well with lots of boats.. We tried it during the America's Cup World Series, kind of by accident. All the boats got to the windward mark at the same time and the leeward mark for that matter. Scary

Scary yes... but also awesome. Those races were also about ten minutes long, so not much time to separate.

Personally, I would rather a standard start, but having a trapezoid or something with a reach would be fun.

This will be my first F16 regatta...

I'm a big fan of the trapezoid course and with big fleets it is brilliant. I also liked the smoking reach to the finish at Americas. You'd think a short reach to the finish in breeze would be a parade, oh no there be passing lanes and crew work is king! Yes, grandpa got passed, still loved it though!

Same here...you couldn't relax on that reach and if you didn't make the right kite/no kite decision, it could be costly. Andy got me once there at Americas (he seems to do that to me a lot).

The OA put it in, presumably because the class wants it. I guess time will tell...

I am a huge fan of the trapezoids, especially for multiple fleets sharing a course. I sort of talked the HCA into it for the NAs in DE a few years ago, it got mixed reviews, probably because it was so new (and requires lots of good resources).

Mike

Without a doubt the trapezoid course places additional demands on the RC team and competent support is a must to make it work. The course takes a lot or realestate but WOW what a great course for the sailors and when the breeze and seastate kicks up it is an absolute hoot for the sailors! The pucker factor kicks up a notch when the boat 3 meters above or below you eats it. That double trapped spin reach to the other side can really thin the herd. In my opinion it is a must for big fleets and Worlds type of events. It gives you an opportunity to exercise every skill you have in the toolbox. GO TRAPAZOID 🙂

I'd be curious to hear negatives of the the trapzaoid course.

Jeff - you are thinking clearly, and may the F 16 Force be with you. They are snappy little boats for sure.

The trapezoid works for Optis, and it works for Lasers, Finns, and 470s.

The 2009 ISAF World Youth Qualifier (Laser, 420, and Hobie 16s), out of Long Beach Yacht Club, presented them.

I have to agree with Jeff and Dave here.

Mike, what ya think?

Bad idea for a fleet of mixed singlehanded and two up boats.
Stick with windward/leeward with an even number of legs.

I answered that above, Bert. I've been running various styles of trapezoids for longer than I can remember for monohull fleets. They're perfect for cats.

As for the AC courses, time will tell how much demand we see at the regatta.

Singlehanded boats can't handle a reach or trapezoid? Really, Karl????? <img src="<>/whistle.gif" alt="whistle" title="whistle" height="15" width="15" />

Mike

You ever raced a single handed, high performance, light weight spinnaker cat on a tight reach Mike?

It's a lot of work, with no extra hands to help.

I was trying to inject humor here...

I'm thinking the reaches need to be tight enough to take spinnakers out of the equation until you turn the corner to go downwind. I seem to remember that for the AC boats.

Again, I'm looking for feedback. The OA thinks this is a good idea. One of my bigger pet peeves is when NORs or SIs say they'll do something like this, people get excited about it, then they never try. Or worse, they do try, but people can't handle their cheese being moved.

Mike

Handle it okay. But the performance difference without the jib and without another body on the wire is a bit disparaging.

One of several mysteries of the class rules...

What would you guys think of speed runs like in the ACWS?

Mike

no F16 here but I did like the trapezoid at the F18 worlds and the reach finish at Sarasota.

This can happen if not careful.
3

I feel the sloop vs. uni thing works fine so long as it is windward/leeward and there's an even number of legs. Some conditions certainly favor one setup more than the other, but for the most part it works. Get a uni boat to really haul butt is tough though, that really tiny jib makes a huge difference there as does the ballast on a reach.

I speed run would be fun.

And who's fault is that?