F 16 Worlds about to get rolling in Newport

E-ZAY BIG GUY!

Beautiful weather for Day 1. Four practice races (S-W-F), smiles all around.

Some logistical challenges, starts moving out to noon each day. No AC course, but a hook/reach finish added at the request of the International Class President.

Should be a great week.

Mike

Four races today, perfect conditions. Average breeze was 14 knots with gusts to 18-20, sea breeze dialed right in, and nice flat water. Would have run a fifth, but one third of the fleet was ashore by the fourth race...

Results will be posted shortly (Class meeting underway).

Mike

Results are up...

http://f16worlds2014.org/assets/F16%20Worlds%20Results.pdf

Mike

What happened to these guys they ok?
25
Ben Brown/Andrew Wilkenson

Broke a daggerboard which then cracked their trunk. Should be sailing today. Bummed for them.

Looks like Ravi/Sam have recovered nicely from a breakdown in Race 1 (just assuming from the scoring line).

Broke their spin halyard in race one. Started race two late, apparently too late for the RC. They were launched in races 3 and 4, impressive sailing.

Just saw an amendment that they added a course 7 and 8 for today. Would prefer longer legs instead of 4 laps!

Edit: Spin halyard block

Hey Jeff,

I believe that is Keenan Madewell (not Maxwell), from St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club, in Panama City. Katie is from Miami Yacht Club or Ft Lauderdale Yacht Club, if my AARP memory serves me.

I hope all is going well, and the Red Gear tent is rockin', as usual:-) I wish you, David, and Ravi, well, but we gotta root for our home (GYA) boy, Keenan.

Give Mike my best if he is amongst y'all.

Updated scores are up:

http://f16worlds2014.org/assets/F16%20Worlds%20Results%202.pdf

Redress given to Robert Brunger due to damage sustained in a collision with another boat.

Four more races today, quite shifty and challenging for all. Somewhat lighter breeze, with enough puffs and shifts to keep everyone on their toes.

Regarding all of the alphabet soup, paraphrasing the very wise class leadership, the first rule about Fight Club is...

Suffice it to say, challenging conditions have caused a number of breakdowns, both physically and mentally.

Two days in, two rescue swimmers needed to help right boats (one was a local Hobie 16 sailor, friend of mine). Lots of cool wipeouts, and some separated crews. A great job by all of the RC boats keeping up with the mayhem. Several competitors who were done yesterday came out in wetsuits to help on RC boats today.

There are two great coaches who are also invaluable this week: Jill Nickerson and her team from Red Gear Racing, and Jim Zellmer who is currently coaching in Sarasota, but has been a longtime racer in New England.

For the past two days, a rather large (moored) tanker has taken some options away regarding course length (and affecting number of laps). Jeff thinks sailing around this thing is fun, no one followed... It's scheduled to depart in about an hour from now, shouldn't be a problem on Thursday.

Forecast is a bit dicey (rain/lightning), we'll see how it shapes up in the morning. We've had one sailor in the group actually ask/beg us to go to five races per day yesterday and today to get ahead of schedule for the pending weather. She was the only competitor who felt that way...

Eight races completed. Seven more races in the schedule. They get another discard after one more race.

Apologies for not posting live updates from the water. We've had our hands full, and are fully committed to the quality of the races.

Mike

Any bio on the leading pair?

let google do the walking

Looks like it is shaping to be a three way race for 1st - IF they get one more race in. Points after another throw out (based on my questionable math):

Adrian/Jessie 12 points
Robbie/Catherine 12 points
Ravi/Sam 13 points

There are enough good sailors that there is some potential for one of the top teams to get other boats between them and the other two top boats creating some separation. Should be an interesting final day.

Glad to see Matt/Gina back in it.

Currently under postponement until 2pm. The Etchels are out and the PRO is talking to theirs. Sounds like they are under postponement until 4pm. Well see what happens.

I can make all the excuses in the world, but I'm sailing very poorly. The forecast for yesterday was heavier than Tuesday so I didn't go out solo and jumped on a boat with a kid who's skipper want feeling well.

I blame the typos on my phone.

No racing today. Three separate votes to postpone at 1030, 1200 and 1400 (per RRS 90.1, the RC is running races per the OA, who chose to conduct votes). The last postponement is until tomorrow (rather than sail until sunset with a dicey forecast).

Light, squirrely, not fun. For most of the day, the only good breeze was south of the race course area. The forecasts were conflicting, and we sought the opinion of the Etchells RC, as well as other local weather gurus.

Hindsight being 20/20, we may have squeaked in a couple of light and shifty ones, and maybe one good one, but we only had so much ESP available...

The forecast for the late shift was about right, but came with the danger of thunderstorms, which are just about upon us now...

Also, the red boat never moved, will hopefully be gone tomorrow (I'll believe it when I see it at this point).

So, L is up with AP over A, flying on the Hobie Wave mast (official flagpole).

The L is for an earlier start, and later finish tomorrow. We're shooting for 5 more races.

Weather forecast currently says NE 5-10 knots. That is 180 degrees from prevailing here, so should be quite interesting...

Mike

FYI...

The first vote at 1030 was unanimous to postpone (there had been fog and very little breeze).

At noon, they were split on whether to call it for the day at that point (still very light with foul current). I advised them to try again at 1400 since it's a Worlds, and they agreed.

At 1400, they voted to postpone until the morning, start at 1030, and run 5 races.

Mike

what happened to Matt and Gina on day 1?

The Etchells stayed offshore and are racing. The weather here inshore has been awful for the past hour (torrential rain and lightning within sight).

Listening to their chatter, between the rain, shifting wind and limited visibility, it can't be an easy day for anyone on that circle.

Wind has gone from south to west to north to east to southeast now moving back to the east.

We had a few F16s go out to sail. They had some double trapping at times. The last boat to come in told me they were racing the lightning back to the harbor. Everyone's telling us that the class made the right call...

Mike

Mike

Piecing together info from the F16 Worlds Facebook page:

After 10 races:
Ravi/Sam (2-1 today) are 1 point ahead of Adrian/Jessie (1-4 today). Robbie/Catherine (?-1 today) are a few points behind.

3 more races today, if they get them all in.

Disclaimer: completely unofficial and my assumptions on points may be off. Either way, it is pretty dang close!

Look at the sail trim on this picture.... it looks great to me.

Flock of Falcon's headed to the windward mark....

What are the two boats with the sail logos that look like a lower case

a

? 3rd mast from the left and 9th mast from the left? Is that the F16 logo instead of a brand logo?

Looks like the Goodall Designs logo to me.

Thank you. Seems obvious now.

Per Facebook: Fawcett wins race 11, Daniel 2nd. Two more races to go.

that red boat in the back isn't making any money sitting empty like that. They should move...

I'm thinking that's the new Goodall Design logo

per FB: Fawcett stays in front of of Parent in Race 12

Race 12: McDonald, Fawcett, Parent

Race 13 is last one, if they get their 5 in today.

R13: Schultz, McDonald, Fawcett, Glaser