FORMULA 18 WOLRDS 140 Boats

Outstanding! Unbelievable save by FRA 4!

WOW, you're not kidding!!

Any one else notice that not a single US boat in the entries?

what does the boat have anything to do with the results?

There were two US sailors - John Casey sailing for NED, and Jacques Bernier crewing for Taylor Booth and AUS. No US teams attended.

I like how they have a news style synopsis video on their web. It looks pro.

and Hobie Tigers were 3rd, 4th, 6th, yada, yada, yada.

I think the best sailor won.

And you are a tool.

Spot on! Just because there is a bunch of nacras registered all of a sudden its omg!

Team Nacra

what a load of BS.

I never knew that boats all by themselves won events.

Stupid me always thought that crews were very important in achieving the results at least 10 times more important that the piece of plastic that happens to float beneath them !

Wouter

What is interesting more than the boat selection is the 2nd place finish of Franck Cammas and crew with Franck being new to the class and to this size of boat.

Ah yes, the post F18 Worlds tradition continues.

Actually, it was

team Nacra

that had those results. All Nacra's in the top 10 were team boats.

And for sure the sailors play a big role in performance but you sure wouldn't be competitive on an old Hobie 18 converted to F18 would you?

The interesting thing was the range of conditions and how boats performed accross them.

The best sailor won, (but Bundy and his Tiger wasnt there) and I think the box rule works just perfect, BUT you can´t deny that there´s a new trend.

The Tigers are fading away and Infusions and Capricorns are filling those spots, is just a reality, it doesn´t have to be Pro this or Against that.

Top 20 boats (posted on the F18 forum)
Final Numbers %

Capricorn 8 40
Infusion 7 35
Tiger 4 20
Diam 1 5
Cirrus 0 0
X4 0 0
Total 20 100

Best boat in the world won't win IF you don't have someone steering the tiller in the right direction for the wind conditions. RIGHT <img src=

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I'm with Dave. Happens every year, with eerily similar words being used each time. When so-and-so team wins on boat X, people who like boat X jump up and down - sometimes it even finds its way into the manufacturer's promotional liturature. People who own boats Y and Z get defensive. Someone else pipes up and says

I'm just sayin'!

Change the boats around all you want, but the post-game rattle sounds the same.

I'm not complaining - I enjoy the smack-talk. It does give me a half-second's angst, though, that year to year, proponents of last year's winning boat grumble at all when the tables are turned...

I'm more interested in the way things went on the water - but for one OCS, Mischa was looking solid. The one day they got breeze, Mitch looked brilliant. His boy Taylor is showing the potential of a future multi world titlist. Cammas, as others have noted, made a singularly impressive entrance to the class - I'm hoping he stays in the class for a while in between his other endeavours. Also good to see Greg and Brett do so well - the father/son thing that touches more than one team is pretty cool.

John,
I love your new avatar.

Any more about J.C.?

Which part of the F18 being a class raced by different boats you guys don´t understand?

Not analyzing boat performance or even deny any discussion about is simply not knowing what this game is all about.
The core of the F18 and main attractive is just that: Several dinstincts designs racing togehter.
And the beauty of it is that the formula works and provides fair racing.

This

old same discussion

will go on for ever as long as the class remains open. Ever heard of F1 car racing??? Constructor championships???
So analyze your crews performance that is for sure the main topic, but not leave behind or block people willing to discuss team or boats performance.
The F18 is THE class right now and will continue growing, mainly based on multi brand racing.

So create another thread especially for crew performance (without ever talking which boat they've rode) and leave the rest express their point of view.
This boat talks will gone on every year, like it or not, is like F1 racing, that circus and the F18 will not be same with everyone riding the same boat.

I'm not just saying

.... I´m making a statement, Infusions and Capricorns dominated these F18 Worlds.

Take it easy,
Cheers,

Martin

Not that I'm involved in the F18, but I can see what your saying.

Some people throw stones that probably shouldn't. Because if you have a good memory and can think back, the same happens in most of formula classes, and most on this forum.

While I do think the manufacturer has a right to celebrate or advertise that fact they have won or filled 5 of the top 10 places, etc... And not that it has happened in this case, but if you were to take a swing at another manufacturer on your way, thats not something I agree with.

But lastly, and most importantly, every reward due to the winning crews regardless of manufacturer, should be first and foremost.

What a load of dribble:

I'm not just saying

.... I´m making a statement, Infusions and Capricorns dominated these F18 Worlds.

If you count the number of races (17 allowing for the split)
Nacra won 9, Hobie won 6 and Capricorn won 2.

So how did the Capricorns dominate? By more numbers of boats? If that is the case then they should have won more races under your logic.

The Tiger has won more F18 World Championships than any other boat. So have the “dominated” the F18 Class?

You can use statistics to prove anything you want.

Isn’t it more sensible to say that the “Formula” is working well and all boats are equal? That on any given day anyone of the boats is capable of winning. That no boat manufacturer has an advantage?

You´re missing the point and you´re not reading my posts. I'm the 1st to defend the Formula 18 box rule, just read above...

Let me be clear, the Hobie Tiger was the defacto standard F18 for years and for sure has Dominated the class!!
And is still capable to win any WC with the right crew, sadly Bundy wasn´t there.

The Tiger is my favorite F18! But that is not going to change reality.
I'm fully involved in the F18 class, and I'm saying that the main attraction is the several alternatives boats available. Read above...

The point here was that someone said a brand won the WC and other just kill him for naming it!! simple as that.

stametment

or whatever (non native language issues) I´m giving more info and statistics about the championship.

'Dominates': One brand got 5 top ten spots including 1st and 2nd, and the other puts more boats than any other in the top 20 (8 boats).
The Tiger have 4 top ten.
What's wrong with pointing this ?? info !! relax

The Tiger has dominated the F18 worlds for years with Bundy and Mitch, I´m pointing that maybe we'll see new boats/crews doing that in the future, and for me that´s is really interesting to analyze.

Cheers.

Hey! At least it's a discussion about sailing. I will have to admit it's odd to stumble upon a thread related to sailing on a sailing forum.

Put any World Class sailor on any boat and he will beat the average sailor. It is NOT the boat. It is HOW it is sailed. Right? ANY boat can have a bad day. Wind shift, wrong side of course or just BAD call. Been there, DONE that in my 29 yrs on water.

Doug

Agree Doug

Bundy will win with DIAM, X4 , Cirrus or any other F18 you like, granted.

Sebastien Magnen was here in Buenos Aires living one year, someone invited him to race in the s*... boat arround, but he managed to beat all the top sailboats in real time!! They just couldn´t believe how he was winning on that 'thing'...simple, he was the best sailor.. by far.

I'm identifying trends as now we have a lot of inverted bows F18 doing well. Possibly Hobie will make in the future their own inverted bow F18, that´s going to be even more interesting!

Boats evolve and I'm wondering which F18 will be sailing in years to come.

Can you say

Wave-Piercing?

Can you say

Tornado?

Can you say

Wave-Piercing Tornado?

That would be one sexy boat!

Had there been 20+ knots all week, had Mischa not had a BFD, etc, the podium would have looked very differently and he would be saying that the Tiger is still the boat to beat yadayadayada. <img src=

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I own a Tiger but have recently sailed a fair bit on both the Capricorn and Infusion, upwind the Cap performs well and downwind the Infusion handles a little easier.
But the pro's and con's of both boats are quite easily overcome by the skill of the crew.
Overall I still think the Tiger is great boat that can be sailed over a very wide range of conditions.

Its only natural that Nacra wins more races now since the Infusion is basically the first proper F18 they have developed.
Nacra(Europe) is now also owned and operated by experienced racers, who can attract big sponsors, and thereby really make a difference in the results.
IMHO had these sailors sailed on a Tiger they would probably finish equally well.

About the wave-percing bows, I personally haven't really seen the benefit of the on an F18 though, maybe it works on an A-cat but on an F18?

As all the guys who actually sail/ed F18s will tell you. The performance of each boat is fairly distinct, but the so close that it is scary. I guess 180 kg will help do that.

As for the wave piercing T..... I prefer it the way it is. Don't think the wave piercing bows will add much too the boat, but may take away from the boyancy in the bows. I would rather send a T hard down wind then any other boat. The big T is in a totally different league to the F18s.

Well, just back from the F18 worlds and what can I say.
I love all your comments on the event even if you haven't been there.
The conditions were difficult. We sailed in the low wind Nigran bay thnx to the organisation who failed to organize enough rescueboats to get us racing in the Vigo-bay as planned. So very little wind with strange surf (waves coming from 3 sides....) On thursday 20 knots windspeed and a lot of capsizes/damage. On friday low wind again.

The top three is okay. It reflects the constant performance of Coen de Koning and frenchman Cammas. Heemskerk had a big pitchpole on thursday which looked excellent from the beach. He couldn't handle the big gust. His BDF was BS. Even the startvideo showed that it wasn't his boat as witnesses stated later on.
It lookes to me that the Capricorn and Nacra Infusion are having an advantage in their shape when racing and especially starting, gibing and tacking in low wind and difficult surf conditions. In the long end and with more wind the Tiger has a higher endspeed. But hey, it are the people who make racing isn't it ?

It was my first Worlds and hopefully not my last. I expected more of a egoistic behaviour of the sailors but they helped us with setting up the boat and special thnxs to JC wo tuned our new spinaker. The boat was awesome with the spi.

Also Don did a tremendous job on trying to give all the sailors a fair share of racing when they were confronted with the crappy organisation.

Yep, a shame we could not race in the planned racing area, although it was interesting to see the races of the other fleets from the beach. With strongly favored sides almost every day, the starts were pretty much of the race.

As to the discussion of the Nacra/Capricorn/Tiger etc., the thing I learned on this event is that guys like Mischa, Coen or Cammas would probably win most of us on an old Hobie 18, even if we would sail the most recent F18 Design ever.