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Not Hornets.
The other F18s - Formula 18 Catamarans. Box Rule interpretations, huge acceleration and a lot of fun.
The 2011 F18 Catamaran Australian Championships are on at Gosford and I snuck down to take a look, as the breeze built from 12 to 18 knots and with it, the excitement. A lot of A-Class cat drivers and crew represented, as well as being a proving ground for AC aspirants.
Steve Brewin and Jack Benson led after Day One
This little DNF took care of that plan... (believe there was a main halyard issue)
All OK in the end.
Busy starts a feature of the game....
Top mark was the same...
Here we are, as they head over to the hitch mark.
Greg and Brett Goodall on the right, had the overall lead going into Monday.
Yee Haa. Left is Adam Beashel with Grant Pewell and on the right are Brett Burvill and Ryan Duffield.
Jason Waterhouse and Josh McKnight just in front of Brewin and Benson.
Waterhouse and McKnight, who was 12th in the Mothy Worlds earlier on in January at Lake Macquarie.
Chris Caldercoat with Dan Sims (in 25) and Rod Waterhouse with Chris Way (214).
Here are Caldercoat and Sims going downhill.
Adam Beashel and Grant Pewell
Power reaching with the pair. Woooo Hoooooooo.
Finishing - Tom Slingsby's Dad's boat was the committee vessel.
Adam Beattie and Jamie Leittner
Billie and Dean Nissen.
It's all action at the bottom gate, too.
Cross gybes.
Some of the leaders march downhill - double time, triple time, quadruple time - you get the point. The Goodall's are the blue kite in the middle.
The Goodall's with kite issues
Lachlan Gibson and Joshua Fugill in another of the Windrushes from WA.
Leigh Thorne and David Veysie
Luke McMullen and Liam Richardson
Martin Webb and Leigh McNally
Mark Letiner and Jerone Fritz
Michael Guinea and Viv Haydon.
Leaders power reaching - the Windrushes (Edge on the right is one) from WA appeared on the scene a year ago and love the stonger breezes.
Reaching in to the finish.
Warren Guinea and Marja van Helden.
Wet ride for the crews and in the media boat...
I got the chance to speak with the PRO of the event, Peter Walsh, on Tuesday 25/1/11. "Yes. It was good clean racing and they all enjoyed it very much. We had the one General Recall early on the Sunday morning, but that was it", said Peter. "The Monday was interesting, as it got up to 25 knots with huge bullets. It went from Nor'west to Sou'west in the significant shifts. As it was coming out of the West, the seaway wasn't too bad, not like the Sunday, where it just kept on getting up."
To get in the 12 race series of two and three lap races, they had four races on the Saturday, five on Sunday and three on Monday. On the Monday, the fleet left the beach at about 11.30am and the AP went up a couple of times just before the sequence as the marks needed moving to account for the latest shift and Peter did indicate, "We had trouble setting a line there for a moment."
The Saturday sounded particularly interesting, for in addition to the 45 F16s and F18s, GSC had 38 Lasers out, nine Etchells, five Fireballs, a handful of 29ers and Flying Elevens, along with 10 Sabots. Some 30 marks in the drink and three start boats running it all.
In the end, Steve and Brett Goodall got up for the overall win, with Brewin and Benson getting the silver. In third place were Jason Waterhouse and Josh McKnight. The latter was fresh off his 12th place in the recent Moth Worlds. One point astern of them were three boats in a tie for fourth. Adam Beashel and Grant Pewell ultimately got it on count back from Warren Guinea and Marja van Helden, with Adam Beattie and Jamie Leitner getting sixth place in the wash up.
Taking the F16 crown were Matt and Chris Homan, with Andrew Williams and Chris Monroe getting the silver on count back over Adrian Fawcett and Jesse Dobie.
More soon.
By John Curnow.
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