On Wednesday the Formula 18 fleet had a good day on the water. Four races could be sailed and they only have to do one more to complete qualifications. Defending 2014 World Champions Gunnar Larsen and Ferdinand van West impressed with the lowest overall score of all 167 boats and are leading the pack. In second position Mitch and Ruben Booth, Oscar Zeekant and Karel Begemann are third.
Conditions on the water were spectaculair and sailors often did double trapeze. Smiling faces all over de race course! Although the wind was very shifty, sometimes shifting 50 degrees, Larsen and Van West did a very good job. In their highly competitive (yellow) fleet they are racing some of the other topdogs already and showed that they will do everything to take take the trophy back to Holland again.
Huge crash – 3 boats involved
Unfortunately also a big crash occurred where three boats were involved. Simon Flack, one of the victoms: “Shortly after the start of race 3 of the series Neil and I sailed a port lane out and sailed past a French boat stuck ‘in irons’. As we passed, the boats powered up behind and upwind of us. This was just at the moment that we were crossing behind a German boat. The French bore down on us at great speed hitting our boat and knocking myself off the back. Result: our boat screwing hard into wind and into the passing German boat. We hit his shroud causing his mast to fall down and cutting a huge slice out of mine!”
On Thursday conditions are very light. Races are scheduled at 10:00 and hopefully qualifications can be completed. All races can be tracked online thanks to the GPS-tracking on board.
All results can be viewed here.
Event Facebook website: https://www.facebook.com/f18worlds2015
Official Formula 18 Facebook and galleries: https://www.facebook.com/F18International
Official Formula 18 website: www.f18-international.org
Replays: http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=558