By Steve Stroebel, International F18 Class Vice-President
Following are statistics from the 2023 F18 World Championship held in Travemünde, Germany from July 24-28, 2023 with 97 boats and 194 competitors representing 19 countries and five continents.
This data shows the class is very strong with boats from six builders represented and sails from 13 different sailmakers used in these worlds. This keeps prices for boats and sails competitive. The data also shows that no single boat manufacturer or sailmaker dominates. There is also strong design competition between the different vendors. Though the data shows that the top teams tend to use new boats and new sails, we caution you not to interpret the data to say that you need to buy a new boat and/or sails to be competitive. This data does not show other important factors for being in the top of the fleet at a Worlds Championship: years of racing experience, years sailing with the same crew, ability to reliably have a good start with clear wind, ability to read the wind shifts and sail the favored course, boat handling in tight rounding situations, good helmsmanship, practice time on the water, boat setup, etc.
Median Age = age when ½ of competitors are older and ½ are younger
One of the most remarkable statistics is that there were two crews in the top 10 > 60 years old.
All conventional sails were in Silver Fleet; Gold Fleet was 100% decksweepers.
In January 2023 IF18CA implemented a new sail certificate process with sail, hull and equipment serialized stickers. The following table shows for hulls and type of sail the number of boats & sails used at the Worlds certified using the new process and whose certification is recorded in the IF18CA certification database.
And a new country (Sweden) is added to the list of F18 World Champions…
Here is by country the distribution of F18 World Championship hosts including next year’s Spain (ESP).
