Formula 16 Worlds 2013 @Travemunde: Report by Gill de Bruyne

Great work done by the Belgian sailors to support local kids and youths. Report by Gill de Bruyne / TheBoatShop.be –
“What an awesome week. Lots of sun, great sailing conditions, the SAP live races and the short races in the Trave river and of course great results! Well done Henri & Jeroen taking home the gold!
I would like to start with a big thanks to the organizations and all the sailors for a great week, Antoine for getting the F16 class on the rails and Christophe Colpaert, McDonalds, RBSC and Sebbe for getting such a great youth team in place on the F16 in just over a year.

When we took the initiative together with the sponsors to setup an F16 youth team last year we could have never guessed the results the youths have sailed on this F16 worlds. We started with 3 Falcon F16’s and had to convince quite some people this was the way to go, one year later there are more than 10 youth teams competing from Belgium and Holland in the worlds and sailing for top positions, great to see!

We are of course extremely happy with the Falcon performance as well. Winning Belgian, US and Italian titles last year, finishing 2nd, 7th and 8th on the worlds is a great confirmation of what we can achieve.
The 8 Falcon teams sailed 18 races over the 5 days. A great mix of low, medium and high wind conditions over the week ensured the teams with the best overall performance stood out.

Different countries were represented with a different mix of crew weights and configurations: LUX 001 (men – 31st), NED 237 (single handed – 27th), GER 002 (men – 24th), BEL 246 (mixed – 20th), BEL 333 (mixed youth – 19th), SUI 001 (men – 8th), BEL 111 (men youth – 7th), BEL 666 (mixed youth – 2nd).

BEL 666, Aurélie & Morgan 2nd overall. They are an RBSC mixed youth team and sailing their first event together. Ruling the fleet in the light to medium wind and just a little less consistent in the higher winds as Aurélie never sailed an F16 before. Both have a lot of monohull experience and this shows. Awesome result!
A special mention to Marie-Laure and Filip (BEL 333). After the first race on the 2nd day they were in 5th position overall. In race 6 they capsized and Marie-Laure dislocated her shoulder. Filip continued sailing on the Thursday with stand-in crew Emilie. They definitely would have scored a top 10 position.”

Results at https://www.travemuender-woche.com/en/races/2013/lists/index.html

Next events: Dutch and Belgian nationals!