F18 Worlds 2010: Final day Wrap-up

Suspense in the final regatta of the championship. At that point only Backes and Styles were able to take 1st place.
What could have been an exiting match race for the title ended with Bundock hunting Styles for the 2nd place.
In the 12th race, Styles was 2nd and Backes 3rd, tight fight between them that was repeated in the 13rd when both engaged in a close match race with Backes ending 2nd and Styles 4th after doing a penalty turn on the gate before the finish line! (Follow final day races again at TracTrac #13 #14 #15)

The final race for the day was started 1 minute before the time limit for a third one…and the first start was a gral recall! …. everything was prepared then for a final round, but Darren was not going to stand there and just watch the show… as the RDG given to Styles included all races, there were no fixed scores for him, so in the final start Bundy caught Styles behind the RC boat, and both started more than 15 seconds after the entire fleet!
What followed was a bull fight and ‘sail down’ your opponent tactics by Darren, to force Hugh and Ferdinand to their worst result in the entire tournament, as this would elevate the RDGs average hoping for a possible 2nd for the Australian multiple World champ.

Good to know that the jury was aware of this as Olivier Bovyn confirms: “… So an actual Match racing game between the two teams, closely followed by the Jury boat in order to ensure fair competition…”
You can follow again the final races with the TracTrac tool (#13 #14 & #15 there) https://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=110

French-Texan F18 sailor and blog reader, Phillipe Bettler, took the time to discribe what happened in this final race:

09:07: Styles tacks, Bundock follows and Styles tacks back and Bundock follows again.
13:13: Styles luffs to push Bundock off, and in the process gains a few boat length.
13:44: Bundock tacks, they are close to the lay line…
13:47: Styles follows
17:15: Bundock tacks again. Don’t know why because he is already way above the layline…Bundock will then trail Styles far enough not to disturb Styles. Until
30:02: Bundock only a few boat lengths behind Styles. Styles jibes, Bundock just above Styles, but behind
32:23: Bundock trying to mask Styles until
38:12: Bundock takes the lead and jibes
38:25: Styles jibes again, does a 360.
40:01: Styles rounds the leeward mark 100m behind Bundock.
40:46: Styles tacks, Bundock follows
Bundock apparently heads down to come back closer to Styles
43:30: Bundock tacks, away from Styles
46:00: Styles tacks, now ~600m separation
46:15: Bundock tacks toward Styles
48:23: Styles tacks, now parallel to Bundock
Bundock above GRE888 (C2) by 60m, above Styles by 150-200m
50:18: Bundock at the same height as GRE888
52:40: GRE888 at the top mark, Bundock ~100m below the mark.
53:36: Styles tacks.
53:38: Bundock tacks
56:59: Styles sets the spin and jibes, Bundock 5-10 boat lengths behind jibes
57:29: Bundock spin reaches now up to Styles and even above him, but Styles accelerates and passes him.
1:02:58: Styles jibes
1:03:20: Bundock jibes back on top of Styles, but 5-10 BL above

Photo Copyright: Eric Bellande – www.direct-image.com Bundock Howden
Styles ended 63rd and Bundy did not cross the finish line.
Meanwhile Backes and Jarlegan took it easy and finished 24th for their worst result, but they knew it was their finals discard , so they secured a solid champioship for the Sail Innovation team.

Soon after the final results where known at Erquy, the Nacra-Boskalis team distributed a press release giving their view, and Styles later complained in his twitter account he was denied the possibility of the championship by the media boat that crushed his bow and to the Race Officers, and he surely has some reason to be annoyed, I’m no rules expert but a fixed score for the rdgs would have provided a clearer scenario for the last day.
Some pointed that Bundy shouldn´t have ‘sailed down’ him without being able to win the title, but Styles might have done the same to Backes or viceversa (denpending on the unknown exact scores at the time, imagine they took a while later to recount final positions for top three…)

Photo Copyright: Eric Bellande – www.direct-image.com Styles &Van West in a good lead
Styles and Van West were surely fast (check TracTrac) , but they didn´t sail in two races, due to external causes of course, and you may say although after the rdgs he had all top four results entering the final race, for sure it wouldn´t have been fair to Backes and Jarlegan to lose the title on jury decisions on others, as they did sail the 14 races, and they were the most consistent on the water by far.
So controversy apart, caused by a highly competitve event that was defined in the final race, the french team was the deserved 2010 World Champs, they were the best crew all the way. With official results now published, we can salute again and congrats Olivier Backes and Arnaud Jarlegan for winning a great championship, on the 10th Anniversary of the Flagship of Multihull racing around the globe, the Formula 18 Class, founded by Olivier Bovyn and Pierre Charles Barraud a decade ago.

Which other class can have Club racers giving Pros and Olympics legends a run for their money, sailing one on one with them???

2011 Worlds will be held at Blatonfured Hungary, hosted by F18 WCouncil member and F18 Class webmaster, Sandor Roka-
For 2012, John Williams has confirmed today, after the F18 Wcouncil approval, that the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (ABYC) in Long Beach, California , will host the event in 2012, for the first F18 Worlds being held in America.
www.f18-international.org
www.cvberquy.org