F18 Argentina – F18 Pride

This weekend we have one of the major sailing championships in Argentina, the Cerrato Grand Prix at the YCO (Yacht Club Olivos) . The F18 class put 13 imported boats, 2 top crews couldn´t make it on time due to some blocked highway from Rosario.
I didn´t race since breaking the mast last summer. Kite World and 1st Arg F18 Champ, Martin Vari asked me to ride with him on one of his uncle F18s… (Sergio Mehl: 2Infusions, Micha’s Wildcat and Darren’s C2 from Erquy…) We raced a 2009 Infusion that we set up the on Friday afternoon on a hurry.

Saturday was 14knots plus flat from the NorthWest, out of sync, and without intensive traning I couldn´t follow Vari’s rythm as an excellent crew (he went to the North Americans some weeks ago) – We ended 5th overall with 4 constant half fleet results the first day.

Sunday was flat again from the North, good conditions, easier than Sat, but I already had 4 regattas of practice so I felt more comfortable at the helm.
Some average starts but we were flying upwind and we were a train with my Seb Magnen learned downwind technique.
First race we were 2nd on the finish line only to lose by a bow with Sergio Mehl’s C2. A 3rd scored
Second race bad start, but we recovered quite good to lose a 4th over the line again, and we were pissed off by then. 5th scored.
Third race again a so so start, and again flying on the course, recovered for a 4th where we have to cover the close attack from Ian and Gabriel Berberian’s Arg Capricorns and another Infusion master but talented crew , Memo Castro and Bobby Collaso, Ended one boat ahead Gabriel’s Cap- 4th scored for a final 3rd overall after 7 races.

Ian Rodger was really fast yesterday with his local made Capricorn.
Yesterday Mischa’s black Wildcat broke!? the front stay, to leave his owner out of three races, but Sergio is one of the top sailors here and without that breakage he would have fought the top spots on those non raced.
Today he raced the C2 in a good form 2, 3, 3 – Boat that I saw for the first time… super nice looking & fast boat, specially downwind.

Two crews on the lead and one step ahead of the rest, Cruz Smith (23rd at Erquy) &Mariano heuser (7th North Americans with Cruz) followed by (only one point behind) Juan Faustin and Lucas Gonzalez Smith (37th at Erquy) and the MV team (Martin Vari and I) 3rd in front some experienced sailors like Julio Alsogaray (Top World Laser sailor) and Martin Busch (Sub Worlds in Soling) , both having a blast with the F18 and learning fast, with more training to get used to catamarans they will be hard to beat.

So I ended the day in joy due to a good final performance against trained crews, seeing that n# of imported boats (some Tigers and RCs missing too) was a blast after starting the F18 as a personal project in July 2005- The RCs had their mission accomplished, they found a fleet from scratch and gave the oportunity to many including the top sailors today of discovering what they were missing racing slow boring boats…..
During the intial days of the F18 project I couldn´t race that much as I was always delivering or working on boats at championships, only now I’m more relaxed and enjoying the game, still my own wave piercing machine is due, next year maybe…
The F18 Argentina Class is one of the fastes growing fleets in the World, and also we are breeding here some excellent new catamarans sailors- thanks to all the sailors that supported the project with time & money.
No pics available yet.. Championship continues next week-