Trials Preview: Racing in Thailand, reports

The Vipers are dominating the fleet but the Nacras F16 are getting better with past 2X F18 World Champ Coen de Koning scoring a 2nd overall in race 4 . Left a recent pic on the Nacra F16, check the main top.
This is a great event for AHPC and Nacra, as one can confirm their potential and the other is putting their new design to the toughest test available to match the new F16.

On real time the top Nacras F20c are doing their job.
After 6 races Xander and Mark Pols are leading the pack on their Nacra F20c, only one point ahead of Carolijn and Brett on the Viper. 3rd another F20c and two more Vipers with Adrian Fawcett/Jessie Dobie and the future Olympic stars Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin.
The 1st F18 on 6th place.
Coen and Gunnar are 8th / 9th overall on the Nacras F16, ahead also of the rest of the 18 fleet.

-6 races Results only on a pic taken by Brett here 
If I have to follow many comments here it seems the F18 fleet is full of “kids and little girls” racing, as both Ahpc and Nacra F16 teams are having a fest on many boats made for ‘tough guys’…
Maybe the F16s are not just for kids, don´t you think?
This beyond Olympic selection, where I already stated that the Nacra 17 is the right choice for me this time and for the future. Although an F16 has the best chances on current mixed scenario.

–Here you have the Real Time results Excel on the 3 first races

Nice honest report from Nacra on their Facebook page, weighting their first event for the new Nacra F16, that beyond Olympics will be a new player on the huge growth the Formula 16 is experiencing.
Hope they can get the Nacra 17 on the water soon.

“First event with the Nacra F16 against International viper team with Olympic sailors such as Carolijn Brouwer giving us a hard time at the Thailand regatta. Not yet found the winning pace yet but we are benchmarking against the viper that exist already for 4 years. This is great and they will bring us up to the appropriate speed in the class and beyond. The pioneering part on how to set the trim right is fun to do and this place is great to sail, everybody should come here next year! The Nacra F20 Carbon is leading after 6 races!! Great people at Varuna Yachtclub!!

This is the reason, in my personal opinion of course, why the Viper is going to be selected if nothing strange happens. The performance is there, the class is there, so there is no more thinking left, clear since day 1 when someone said “Multis back and Mixed” Just about common sense  were enough to send a mail to Ian Rodger, the local AHPC dealer on Nov 10, 2010, telling him to start buying a Viper asap… reading the specs later was only a confirmation, although they suited perfectly the H16.

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Below an onsite report sent by Jeff Dusek:
Being in Singapore for January and February, I have the tremendous opportunity to sail the Thailand Catamaran Week at Royal Varuna Yacht Club in Pattaya, Thailand this week. I am sailing with Peter Kloppers on his new Infusion MKII for the event, having posted my availability on the regatta website and getting an email from him a few weeks ago. We had never met before the event, but that is all part of the fun! Royal Varuna is a beautiful club, and the weather couldn’t be better for a winter event.

Day one of the event was sailed in a shifty and puffy Southwest breeze between 8 and 12 knots. After a slight delay to wait for the breeze to fill, the race committee was able to run three windward leewards for both fleets. The regatta is being scored using Texel handicaps, with the white fleet composed of the Carbon 20s, F18s, F16s, a Tornado, an A Cat (with spin), and a Spitfire. The F16s are stacked at this event, with AHPC and Nacra both fielding top teams. The new Nacra F16 looks great in person, but the more polished teams on the Vipers had the upper hand on day one. In the F18s the racing was very close, and we were happy to end the day as the third F18 on NED 5. The second start is filled with Darts, Hobie 16s, Nacra 16 square meters, and a Nacra 570. The racing looked very close in that fleet as well, but I couldn’t tell you the results off hand!

One of the cool parts of the event is it is like a mini Olympic selection trials, with only the Nacra 17 missing. I will save my impressions of the boats until the end of the event, but I was definitely impressed by both F16s today as they lead most of the F18s around the course. Tomorrow has a windward leeward and a medium distance race on the schedule, should be another great day.

Best,
Jeff Dusek