F18 Worlds 2013 @Marina di Grosseto: Besson & Lagarrigue World Champs

All images by Jasper van Staveren / www.sailshoot.com || Another great F18 Worlds with a tight definition in the last regatta. Besson-Lagarrigue were the best at the end delivering a 1st & 2nd , after a too dangerous 17th in the first of the last day,  while Styles-Mason kept scoring top ten.
In the 6th Final race, there were two starts, Black Flag up, high tension with much at stake for many and the Title on the line, sadly two firm contenders, Heemskerk-Tentij & Bontemps-Amiot, both got bfd, killing their chances to the title, Mischa and Bastian even went back to shore to pack up. Bontemps-Amiot after scoring the initial bullet of the day.

BFD have been a karma in Heemskerk-Tentij World Title pursuit since 2008, too close many times, although they will keep being the fastest & winning everything else and pushing the limits as it is their style, but please just once and for the health of all your good friends and relatives try this: Next time you see a Black Flag in the final Day of a World Championship just start conservative and in 2nd line… you will lose some clear air, you might end 15th instead of 1st in that race but at the end of the event you might find yourselves  with a World Title in your hands in exchange….!
Next big event for them is  C-Class Championships. Read Bastiaan Q&A here.

Marina di Grosseto provided excellent sailing conditions all week, some Arg sailors told me they were surprised with the location, a well known Kite spot. Although in the last day the venue showed the sailors another face, to test their skills in 5-6knots.

But the two top contenders didn´t care about calm weather after being flying all week and went firmly forward for the title. In the last race Styles needed Besson to score high for his 17th in the fifth F race  to come into play. Styles went for him at the start to establish a Match Race game for the Title, similar to what Bundock did to  Styles in 2010 , but that time Bundy had no chances at all for the top spot , and Hugh lost the opportunity to fight against Backes for the Erquy Crown… here it would have been a truly epic fight for the Nr1 but Besson managed to escape the Brits attack to grab with Jeremie Lagarrigue, their first F18 World Title after being 2nd in LA last year. Jeremie also was 2nd with Cammas in 2008.

Billy and Jeremie were candidates and they delivered big time, they are also leading the Hydros Cup project, where they will race with Heemskerk / Tentij in two flying CClass against Cammas and the Canadian CClass ‘Freaks’. More news on those projects soon.
In third place Mitch Booth and his son Jordi, nothing to add to this legend carreer, only what a nice experience must has been for Jordi!  Mitch older son Taylor and Mischa de Munk ended 13th. Vendee Globe winner, Francoise Gabart & Mathieu Vandame were 4th and had chances until the start of the final day. All in all good result for Gabart returning to cat racing after some long years and nice promotion for the Class.

The Argentine Armada had a tough final day as many but still manage to put 3 boats in the top 25, a truly great achievement added to those already mentioned past week.

A high note on the F18 Class Box Rule. all already being said and you have 200 posts or more on the F18 remarking how good the main Box rule frame works, so having Besson-Lagarrigue winning this Worlds on a factory gelcoat stock Nacra Infusion (only visible mod it was an Ullman Spi) it is a great closure for months of long futile discussions.

The Class should enforce rules and encourage fair racing but also boat building, just let people buy or built their weapon of choice, in the end only the best sailors will win in this Class whichever craft they’ll choose.
Just check the recently  A-Class developments: Magic paints, Carbon everywhere, open cloth list, Magic flying foils and still Brewin won the 2013 Europeans with a ‘floating’ 2001 design…Can I rest my case for Life?

But I don´t want to open F18 Class rules, it is just a comparison for any decision maker to ‘open their eyes’ and get due timed informed technical reports before acting as Inquisition Fanatics.  Information , Research & Technical Knowhow are your friends.
F18 Class Box Rules works to Perfection. Fact proven over and over again to the ‘infinity and beyond’ only on hard plain statistics.  It was just Too much ado about nothing. So lets move forward.

Back to racing, two Mixed crews on the top Ten: French Olympic team Moana Vaireux-Manon Audinet 6th and Oskar Zeekant-Sanne van Hek 7th, Many other top mixed crews didn´t race as the Nacra 17 Worlds is coming next week. Update: Moana raced with a 2007 MK1 Infusion with long daggers provided by Francis Ferrari from Sailfast.fr , another point for the Class Box Rule.

Dark Horses Taylor Reiss & Matthew Whitehead were crowned Youth World Champs in 16th, they were in the top ten in the week, next best Youth were Romain & Valentin Bellet 20th and Jolbert van Dijk-Niels Kleiwig 22th.  Bright future for all of them.

On the ‘Contructors championship’ 5 different designs in the Top 10: Infusion, Phantom, Cirrus R,  C2 & Wildcat.

The locals Bissaro-Cesari had a final good recovery but ended 9th, they joined again only for this event but without much training that reduced their chances for the top 3 as they did at Balaton 2011. Racing & Training partner Carlo de Paoli – with Maurizio Stella were 17th, with a good helming debut coming from Laser for Carlo , they even were the top locals at one stage in the week. Best recovery of the fleet were AUS Waterhouse-Goodall from 60th to a final 5th.

Finally Great Racing at Marina di Grosseto organized by the Italian F18 Class. A remark for the International class might be having GPS track next time.
Big thanks to dutch Photographer Jasper van Staveren, once again like at LA 2012 investing by his own for all to have hundreds of first class images available and published each day. Check Jasper site at www.sailshoot.com.

Full Results Gold Here
Full Results Silver Here
Official Website & Report at 2013.F18Worlds.com
Full image Gallery ar CSN FB
Additional Images by Fabrizio Gandini here