F18 ARG: Buenos Aires Week 2015

by Editor · Published October 5, 2015 · Updated May 24, 2019

2016 Worlds venue at the Yacht Club Argentino facilities located within Buenos Aires City Downtown & Port area. Buenos Aires Week is the major event in South America with more than 500 boats from different Classes , all racing together a la Kiel Week.
The local F18 had a peak in 2011/2012 when 11 Arg crews flew to LA Worlds and we are slowly building it again with new sailors and the old guard towards next year F18 Worlds in Argentina.
Official Worlds web is online: www.f18worlds2016.org.ar

Speaking of the Old Guard, Juan Faustin , one the founding fathers of the Class and Juan Martín Benitez (Phantom), one of the first 29er kids to enter the local F18 and the best crew until he dedicated more hours to his studies , are leading after 8 races. Glad to see both performing, beyond being good sailors they are also two great guys who put plenty to form the local F18.
The Nr 1 local crew and also part of the initial F18 Arg members, Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser (Nacra Infusion) scored 5 bullets out of 8 races but had two dncs which relegated them to 3rd overall with one discard. Results pending to be updated.

Next weekend we will have the 2015 South Americans at the same location within the same championship second week of racing, but scoring two different regattas as we did in 2011.
I’m still boatless, but working on assembling a good platform / mast & sails combo here and there with several providers to start racing again on my own F18.

New F18
This week I will publish info & more pics on the Exploder F18, happy to see some are already ordering theirs and I have the info that a top sailor will race one at next Australian Nats.

Sails
On F18 sails alternative we now have:
– Simon Northrop’s Hide Sails set,
– Marton Balasz (former Ullman hungary) who has taken over Soldano’s work with a new branded name Loft, “1 Design Sails” (name used by the great Georgio Zuccoli in the past) ,
– Felix Egner working on a new Landenberger F18 set,
– The proven Infusion sails by Performance used by Gunnar & Fer on their last two World Titles
– And the North US excellent sails made for Mike Easton & Tripp Burd for the Falcon, we have a set here provided by North Arg which is being tested on an Infusion.

Worlds
After Argentina 2016, we will have Denmark 2017 confirmed. On future Worlds I wondered when the Class will return to Punta Ala for an F18 Worlds. The venue is just a perfect place to race and have some nice vacations. After Ireland, Argentina & Denmark we have our Nordic & Austral and expansion quota covered.

For me host every incoming A & F18 Worlds at Punta Ala.
I will try to attend after recovering from this year trip!… Only of course if I can get some miserable millionaires paying their due debts…