F18 South Americans / BA Week 2016: Day 1 & 2

Nice fleet of 24 boats racing the huge Buenos Aires Week 2016 Regatta at the Yacht Club Argentino, which is same venue for Arg Nats and then the Worlds. Top two favorites fighting for first place. Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser lead by 3pts over Esteban Blando & Nico Quagliotti after 6 races. Four held in perfect conditions on Saturday and 2 yesterday in harsh breeze and weather.

For me was going back to the F18 & course race since December 2015. Lots of fun racing on Saturday with the Infusion MK1 and longboards upgrade, we ripped off spi in the last one, the retrieving points are on starboard side which is really bad for the Polyester ‘health’ !
Sunday peaks of 26 knots gusts and steep chop, issues on the jib cunningham got us going back to preserve our own health and the lent boat one too…! Better to keep training and look forward to reach the Worlds in good shape,
Really no handicap on the MKI but our own skills and lack of hours sailing a 2009 boat. Sails are brand new, Nacra factory ones, and Spi Ullman. Will get a new design from Landenberger for the Worlds.

Top two leaders are racing MKII with latest sail devel by Nacra and a Phantom with SI. Third place for Laser olympian Julio Alsogaray (10th at Rio sailing  Inf MKII) and Diego Stefani from Uruguay, who is also part of the Armin Strom GC32 Team.

Fourth place for Federico Ferioli & Lucas Gonzalez Smith, also MKII and fourth for Agustín Krevisky & Billy Lopez Segura on the Exploder Scorpion (check next post for some updates from Poland)

Youth team contenders, Pablo Volker & Juan Martín Benitez (Phantom / SI) were leading first race on Sat but their bow sprit anchor point cede and their pole was gone. They missed finally all four races. Yesterday a 2nd & 3rd to confirm they are targeting the top at coming regattas.

Super fun racing in the F18. All crews focused for the big event which will start October 28.
24 boats on the water this weekend, Top ten below. Full results at https://semanadebuenosaires.org.ar/home/resultados/f18/