F18 Arg: Mar del Plata Sailing Week 2018 Day 1
All Photos Matias Capizzano / Semana Internacional del Yachting 2018. – Mar del Plata is one of the best sailing venues around the World, home of the famous Opti surfing pics by Capizzano, our main seaside city it always deliver. Thus you will see many USA opti sails cmopeting each year.
On the F18 the fastest local crew , Blando & Quagliotti (Phantom F18) didn’t attended to last Arg Nats in Nov 2017 where the first DS sails compete in a local event.
Now they are in Mar del Plata racing against our most experienced crew , and multiple Arg Champs + other International big achievements (2nd North Ams, 2nd St Barts, 2nd Worlds 2016, 6th Worlds 2017) , Cruz Gonzalez SMith & Mariano Heuser (Infusion / 1D DS) are sailing again former Danny & Kostas 1D boomless DS from St Barts.
On the Arg Nats we have 6 races done in 5knots and only three with double trap conditions. That event was won by a standard mainsail but it was clear the DS crews had an edge with a bit more breeze.
Now in Mar del Plata with excellent wind conditions the reports I had confirms the DS sail is untouchable in terms of speed above 12-15 knots. But as always it wont grant you an event or even a single regatta. You still need to navigate the course properly and take the right decisions.
Downwind the std square sail seemed to had an edge.
Results after Day 1 on boats above are:
1st GONZALEZ SMITH – HEUSER: 1, 2, 2, 1 Tot 6
2nd BLANDO – QUAGLIOTTI: 2, 1, 1, 3 Tot 7
The most interesting thing on DS is how they can boost performance, in this case on the Infusion.
We have the largest Phantom F18 fleet around and it is an accepted fact 1 to 1 in speed they are faster each time above 10-12 knots. Then you have to race and it is not that easy as going straight line as we know, but still pretty incredible how the Infusion can get an extra turbo mode only changing main sail.
Same applies to other designs of course.
So one has to wonder if we have been putting too much emphasis on hydro all these years…
