F18 Arg Nats 2018: Pablo Volker & Sergio Mehl, champs
Photos: Jorge Cousillas / elojonautico.com – Extremely competitive Argentine Nats this year, with 3 crews with clear chances to win it and more than even performance, given by their ability and training plus similar equipment too.
Pablo Volker & Sergio Mehl won over Agustín Krevisky & Juan Martín Benitez and Hernan Salerno & Andres Grimaldi . But the 4th place , Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser were performing too for the win. In yesterday’s first race they had to abandon on a broken trap line, and later went to win last 3 races but to find out later that last bullet of the event was indeed an ocs, giving away the title to Volker & Mehl.
Still racing was quite close in at the top in every race (check gate shot above) , also having 1st and 2nd place tied in 15pts and defined by an extra 2nd place shows the level of the best crews.
3rd place overall, Salerno & Grimaldi coming from Mar del Plata, where not much chances to train with many others boats (they are forming a new fleet there) had an excellent event and warned the fleet they are ready for more.
Two weekends of racing but we only managed to race two days, as the Arg Nats were held together the Buenos Aires week which needs to manage a +500 boat fleet and climate was unstable two days thus no fleet were sent out. 8 races in the end though were enough for an excellent regatta for the local fleet, with many new sailors and the old guard still dominating.
Great training too towards Sarasota F18 Worlds coming next weeks. Arg cews will arrive quite trained so we hope for them to have a decent Worlds performance.
Sarasota Worlds will have may contender teams, preview next week. Check participants here.
Top ten below, full results here
pos | Sail | Crew | From | Total | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Boat / Sails |
1 | 7 | P. Völker & S. Mehl | CNSI-Aguila | 15 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | -6 | 2 | 2 | Scorpion / 1D |
2 | 66 | A. Krevisky & J. Benitez | CNP-YCA | 15 | -3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | Phantom F18 / 1D |
3 | 6 | H. Salerno & A. Grimaldi | CNMP | 22 | -4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | Phantom F18 / 1D |
4 | 11 | C. Gonzalez Smith & M. Heuser | YCA | 30 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | (dns) | 1 | 1 | ocs | Phantom F18 / 1D |
5 | 111 | C. Vilate & O. Dorbessan | CUBA | 37 | (dns) | 9 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Phantom F18 / 1D |
6 | 1330 | J. Sucic & J. Copani | YCA | 38 | 5 | 6 | -9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | Infusion MKII / 1D |
7 | 1706 | N. Vottero & S. Cristina | YCSF | 50 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 9 | -10 | Infusion / DS recut |
8 | 1124 | J. Grimaldi & G. Miranda | CNMP | 51 | 8 | 7 | -10 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | Infusion MKII / 1D |
9 | 1985 | F. Venetucci & A. Ross | YCR | 54 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 9 | -11 | 7 | 6 | Infusion MKII / 1D |
10 | 355 | A. Schewe & M. Schewe | YCU – URU | 61 | 10 | -12 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | Hobie Wildcat / Std sail |