Flashback vid: 2019 F18 Worlds, Costa Brava
Video by Tactic Audiovisual & F18 Worlds 2019 Org. Photos by Marc Gonzalez Alomá –
One year by now of the great 2019 Worlds held at La Ballena Alegre, Costa Brava, Spain in July 2019. After a successful European 2018 event held in the same venue the Worlds repeat the excellent racing Costa Brava offered an year before.
It was the return with glory for Darren Bundock to the F18, sailing with one his young coachees , Conor Nicholas. The Aussies managed to secure the title only in the last race. Frenetic fight vs Danny & Kostas, it was a close call in the end.
Also the deserved podium for the hard working and never surrender attitude of our Argie mates Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser, a decade of traveling abroad with several top ten finish , plus a vice title in Buenos Aires 2016, Costa Brava 2019 was the pinnacle for them (more to come?) grabbing a 3rd overall behind two professional dedicated Olympic level crews.
For us it was also a special Worlds, we invited Bundock to race again in the Class and it was another crown for our Scorpion F18 project built by Jakub Kopylowicz / Exploder. Third title in a row with three different crews:
2017: Mischa Heemskerk/ Stephan Dekker (Exploder Scorpion / Mischa Sails)
2018: Danny Paschalidis / Kostas Trigonis (Exploder Scorpion / 1D Sails)
2019: Darren Bundock / Conor Nicholas (Exploder Scorpion / 1D Sails)
A great reward for a long term project started back in 2012, the Scorpion now definitely entering the big story of the Formula 18 Class.
Sorry for the self-reference sometimes, but we don’t have the fault on generating projects and making things happen while also reporting on the Catamaran Racing scene. We would love to find such reports elsewhere, but as we all know there are none to be found on the beachcat racing scene, we are more than happy though, filling this gap since 2008!
2019 Worlds Final day post here.
This year we wont have an F18 Worlds as it was re scheduled for 2021, but seems in Europe activity will commence with some F18 Nationals reagattas, like the Italian-German Nats to be held at Travemunde , August 7-9 2020.
More info at the IF18CA website: f18-international.org/registration-open-for-2020-international-german-championship-to-be-sailed-7-9-august-at-lyc/
The Archipelago Raid has a green light too, more info and registration links here