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All images Jorge Cousillas / Elojonautico

F18 Argentinean Nats 2023

This past weekend we had an excellent 3 days of F18 racing here in Buenos Aires, organized by Club Náutico Barlovento. Perfect weather, 4 races each day mostly in +6 to 12knots ending full double trap on Sunday. 15 boats marked a good recovery from post pand mess, as in 2019 last local big event he had 19 boats on the starting line.

Agustin Krevisky & Juan Martín Benitez dominated scoring 6 bullets, five 2nds and discarding a 3rd. Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser finished second overall, both teams sailing Scorpion / 1D and third place for Pablo Volker & Franz Menzel (Phantom F18 / Landenberger DS)

Podium filled with F18 Worlds top 3 positions including Volker’s Title from 2016 ARG who was almost re validated at Travemunde Worlds 2023 when with Polimeni were a race short for the crown.

The local fleet keeps elevating its level and its quite fun racing with these guys that travel abroad each year racing top notch level. Their experience add much competitiveness to the rest of the local boats, generating a constant improvement cycle.

– New kids on the block

For me was a rather special regatta, as my friend couldn’t come on work compromises but another pal brought a young 29er crew. Felipe Segui, who had never raced F18. We had a great time on the water, in fact we reached top 2/3 to windward in about 6 races out of 12, and we couldn’t post on paper better results on marks/gate transitions handling. Speed wise we were at par with the above mentioned Arg international crews.

The kid had a grin at each race, he learnt a lot and most important he is already looking forward to join us full time. It was such a good feeling seeing him enjoy cat racing, more for the Arg kids who all begin to sail in monos, say compared to the kids cat fleets available in France or Belguim.

The highlight of the regatta was having 6 young kids participating, one of the Nacra Infusion owners was on a trip and lent his boat to a 420 crew, Alfredo Agote & Martín Barletta who made their debut at F18 regattas with an excellent performance sailing a 2009 Infusion MK1, DS equipped.

Aside from them, Volker’s crew, Sucic and mine are also youth 29er riders. They are the renovation we were looking forward to achieve, all were hooked with F18 catracing. They will spread the news on both 420 & 29er fleets, for those kids growing up to come directly to race Formula 18.

Youths racing again with us (first “batch” were Volker, Tigre & Cuco Benitez and Nico Argonés) it’s a deserved incentive for all of us +50s old guys to continue pushing.

– 10yrs old competitive boat

The 2013 Phantom F18 I’m currently sailing keeps being a pretty competitive platform, even with a 2011 Nacra jib, and well used 1D DS, that came with the boat. Spi we used new Landenberger design from Felix Egner.

Main diff with the Scorpions of the top crews is reaction and acceleration in lulls or tacks/gybes, but once launched the Phantom F18 has no handicap, its even faster in given conditions. Volker sailed one to podium, but he can put a Tiger too there no problem…!
One thing to note though is how even 10kg out of crew weight makes a big difference, more coming from +175kg combined.

Nevertheless the idea is to upgrade it to the new Scorpion hulls we are building in Argentina, project which I’m investing in. The build is being done at Mar del Plata, led by Naval Architect / F18 rider Hernán Salerno. More details soon.

Complete results after 12 races: