Dutch and French battle for lead of F18 Worlds

by Event media on 10 Jul 2008
The F18 Class World Championships celebrated day 2 of the competition with an earlier start and a good 8-12 knots of wind to the joy of teams, organisers and onlookers alike, close to the beaches of Nigran, with a marvellous show of agility and speed.

A remix of blue and yellow groups tested the full fleet for another challenging test of skill, tactics and speed which allowed five races; three for the blue group and two for the yellow.

No strangers to the F18 circuit, French team Jean-Christophe Mourniac and Franck Citeau had a fantastic day as they swept a race win and second place as they battled with championship leaders Mischa Heemskirk and Bastian Tentij in the yellow group of the day. Continuing light north-westerly breezes not ideal for FRA 11 but which propelled the team to fourth place overall in the competition.

After a disappointing start to the first race, Dutch Championship leaders NED 007 managed to make an impressive comeback to finish 15th but were not to let the rest of the fleet near them in race 2 and grabbed their third victory of the Worlds; and their place at the top of the leader board.

Another French-Dutch battle in the blue group of the day with Groupama skipper Franck Cammas and Jeremy LaGarrigue demonstrating the talent of the four times ORMA World Champion with a fourth and first place, which included some enjoyable match racing with F18 legend Mitch Booth and entertainment for crews and spectators alike.

Regular, intelligent and very skilful sailing from young Dutch team Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen, who were clearly overjoyed with another day’s fine performance; 3rd and 1st today and just points away from leading the overall championship.

Fellow Dutchmen Gunnar Larsen and Stefan Dubbeldam claim 3rd and a less promising 17th but are assured their fifth place overall.

Thursday will be decisive as the elite group of catamaran sailors are divided into ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ groups; first and second placed as they move forward into the next stage of the championship.

An amazingly high level across the fleet with strong performances particularly from Swede Johan Gnosspelius, German Justus Wolf and Australian Greg Goodall and Australian Taylor Booth ensuring immense excitement and no guarantees for the 9th edition of the F18 Worlds.

F18 - Leading positions after 4 races, 1 discard

1 NED 7 Mischa Heemskerk, Netherlands, Senior 1 1 -15 1 3
2 NED 3 Coen de Koning, Netherlands, Senior 1 3 1 -5 5
3 FRA 1 Cammas Franck, France, Senior -11 1 4 1 6
4 FRA 11 Jean-Christophe Mourniac, France, Senior 3 -11 1 2 6
5 NED 955 Gunnar Larsen, Netherlands, Senior 2 4 3 -17 9
6 FRA 56510 Vaireaux, France, Senior -8 2 2 8 12
7 SWE 11 Johan Gnosspelius, Sweden, Senior 3 -10 8 3 14
8 NED 952 Willem Geijssen, Netherlands, Senior -22 7 3 4 14
9 AUS 308 Andrew Landenberger, Australia, Senior 4 -15 7 4 15
10 FRA 5 Sellier Thomas, France, Senior -15 3 2 13 18
11 AUS 2 Taylor Booth, Australia, Senior -24 5 4 9 18
12 GER 163 Justus Wolf, Germany, Senior 5 8 -20 7 20
13 GBR 957 Hugh Styles, Great Britain, Senior -15 6 6 9 21
14 AUS 959 Andrew Macpherson, Australia, Senior -8 8 7 6 21
15 FRA 919 Francois Morvan, France, Senior 5 11 6 -16 22
16 NED 1 Mitch Booth, Netherlands, Senior -17 16 5 2 23
17 FRA 44 Bontemps Gurvan, France, Senior -13 2 10 11 23
18 NED 930 Sascha Larsen, Netherlands, Senior 7 6 -14 10 23
19 NED 76 Reindert-Jan van der Meulen, Netherlands, Senior -20 13 8 3 24
20 NED 2 Oscar Zeekant, Netherlands, Senior 11 9 -24 6 26
21 AUS 136 Greg Goodall, Australia, Senior 4 5 19 -23 28
22 FRA 17 Motteau Romainm, France, Senior 2 19 -39 12 33
23 SWE 102 Pontus Johansson, Sweden, Senior 6 14 -20 13 33
24 CAN 101 Louis-Philippe Éthier, Canada, Senior 18 4 -25 17 39
25 FRA 125 Pulve, France, Senior 16 15 9 -24 40
26 GBR 2062 Toby Orpin, Great Britain, Youth 16 22 (ocs) 5 43
27 BEL 30 Lefevre Joel, Belgium, Master 7 (bfd) 10 26 43
28 FRA 4 Champanhac Benoit, France, Senior -21 17 12 14 43
29 BEL 50 Thierry Bosser, Belgium, Senior 19 -32 18 8 45
30 GBR 24 Leo Farrow, Great Britain, Senior 9 25 -31 11 45
31 ESP 7 Bernardo Benitez Cabrera, Spain, Senior 9 32 5 -44 46
32 GER 164 Helge Sch, Germany, Senior 27 -31 12 7 46
33 FRA 929 Le Clainche, France, Youth 17 18 11 -21 46
34 BEL 44 Yannick Levévbre, Belgium, Senior 13 16 17 -18 46
35 NED 50 Kathelijn de Bruyne, Netherland, Senior 12 12 23 -35 47
36 NED 1004 Peter Vink, Netherlands, Senior -28 12 15 20 47
37 FRA 901 Boulogne, France, Senior 14 20 -30 14 48
38 AUS 619 Chris Caldecoat, Australia, Senior 6 27 -32 16 49
39 ITA 400 Ugo Ferrari, Italy, Master (dnf) 9 19 23 51
40 FRA 840 Baeckler, France, Senior 18 10 25 -33 53
41 ESP 854 Fernando Lamadrid, Spain, Senior 10 38 9 -42 57
42 GBR 120 Tim Neal, Great Britain, Senior 23 13 21 -28 57
43 GBR 888 Rob Garcka, Great Britain, Senior 14 22 -33 22 58
44 FRA 969 Villion, France, Senior 19 7 35 -38 61
45 AUS 700 Warren Guinea, Australia, Senior -28 28 16 21 65
46 AUS 104 Chris Boag, Australia, Senior 25 -42 22 19 66
47 GBR 876 Grant Piggott, Great Britain, Senior 41 -45 14 12 67
48 FRA 177 Vivient, France, Senior -39 26 26 15 67
49 ITA 46 Luca Bertani, Italy, Senior 27 20 21 -33 68
50 ITA 2520 Mark Laruffa, Italy, Senior 26 -34 13 30 69