Triple F18 World Champion looking for a replay

by Rob Kothe on 19 Feb 2007 Australian born, Dutch naturalised Mitch Booth won the first three Formula 18 World titles. Then Booth says ‘the other guys started catching up and we recorded a second, fifth and a discard, but we’d love to do a replay from the early year’s here in Australia.'

44 year Booth who sailed for Australia in the Olympic Tornado class in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics has been back and forward to Australia a few times this summer.

He skippered a Volvo 60 ocean racer, DHL in his first ever Rolex Sydney to Hobart race at Christmas. 'First ever Hobart, I know why I've avoided them up to now,' smiles Booth.

This afternoon Booth won the first practice race at the 2007 Seawind F18 Worlds reminding the fleet that the triple World championship winner was ready and in the mood for a strong showing.

Ashore Booth was grinning. ‘Australian off the beach conditions - just as I remembered it, choppy, plenty of breeze.'

Last November Booth and his Dutch crew Pim Nieuwenhuis secured an overall victory in the 16th Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta.

Booth was full of praise for his crew. ‘Pim comes from 49ers; he is really good at boat handling, good trimmer and very fast on the bow.

‘We are looking forward to a great regatta. As long as I'm behind Bundy (Darren Bundock), I know I will get plenty of Australian support.'

Second in the first race was the Australian pairing of Brad Collet and Lucas McDonald. A second Dutch pairing, Mischa Heemskerk and Cristopher Rasley, were third.

Many of the crews missed the second race, busy tuning rigs, hower Heemskerk won from the Robert and Peter Greenhalgh.

Regatta favourites Australian's Darren Bundock and Glen Ashby did not race, they relaxed at the Beach Tower and watched the circulating fleet.

The first race in the 2007 Seawind F18 World Championship is scheduled for 10am. tomorrow morning

F18 World Championships - Race 1 Yeppoon, Australia - February 19 - 25

Bow Number	Skipper	Crew	Country	Sail Num	Finish Place	Finish Code	Points
29	Mitch Booth	Pim Nieuwenhis	NED	NED8	1		1
24	Brad Collett	Lucas Mcdonald	AUS	AUS18	2		2
77	Mischa Heemskerk	Cristopher Rasley	NED	NED007	3		3
37	Carolijn Brouwer	Jeroen Van leeuwen	BEL	BEL7	4		4
47	Billy Besson	Arnaud Jarlegan	FRA	FRA658	5		5
56	Matthieu Souben	Gurvan Bontemps	FRA	FRA125	6		6
27	Steve Brewin	Andrew Williams	AUS	AUS7	7		7
15	Robert Greenhalgh	Peter Greenhalgh	GBR	GBR120	8		8
46	Oliver McKeon	Simon McKeon	AUS	AUS46	9		9
68	David Jorgensen	Daniel Tandy	AUS	AUS314	10		10
10	Don Dull	Kegan Dull	AUS	AUS616	11		11
16	Chris Caldecoat	Matt Felton	AUS	AUS0034	12		12
69	Michael Cook	Matt Homan	AUS	AUS41	13		13
6	Kez Stevens	Greg Wyers	AUS	AUS101	14		14
40	Leo Farrow	Jonnie Hutchcroft	GBR	GBR118	15		15
66	Thibault Vauchel	Bourgnon Yvan	FRA	FRA8	16		16
4	Andrew Holden	James Chillman	AUS	AUS140	17		17
17	Martin Fischer	Stephane Henry	FRA	FRA123	18		18
26	Greg Goodall	Brett Goodall	AUS	AUS102	19		19
72	Patrick Demesmaeker	Olivier Gagliani	BEL	BEL1	20		20
21	Chris Boag	Brendan Brown	AUS	AUS104	21		21
73	Luke Yeates	Mark Angell	GBR	GBR2195	22		22
18	Matthew Punch	Jack Benson	AUS	AUS026	23		23
49	Alfonso Gutierrez	Andrew Taylor	CHI	CHI1671	24		24
2	Luke Mcmullen	Adam Beattie	AUS	AUS594	25		25
42	Andrew Macpherson	Greg Lynch	AUS	AUS300	26		26
12	Richard Brewin	Dave Hart	AUS	AUS60	27		27
41	Martin Chadder	Sam Chadder	GBR	GBR119	28		28
35	Shane Peterson	Jerome Binder	AUS	AUS1956	29		29
48	Thomas Groen	Cori Baltus	NED	NED593	30		30
62	Ben Kelly	Tim Berg	AUS	AUS503	31		31
51	Oscar Zeekant	Pieter Oskam	NED	NED2	32		32
50	Bernardo Benitez Cabrera	Miguel Perez Quintana	ESP	ESP9	33		33
30	Robert Stewart	Kenneth Hibbert	AUS	AUS617	34		34
14	Stephen Medwell	Brent Vaughan	AUS	AUS1160	35		35
34	Peter Fuller	Bruce Middleton	AUS	AUS25	36		36
9	Jurjen Wouda	Richard Modder	NED	NED1464	37		37
74	Sam Newton	Nick Tayler	GBR	GBR1568	38		38
54	Stefan Dubbeldasm	Bastiaan Tentij	NED	NED247	39		39
8	Tim Makepeace	Tba	AUS	AUS47	40		40
71	Diederik Forma	Mark van Gelderen	NED	NED2162	41		41
65	Jake Lurati	Chase Lurati	AUS	AUS1888	42		42
45	Robbie Lovig	Lachlan Gibson	AUS	AUS1892	43		43
70	Gael Josse	Maeyke Tadema	FRA	FRA1772	44		44
33	Billy Sykes	Tim Slatter	AUS	AUS06	45		45
39	Wayne Pobjoy	Francois Jacques	AUS	AUS1887	46		46
11	Brett Hord	Micheal Forbes	AUS	AUS103	47		47
76	Andre Vincent	Bernier Geoffroy	BEL	BEL124		DNC	60
64	Billy Nissen	Dean Nissen	AUS	AUS150		DNC	60
31	Brian Whitborn	Paul Beazley	AUS	AUS107		DNC	60
58	Chris O'Shannessy	Anthony Smith	AUS	AUS1824		DNC	60
23	Darren Bundock	Glenn Ashby	AUS	AUS7		DNC	60
19	David Elliott	Will Richards	AUS	AUS96		DNC	60
63	Dylan Drummond	Andy Campbell	AUS	AUS1980		DNC	60
28	Eelco Boers	Tjidde Boers	NED	NED34		DNC	60
36	Fernando Echavarri	Anton Paz Blanco	ESP	ESP2207		DNC	60
67	Fr餩rique Pfeiffer	Fran篩se Dettling	FRA	FRA2034		DNC	60
1	Gary Gornall	Ryan Duffield	AUS	AUS641		DNC	60
59	Gunnar Larsen	Sascha Larsen	NED	NED1111		DNC	60
38	Hugh Styles	Tom Peel	GBR	GBR007		DNC	60
60	Jean-christophe Mourniac	Franck Citeau	FRA	FRA1		DNC	60
25	John Casey	Kenny Pierce	USA	USA55		DNC	60
5	Leigh Polden	Andrew Finch	AUS	AUS654		DNC	60
61	Mal Gray	Dan Sims	AUS	AUS1813		DNC	60
43	Malcolm Richardson	Gordon Beath	AUS	AUS619		DNC	60
20	Mark Dyble	Stephen Dyble	AUS	AUS1856		DNC	60
13	Mark Laruffa	Ricky Heasman	AUS	AUS1981		DNC	60
32	Michael Cahill	Bill Holton	AUS	AUS808		DNC	60
55	Natalie Rogers	Grant Rogers	AUS	AUS1985		DNC	60
44	Neville Thompson	Shamus Stevens	AUS	AUS1989		DNC	60
22	Olli Jason	Pat Gilles	USA	USA122		DNC	60
57	Peter Vink	Carrie Howe	NED	NED552		DNC	60
53	Robbie Daniel	Hunter Stunzi	USA	USA121		DNC	60
3	Russ McDonald	D Duck	AUS	AUS1692		DNC	60
75	Trevor Brown	Adrian Douglas	AUS	AUS1984		DNC	60
7	Warren Guinea	Jason Bennett	AUS	AUS618		DNC	60
52	Ysbrand ten Houte de Lange	Roland van Joolen	NED	NED110		DNC	60