Tough Day at Seawind F18 Worlds Day One

by Rob Kothe on 20 Feb 2007 Heavy weather on the first day of the 2007 Seawind F18 Worlds being sailed at Rydges Capricorn Resort off Yeppoon, Queensland. An eighty boat fleet from 12 nations started but sixteen boats capsized with three sailors requiring medical attention.

The forecast for the start of racing on Day 1 of the Seawind Formula 18 World Championship was for south easterly winds 20-25 knots.

A heavy swell from the last three days of southerly winds, made the launch from the beach through the surf break exciting for the large numbers of spectators on the beach.

At the start, the wind was blowing at hardly more than 15 knots, but the swell was such that would normally be associated with around 25 knots.

The French pairing of Mourniac and Citeau (FRA) lead at the mark from triple World Champion Mitch Booth and his crew Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED), who came in from the port layline and were close at the top mark.

Besson and Arnaud (FRA) were third, with the Spanish champions Echavarri and Paz (ESP) in fifth place. Australians Bundock and Ashby were fourth at the first mark.

As the wind continued to build so did the seas, to three metres, and as the fleet ran down with the wind and waves at speeds of more than 20 knots, boat after boat capsized.

In all sixteen boats retired from the race, after spectacular capsizes and nose dives. Rescue boats assisted three Queensland sailors, who needed medical attention.

At the second mark, Bundock and Ashby were third but catching the leaders by the top mark for the third time, Bundock and Ashby were clearly leading from Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis.

The winners of Race 1 were Bundock and Ashby (AUS), ahead of Booth and Nieuwenhuis (NED) with Mourniac and Citeau (FRA) in third. Besson and Jarlegan were fourth (FRA) with the Spaniards Echavarri and Paz Blanco, fifth.

On the beach Darren Bundock commented, ‘We did not have the greatest start but we kept moving up and the top mark for the second time we made gains. Once we sailed into the lead we were able to consolidate and then sail a little conservatively as the conditions strengthened. ‘It’s good to be in the lead, so the other guys have to chase.’

Mitch Booth was smiling. ‘The conditions were exactly what we expected, strong wind, lumpy seas and with the rough seas plenty of wipeouts. 'We started close to the start boat, went almost to layline on left.. left paid.. then on the second beat we went the wrong way and that cost us five places and we had to fight back from there. The lead changed five or six times, there were no dark horses at the top of the fleet.'

Steve Brewin, former World A Class champion finished sixth overall. ‘We were going all right until we fell off, we went from fifth to fifteen, at the top mark we managed to keep it upright and we had to fight all the way back. We know we have good boat speed; we’ve been doing a lot of sail development.'

Robert Greenhalgh with brother Peter, sailed into tenth place and may rise, as protests were still being heard.

He commented; 'We are still learning about boat speed upwind. On the first two beats we had our set up wrong, by the third beat we felt we were on the pace. Downwind it was survival, with plenty of guys spearing it in, all over the place. We are looking forward to the rest of the regatta. Our learning curve will remain steep.'

Due to the increasing wind gusting into the high 20’s, officials were forced to abandon racing for the day.

One of the Queensland sailors injured was Luke McDonald, who sustained torn ligaments and tendons in his upper leg and groin after ducking a capsized boat. Luke hit the rudder of the capsized boat and ended up washed off the back of his boat with his caught in the foot strap. After medical attention, Luke arrived back in the boat park with his upper thigh strapped, but still able to manage a wry grin.

Leroy Polden sustained badly bruised ribs following a capsize and Gordon Beath sustained a badly bruised ankle and broken fingers, also following a capsize.

www.2007f18worlds.com

Results:

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

Pos	Sail No.	Helm	Crew	Code	Pts
1	AUS7	Darren Bundock	Glenn Ashby		1
2	NED8	Mitch Booth	Pim Nieuwenhis		2
3	FRA1	Jean-christophe Mourniac	Franck Citeau		3
4	FRA658	Billy Besson	Arnaud Jarlegan		4
5	ESP2207	Fernando Echavarri	Anton Paz Blanco		5
6	AUS7	Steve Brewin	Andrew Williams		6
7	BEL7	Carolijn Brouwer	Jeroen Van leeuwen		7
8	NED007	Mischa Heemskerk	Cristopher Rasley		8
9	NED1111	Gunnar Larsen	Sascha Larsen		9
10	GBR120	Robert Greenhalgh	Peter Greenhalgh		10
11	AUS1989	Neville Thompson	Shamus Stevens		11
12	AUS1981	Mark Laruffa	Ricky Heasman		12
13	NED34	Eelco Boers	Tjidde Boers		13
14	AUS616	Don Dull	Kegan Dull		14
15	AUS0034	Chris Caldecoat	Matt Felton		15
16	FRA125	Matthieu Souben	Gurvan Bontemps		16
17	AUS102	Greg Goodall	Brett Goodall		17
18	AUS1892	Robbie Lovig	Lachlan Gibson		18
19	AUS96	David Elliott	Will Richards		19
20	AUS1813	Mal Gray	Dan Sims		20
21	GBR2195	Luke Yeates	Mark Angell		21
22	AUS619	Malcolm Richardson	Gordon Beath		22
23	GBR118	Leo Farrow	Jonnie Hutchcroft		23
24	USA121	Robbie Daniel	Hunter Stunzi		24
25	AUS101	Kez Stevens	Greg Wyers		25
26	AUS026	Matthew Punch	Jack Benson		26
27	AUS594	Luke Mcmullen	Adam Beattie		27
28	NED2	Oscar Zeekant	Pieter Oskam		28
29	AUS300	Andrew Macpherson	Greg Lynch		29
30	AUS1956	Shane Peterson	Jerome Binder		30
31	NED1464	Jurjen Wouda	Richard Modder		31
32	AUS618	Warren Guinea	Jason Bennett		32
33	BEL1	Patrick Demesmaeker	Olivier Gagliani		33
34	AUS1160	Stephen Medwell	Brent Vaughan		34
35	ESP9	Bernardo Benitez Cabrera	Miguel Perez Quintana		35
36	GBR119	Martin Chadder	Sam Chadder		36
37	NED247	Stefan Dubbeldasm	Bastiaan Tentij		37
38	AUS808	Michael Cahill	Bill Holton		38
39	NED110	Ysbrand ten Houte de Lange	Roland van Joolen		39
40	NED593	Thomas Groen	Cori Baltus		40
41	AUS104	Chris Boag	Brendan Brown		41
42	AUS06	Billy Sykes	Tim Slatter		42
43	AUS314	David Jorgensen	Daniel Tandy		43
44	AUS503	Ben Kelly	Tim Berg		44
45	AUS150	Billy Nissen	Dean Nissen		45
46	AUS60	Richard Brewin	Dave Hart		46
47	AUS103	Brett Hord	Micheal Forbes		47
48	AUS641	Gary Gornall	Ryan Duffield		48
49	USA122	Olli Jason	Pat Gilles		49
50	AUS1888	Jake Lurati	Chase Lurati		50
51	CHI1671	Alfonso Gutierrez	Andrew Taylor		51
52	GBR1568	Sam Newton	Nick Tayler		52
53	BEL124	Andre Vincent	Bernier Geoffroy		53
54	AUS1887	Wayne Pobjoy	Francois Jacques		54
	AUS140	Andrew Holden	Jake Mortensen	DNF	60
	AUS18	Brad Collett	Lucas Mcdonald	DNF	60
	AUS107	Brian Whitborn	Paul Beazley	DNF	60
	AUS1824	Chris O'Shannessy	Anthony Smith	DNF	60
	NED2162	Diederik Forma	Mark van Gelderen	DNF	60
	AUS1980	Dylan Drummond	Andy Campbell	DNF	60
	FRA2034	Fr餩rique Pfeiffer	Fran篩se Dettling	DNF	60
	FRA1772	Gael Josse	Maeyke Tadema	DNF	60
	GBR007	Hugh Styles	Tom Peel	DNF	60
	USA55	John Casey	Kenny Pierce	DNF	60
	AUS654	Leigh Polden	Andrew Finch	DNF	60
	AUS1856	Mark Dyble	Stephen Dyble	DNF	60
	FRA123	Martin Fischer	Stephane Henry	DNF	60
	AUS41	Michael Cook	Matt Homan	DNF	60
	AUS1985	Natalie Rogers	Grant Rogers	DNF	60
	AUS46	Oliver McKeon	Simon McKeon	DNF	60
	AUS25	Peter Fuller	Bruce Middleton	DNF	60
	NED552	Peter Vink	Carrie Howe	DNF	60
	AUS617	Robert Stewart	Kenneth Hibbert	DNF	60
	AUS1692	Russ McDonald	D Duck	DNF	60
	FRA8	Thibault Vauchel	Bourgnon Yvan	DNF	60
	AUS47	Tim Makepeace	Tba	DNF	60
	AUS1984	Trevor Brown	Adrian Douglas	DNF	60