F16 Catamaran Nationals at Pendine Sands

Action from the inaugural F16 natioanals at Pendine Sands © Wayne Richards

Action from the inaugural F16 natioanals at Pendine Sands © Wayne Richards

The inaugural F16 Catamaran Championships took place on the bank holiday weekend of the 27th – 29th Sept. Although 12 boats had planned the long trip down to Pendine Beach in Wales, only 6 finally made it due to other commitments and breakages along the way. All 6 boats had planned training on the Friday with Stealth Marine owner and ex Olympic campaigner John Pierce, but with large seas and gusting 20 knots only 3 launched and were quickly back on the beach due to the rather spirited ride they were getting, survival rather than training was the order of the day.

Saturday race day saw a choppy short sea, sun and 10 knots gusting 12 knots for the 4 Olympic style courses set by John and his dad from their rib. No one boat was dominant although a surprised David Tugwell held the over night lead with a minimal lead from 2 other boats, Gary Smith and John / Paul Alani. As for the other 3 boats, well the spirited drinking and joviality of the previous night seemed to have taken its toll along with a bit of in experience from one or two of the crews.

Part of any nationals is the after racing drinking and socialising and here the 6 crews seemed to excel, dinner in a local hostelry with championship pool, barbecues and formal dinners with Pinky the pig featuring on the menu, Dave the dog the party act, all just part of the great evening entertainment and bon hommie of the weekend. Lets not forget the usual banter and righting of all the worst problems of sailing all before crashing out in the tents at some late hour. As one ex F18 competitor exclaimed “ this is what the F18 circuit used to be like “

Sunday, 12 – 15 knots of wind and a large swell directly in line with the beach causing some pretty awful beach starts with one unnamed skipper forgetting to get on, with his relatively new crew being whisked down the beach trying to save the dagger boards. The 4ft swell off shore meant difficult conditions but for some, their first ever real catamaran surfing. The over night leader Dave Tugwell blew his first start being squeezed onto the committee boats anchor line by the swell and being firmly stuck for some time, the Alani family took full advantage with 2 firsts showing their superior handling skills in the very heavy conditions, Gary Smith struggled and finally had one too many spinnaker drops which ended up being a very wet experience. Disaster struck the Alani boat when it hit an object breaking a dagger board and case with an emergency dash to the beach required.

At the last race any one of the 3 boats still could have been the champion and yet for all 3, they were forced to retire leaving John Alani as this years national champion.

Throughout the weekend it was evident that the box / weight rule used by the F16’s is a good rule as there was no one boat better than the other, no advantage between single handing or twin handing, no real advantage between boats of various ages. The single handers could right the boats easily along with being able to walk them back up the beach, nor were the twin handers able to over power the boats. If you are looking for a development class of catamaran that really does work without the arms race of the F18s and yet has the same handicap as an A class or a F18, then you should join the growing band of F16 Catamaran sailors.