This way this event goes down reminds me eary of the ICCC event. Both had two crews totally new to the 18HT's; one crew never sailed such a boat before they other had a boat that was not really race ready. The small final was determined by one crew withdrawing from racing. The grand final sees the two standard boats racing and not the new boats. That and it seems destined that the cup goes to the crew who has shown to be dominant all week. The race that they lost was due to a 15-degree shift favouring the other creww. I think patient lady 6 put one win in over Cogito for the same reasons.
I was pretty surprised too at how 'new' some of the sailors were to their rides. I think some of this is due to this being an Olympic year and that took all the available resources of three of the four top teams. I do see, however, a little more readily available technology in the 18HT (notice no 'f' anymore
) than the C-class boats and I believe that next year will see more prior testing and development by some of the challengers.
