Not intentionally, just wanted to keep the result listing simple. I was replying to a statement about F16 vs F17 performance after all.

Besides you guys on the Layline infusion F18 taking four 1st out off 4 races entered was a bit boring ! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Well sailed guys and looking sharp !



Wouter

Hey Wouter I was just kidding with you. I wish that more of the F16's could have sailed. Bob's F17 did have a F18 mast section cut to the right length.

While were are talking with c.q. about Terry and Tom here; look what these guys did :


Suddenly they find themselves leading two Nacra F17's on the downwind leg, right ?





Then they sudden realize the gravity of that situation and what do they do ?!??!

They simultaniously "moon" the nacra F17's by sticking their bows in !





From the next series of pictures it appears that Terry, who dives deepest, survives that manouvre while Tom doesn't.

Wouter

Who is trying to squeeze himself between the committee boat and that Hobie Tiger ?




But he does get away with it :




Anxiously looking back at a nacra F17 who is just behind. Is that Bob C. with that excellent start position on the far right ?

See the full collection here :

http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=40788&g2_page=1



Wouter

I noticed the H17 had a very respectable finish. It would be nice to get his view and those of the other 17's as well.

Does anyone know them well enough to ask for their thoughts?

Haven't heard from Chris Stater either.

That would be me ... got caught behind and could either run the line or slow down and dive in ... chose the later.

Nope ... I actually capsized. This was Race2 at the last C(g) rounding. One of the Nacra17's also capsized as he was checking that I got back on the boat and caught a gust and flipped too. Sorry! I quickly got the boat righted and finished without any boats passing me....yippee.

So that explains the elapsed time difference between the numbers 1,2,3 and 4 (by 3 min) and 5 (by 6 min) in race 2 !

Basically, the skippers participating in race 2 : Chad (F17), Tom (F16), Terry (F16) and Mike (F17) were mere seconds apart on the last mark rounding before finishing with Bob Curry (F17) being some 3 minutes in front of this pack !

Nothing like a bit of photographic evidence as counterweight the rumours and stories on the beach and forums afterwards.

Wouter

What rumors and stories? Looked like to me everyone was just happy to be racing. And it appeared they were all working really hard at it. Not an easy weekend of sailing. (awesome pictures BTW)

Saturday was nothing compared to getting the boat down to Key on Friday!!!! That is the main reason why I didn't go out solo when Mark Murray decided not to sail on Saturday. I did not have the energy to sail solo on saturday, esp in puffy conditions. You are right, wind from the north on the sound is tricky

I was at Saunder's Beach (on the mainland) Friday around 3:30-4:00pm watching the wind gust then back way off. That woulda been a hard/(pain in the butt) sail from Navarre to Key especially if you were dealing with winter rust...........

Tom

Winter rust? Not me! I was down there sailing a month ago <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I swear the puffs were about 30kn on Friday. Hard to hold things together and make progress on a light boat, especially 1-up and me being light anyway.

I was watching this twin masted 35'-40' monohull go out to the end of the channel on jib (not unfurled all the way) alone.(you know how lazy these guys can be) Anyway, the wind was laying him over so much he had to luff up a couple times.

Ohh, just a small selection from rumours started in this thread alone :











PTP's hull didn't break off but cracked, hull isn't toast, PTP didn't leave in a hurry to hide the damage and the 3 F17's didn't usually finish ahead of the F16's. The racing was pretty level despite the event being a blow-out with various crew deciding not to risk it.

Only story still standing is that Layline F18 beat everybody hands down and that Bob Curry is one fast singlehanded sailor with a stroke of bad luck (collision) and a big hole in his hull.


End of story !

Wouter

Yeah, those two guys were sparing back and forth a little but that was probably due to some bad blood stirred up months before by some North-Western Euro kinda guy!

The story continues...........

Tom

Naturally !

No problem in that, I'm not scared of a little controversy.

Actually I've been keeping track of numbers of postings and views these past 5 weeks and all that the controversies achieved was a sharp rise in postings and views; alot of them by people unassociated with the F16 class (yet).

I guess the old saying in the bookselling industry also holds for us. "A bad press report is still way better then no press report."

Surprisingly as it may seems we appear to have grown and become more stronger because of it.

Naturally I prefer all out rave reviews but I'm not too picky to discard any progress made through controversies.

Lets keep it up !

Besides this is great fun, we should mix F16 and F17 fleets more often !

Wouter

I am still up in the air about sailing my boat on the Michigan circuit this summer- which means I would be racing against a lot of F17s. I probably wouldn't be scored against them but if we had the same start it would be fine. There are usually enough F17s to have their own start/class. I think it would be great fun. These boats are very similar and I think that the sailor makes the biggest difference of course. Give Fad an F16 and watch him spank the F17s... of course he would never go back <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I'm all for mixed fleet sailing. I don't want anyone sitting home because they don't have a fleet to sail in.

We could learn a lot from the H-17 sailor last weekend. If you keep the pointy end up, you finish more races and have an overall better result. The more skill you have the better the result will be.

For what it's worth, I had a reacher from Calvert sails on my H-17 and it was a screamer!

Why is that still up in the air ?

I say go for it and let the chips fall where they may.

There will be nothing we can't handle anyway and training with them is much more fun for you !

Of course they will try to turn you to the dark side and have your boat disappear into a black hole ! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Wouter