You´re missing the point and you´re not reading my posts. I'm the 1st to defend the Formula 18 box rule, just read above...

Let me be clear, the Hobie Tiger was the defacto standard F18 for years and for sure has Dominated the class!!
And is still capable to win any WC with the right crew, sadly Bundy wasn´t there.

The Tiger is my favorite F18! But that is not going to change reality.
I'm fully involved in the F18 class, and I'm saying that the main attraction is the several alternatives boats available. Read above...

The point here was that someone said a brand won the WC and other just kill him for naming it!! simple as that.

"stametment" or whatever (non native language issues) I´m giving more info and statistics about the championship.

'Dominates': One brand got 5 top ten spots including 1st and 2nd, and the other puts more boats than any other in the top 20 (8 boats).
The Tiger have 4 top ten.
What's wrong with pointing this ?? info !! relax

The Tiger has dominated the F18 worlds for years with Bundy and Mitch, I´m pointing that maybe we'll see new boats/crews doing that in the future, and for me that´s is really interesting to analyze.

Cheers.

Hey! At least it's a discussion about sailing. I will have to admit it's odd to stumble upon a thread related to sailing on a sailing forum.

Put any World Class sailor on any boat and he will beat the average sailor. It is NOT the boat. It is HOW it is sailed. Right? ANY boat can have a bad day. Wind shift, wrong side of course or just BAD call. Been there, DONE that in my 29 yrs on water.

Doug

Agree Doug

Bundy will win with DIAM, X4 , Cirrus or any other F18 you like, granted.

Sebastien Magnen was here in Buenos Aires living one year, someone invited him to race in the s*... boat arround, but he managed to beat all the top sailboats in real time!! They just couldn´t believe how he was winning on that 'thing'...simple, he was the best sailor.. by far.


I'm identifying trends as now we have a lot of inverted bows F18 doing well. Possibly Hobie will make in the future their own inverted bow F18, that´s going to be even more interesting!

Boats evolve and I'm wondering which F18 will be sailing in years to come.

Can you say "Wave-Piercing?" Can you say "Tornado?"
Can you say "Wave-Piercing Tornado?"

That would be one sexy boat!

Had there been 20+ knots all week, had Mischa not had a BFD, etc, the podium would have looked very differently and he would be saying that the Tiger is still the boat to beat yadayadayada. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I own a Tiger but have recently sailed a fair bit on both the Capricorn and Infusion, upwind the Cap performs well and downwind the Infusion handles a little easier.
But the pro's and con's of both boats are quite easily overcome by the skill of the crew.
Overall I still think the Tiger is great boat that can be sailed over a very wide range of conditions.

Its only natural that Nacra wins more races now since the Infusion is basically the first proper F18 they have developed.
Nacra(Europe) is now also owned and operated by experienced racers, who can attract big sponsors, and thereby really make a difference in the results.
IMHO had these sailors sailed on a Tiger they would probably finish equally well.

About the wave-percing bows, I personally haven't really seen the benefit of the on an F18 though, maybe it works on an A-cat but on an F18?

As all the guys who actually sail/ed F18s will tell you. The performance of each boat is fairly distinct, but the so close that it is scary. I guess 180 kg will help do that.

As for the wave piercing T..... I prefer it the way it is. Don't think the wave piercing bows will add much too the boat, but may take away from the boyancy in the bows. I would rather send a T hard down wind then any other boat. The big T is in a totally different league to the F18s.

Well, just back from the F18 worlds and what can I say.
I love all your comments on the event even if you haven't been there.
The conditions were difficult. We sailed in the low wind Nigran bay thnx to the organisation who failed to organize enough rescueboats to get us racing in the Vigo-bay as planned. So very little wind with strange surf (waves coming from 3 sides....) On thursday 20 knots windspeed and a lot of capsizes/damage. On friday low wind again.

The top three is okay. It reflects the constant performance of Coen de Koning and frenchman Cammas. Heemskerk had a big pitchpole on thursday which looked excellent from the beach. He couldn't handle the big gust. His BDF was BS. Even the startvideo showed that it wasn't his boat as witnesses stated later on.
It lookes to me that the Capricorn and Nacra Infusion are having an advantage in their shape when racing and especially starting, gibing and tacking in low wind and difficult surf conditions. In the long end and with more wind the Tiger has a higher endspeed. But hey, it are the people who make racing isn't it ?

It was my first Worlds and hopefully not my last. I expected more of a egoistic behaviour of the sailors but they helped us with setting up the boat and special thnxs to JC wo tuned our new spinaker. The boat was awesome with the spi.

Also Don did a tremendous job on trying to give all the sailors a fair share of racing when they were confronted with the crappy organisation.

Yep, a shame we could not race in the planned racing area, although it was interesting to see the races of the other fleets from the beach. With strongly favored sides almost every day, the starts were pretty much of the race.

As to the discussion of the Nacra/Capricorn/Tiger etc., the thing I learned on this event is that guys like Mischa, Coen or Cammas would probably win most of us on an old Hobie 18, even if we would sail the most recent F18 Design ever.