F-18's at Spring Dinghy

F-18 Spring Dinghy spectator view.We had to miss the race due to a electrical problem on our trailer and ended up watching.

The first race showed how tricky the bay can be to sail on these high performance cats. Seeing a cat on starboard slipping down and losing all their forward progress shows the power of these tides. When they would tack on to port the wind would push them almost straight up but then the channel tide would begin to push them back down. So boats were forced to try to make as much on Port as possible then suffer the ride sideways on Starboard. Michel KERMAREC on the Viper looked to be dialed into these conditions and showed really well followed by the Wildcats of Phillip and Charles.

The second race the tide slacked and the wind coming up allowed the cats to shine. Hulls flew high and speeds came up as more of the bay became raceable. You could now make some gains on Starboard and at 15 knots of wind there were boats cruising downwind with full spinnakers in the 20 knot range. Phillip, Alex, Michael Butler began to make gains on the Viper that dominated the first race. The third race followed suit and the day ended with three boats close at the top of the leader board.

Sunday began with light conditions and a strong flood. There were holes all over the course and boats swapped positions as one caught a puff and the other sat in a hole. despite that it made for some very tactical racing and tough calls on the water. During the second race the wind almost went to nothing and again tactics and not making mistakes ruled the day.

The third race saw the wind come back and a steady 12 to 15 knots on a almost flat bay. This was perfect conditions to push the boats to the limits and try to drain every ounce of speed out of the boats. This led to some close racing and great fun for the sailors and spectators alike.

Thank You to the St. Francis Yacht Club, and all the volunteers for the great weekend.

Pics here http://www.sff18.org/

Rich, just curious... why does the viper take a RAF for each race. He is on the race course and racing the other boats, the F18's owe him time. Why not just race level and pretend he is an F18 in need of a little human growth hormone.

I can't imagine how a judge would handle the complications of RAF always in a protest with multiple positions at stake.

thanks for the write up!!!!

Mark
The Viper was not legally allowed to be there. It was a class invitation and the F-16's were not invited. Mike being a good racer and part of Oracle Racing we let him race with us and he took a RAF on his own.
He chose to take the RAF so as not to affect the scoring for the SFF-18 Series or hurt our standing with some of the yacht clubs that don't like "skirting" of the rules. All the fleet involved understood this before racing began.
Actually boat for boat he won the regatta.

Good stuff.

Mike

To Mike and Rich,

A EXCELLENT solution .... as a group you took a possible "Win-Lose" situation ... and turned it into a "Win-Win" for everyone. And it was done "Officially" under the RRS's ....

GREAT JOB

I understand, Mike wanted just to have some "time on the water racing" on a small catamaran and didn't he race w/ his kid?.

That's how we Multihuller's need to roll ... TOGETHER!!!

Harry
H18Mag/P19MX

Yes he raced with his son and they want to move to a F-18 in the future. It was just a fun day on the bay.

Just a random thought...

If he beat the F18s overall, he won in my eyes. Based on Portsmouth numbers, the F18s owe him time in all wind conditions, not the other way around.

It would be a different story if one F18 showed up and beat a fleet if F16s by about a minute (the Portsmouth delta for a typical race).

Mike

Mike
Yea he won. He sailed well and was a point up at the end. He took a RAF after the regatta so as not to mess up the scoring in a series he is not in.

The main thing is we had a good showing at a yacht club that has invited us back. This was never a F-18 vs viper thing it was about making a good in road with the more active and prestigious yacht clubs in the San Fran Bay.

We are trying to build a stronger fleet and have a nice series of places to race. This was an invitational race and F-18 was invited. Maybe next year we can have an open multihull class but till then we have to respect the wishes of the people putting on the regattas.

OK, forget I mentioned it. I was actually not commenting on the club, the fleet or anything else; other than in my original post when I simply said "Good stuff." That was a huge understatement of how well I think everyone handled the situation.

And before anyone kills me, beyond the Portsmouth numbers, I am roughly aware of the F16 vs F18 crew weight issues, and would never advocate formal heads-up racing between these boats.

Yacht clubs (or anyone else) that don't approve of "skirting the rules" have probably gotten there from years of experience. There are almost always unforseen consequences when rules are bent, fleets are blended, etc.

Mike

Mike it's all good. If you or anyone is ever here we have at least one boat that can be borrowed for a weekend. the more the merrier and all are welcome. It's all about good times and good people.
Sorry i got a little snippy but I have had several private messages where I got yelled at and questioned why we threw out the 16.
All is better now.

"And before anyone kills me, beyond the Portsmouth numbers, I am roughly aware of the F16 vs F18 crew weight issues, and would never advocate formal heads-up racing between these boats."

It works pretty well but I wouldn't give trophies made of gold.

Thumbs up, a race with family aboard.

Pictures went to SkyDrive at 2048 pixels of the F18s, 505's, Wetas, 29ers.
The cropped pics are bigger than 2048 pixels,
but they are all spectator pics from shore.