Okay then, rather than upload another picture of the spreadsheet I edited and updated the last one. I made the 572 and 585 both Infusions, as well as change 930 to reflect a Nacra F18. I did it this so as not to confuse the issue with two pictures. For those that are wondering why the picture is right before the posts were made.

Later,
Dan

Nigel did have crew lined up but some family matters came up that he needed to stay around for.

I don't think that they "backfilled" the number, but rather are just assigning numbers to sails in order that the sails are made for either Nacra f18 boat..That is kinda confusing..

After 16 races and one throw-out, Mischa Heemskerke and Carrie Howe continue to have a commanding lead in the F18 North Americans at Lake Carlyle, Illinois. John Casey and Kenny Pierce, winning two of the four races on Thursday, are in 2nd Place and trail the leaders by 42 points. Moving from 5th Place to 3rd Place on Thursday is Greg Goodall and Andy Humphries.

Robbie Daniels and Gary Chu scored 2 DNF's yesterday and dropped 4 places from 2nd to 6th. They start today 6 points out of 4th place and 24 points behind Goodall/Humphries in 3rd Place. Kurt Korte and Kevin Jewitt added their worst scores of the regatta in the last two races of the day (27th and DNF), now in a 4th Place tie with John Tomko and Ian Billings (Tomko ahead on tie break). Dropping out of the top 10 by adding their two worst races of the regatta, Woody Cope and Tina Pastoor lost 5 places to start Friday in 14th Place.

The largest move up the rankings on Thursday goes to the team of John Williams and Tom Paoli who advanced 5 positions on the day and currently hold 18th Place.

Biggest drop goes to Kirk Newkirk and Charles Harp who did not race on Thursday and moved down the ranking 9 places.

Weather for today is forecast as 60% chance of rain with winds expected to be 13 knots. Storms rolled through overnight and there is a chance of Thunderstorms today.

With winds in the high teens and much higher velocity gusts, the Race Committee decided not to run any more races today. They reported that John Casey and Kenny Pierce won the last race, followed by John Tomko and Ian Billings. That makes 17 races with one throw-out for the 2006 North American Formula 18 Championships.

With these results, the championship is won by Mischa Heemskerke of the Netherlands with crew Carrie "Rock Star" Howe. In today's race, Kurt Korte broke a daggerboard 5 minutes prior to the start. Mischa gave one of his boards to Korte and sailed to the beach to get a replacement. Mischa and Carrie returned to the race course and started 3 minutes and 20 seconds late. Ya gotta love it!

Second Place is John Casey and Kenny Pierce of Team Tybee fame.

I have to hand it to JC and Kenny, those two are deserving of some kind of accolades.

Litterally putting the boat together the weekend before, and figuring it out throughout the week, that some raw talent right there. Couldn't be nicer fellers either. I remember when I was feeling pretty down and dejected at Tradewinds 2006 after I had a rough day. The first person to come up to me and help me get my head back up was JC.

And how can you not like Chuck Norris, er I mean Kenny?

Props dudes.

The only race today and the last race of the regatta was thrown out. Apparently the boats that participated in the race all went around the wrong course. Something about putting in another mark that the competitors were supposed to use instead of the one that they had already used. I am not exact about the details

I think it used to be that as long as all the boats went around the same course that it was a legal race. While looking this up in several rule books all I could come up with was this:

[color:"blue"]Rule 89.3(a), Scoring
The Low Point System is the default scoring system, and need not be specified. Any other system,
including the Bonus Point, must still be specified in the sailing instructions. Therefore, if the Low Point
System is intended, and no other change to Appendix A is required, the sailing instructions need just say
that the racing will be scored by Appendix A. The rule now answers the old conundrum as to the status of
V3d, 20 Nov 04 9
a race where only the first boat sails the course and finishes within the time limit, only for her to retire
after finishing or be disqualified: the race is now confirmed to be valid and will be scored. If there are no
time limit issues, [color:"green"]but if all the boats sail the wrong course, the race is not to be scored.[/color][/color]

I guess that is that.

You are kidding aren't you...... This is when the F18s start to realy perform. This would have frustrated Goodall.... Skipps get a little bored in winds under 12 knots.

If you come to the Worlds in Australia, expect mid to high teens (average) to be the norm <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Our club will not pull the pin in anything under 22.5 knot average. Some places we have raced in 25 to 30 knot averages.

The minimum breeze was in the teens. The sustained gusts were in the upper 20's (or more). It was calamity on the course with several capsizes at any given moment, a broken mast, a broken spin pole, chase boats everywhere, and a change of course that nobody saw and/or remembered by the time they clawed back to A - because of the chase boats required for assistance, a boat at the C gate couldn't be present to fly the Charlie flag - instead, the change course flag was flown (properly) from the Race Committee boat but I think it was a bit far away for us to hear the horn - I never heard it. Because the chase boats were so tied up, they left both A pins and offest marks in the water further leading to the confusion.

Dan,

The wording in my rule book (2005 - 2008) is quite different - but the context is pretty much the same. At least one boat has to sail the proper course for the race to count.

TA: If you read Jake's post on his website, I think you'll find that it wasn't quite hunky-dory with the wind. I just talked to him and he seemed to indicate that the wind reading "in the teens" was an underestimation.

Here is the applicable most current rule from the ISAF:

89.3 Scoring
(a) The race committee shall score a race or series as provided in Appendix A using the Low Point System, unless the sailing instructions specify the Bonus Point System or some other system. A race shall be scored if it is not abandoned and if one boat sails the course in compliance with rule 28.1 and finishes within the time limit, if any, even if she retires after finishing or is disqualified.

Sounds like it should be thrown to me. The only argument you could make would be if you thought that the boats sailed the proper course because of a lack of a proper signal from the race committee.

It was a fun and windy week. Lot's of room for improvement on my part. I think everyone got there money's worth on the race course and off.

Mike Hill

Steady breeze 15 - 18 knots with gusts in the 20's. Not so sure it was the wind but a combination of the gusts and many tired sailors. This was the 17th race of a series that all but two races featured double trapping breezes. I cannot imagine how tired many of the competitors muscles were handling all that pressure.

As for no more races the last day...more a matter of safety than too much breeze. We only had (2) whalers on the course brought out the 3rd and last available to assist the demasted boat. All my boats were very busy tending to flipped boats and felt in my opinion we were about to loose control of the day...therefore...no more racing.

Trust me, it was not the breeze alone that lead to my decision to end the day.

Mark

Hey Dan,
Thanks for the "legal" support. In the new rule's wording you have to inferr that if no boat sails the proper course the race in NOT scored.

There was a withdrawn protest that was heard on this that the jury found no error on the part of the RC which is the only way this could have entered the record books.

Sorry you, Eileen, Greg and Jacques missed the event. Alot more wind to work with than last year.

Mark

Yeah, wind that is high teens gusting high 20s can be harder to manage than a sea breeze of high 20s...... If the fleet is strugling and there is a high number of boats on their sides..... Then to call the race is a wise decission.

I am just back from our club after Myself and the rest of the race comittee agreed not to race <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />......



Futher update...... Branches falling constanly on our roof and a mess in the yard. Boat is tucked away safe.

John W, Jake....... How was it???

Wow, 17 races. I am jealous of the competitors. It must have been a great time. Carlyle Sailing Association looks like a beautiful, active club. Congrats to JC on figuring out the new boat and mast so quickly, amazing.

I think, like you (TA) we will be canceled today

Wind Direction (WDIR): W ( 260 deg true )
Wind Speed (WSPD): 27.2 kts
Wind Gust (GST): 35.0 kts
Wave Height (WVHT): 4.9 ft
Dominant Wave Period (DPD): 5 sec

It was a frustrating week for us - we just couldn't seem to get in tune with the wind, competition, and the shifts. At times, I don't think we experiemented enough with the boat and got locked into accepting less-than-perfect starts and boat tuning. The recent focus on distance racing (for me) seems to have taken some of my ability away from racing around the cans too. I kind of failed ourselves in that I was too quick to find other things to blame when I should have been looking inward and working harder so we also found it diffult to improve as the week went on...lesson learned.

The week was an excellent and fair contest of the teams and those that were on top were consistantly on top and earned their positions. I also find that the skill of this fleet in North America is quickly gaining and feel like I have a lot of studying and practicing to do in order to get back into the chase.

Team Layline (Mike Krantz and David Lennard) didn't show as well as they deserved due to one on-board mechanical failure leading to a DNF and a collision that resulted in redress that averaged in their throw-out DNF. Those guys were hot this week and just missed the top 10 by 0.3 points!

Kenny and JC proved a LOT this week in putting together a boat that they have never sailed before and placing second (watch as their scores gradually get better as they sorted out the boat). These guys are no longer just top distance racers and are a serious force on anything with two hulls.

Mischa and Carrie tought us what pros can do - I've never seen tacks and jibes so fluid and seamless. In the three times we were fortunate enough to own a starboard crossing with them, they choose to tack away than to duck and lost less distance up the course that way. Excellent competitors and excellent sportsmanship.

There's more at http://www.teamseacats.com - I should have the pictures up soon (I had connection issues that prohibited the uploading of photos).

I'm still pulling myself back together - haven't read through all the related posts yet or even tried to catch up with e-mail. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I had a blast, as I strongly suspected beforehand I would. I like my new boat alot - handled the both the big air and light stuff really well... no breakage to report even after two pretty impressive pitches, one on Tuesday and one on Friday, both just past the clearing mark at high speed and in big gusts... there are definitely some little rigging things I'll be tweaking after spending a week on the water. My downhaul wore against the gooseneck, and the single-line spin halyard sister-block caught on the spreaders a couple of times on it's way down the mast. Easy fixes for both.

I really enjoyed sailing with Tom Paoli - he was really fun on the boat and totally game. As the week went on, we got accustomed to each other and the boat and started turning in more consistent finishes. I drove the lighter stuff and he drove the big air, for which I was greatful - I need to work on my confidence as a skipper in double-trap conditions.

The "light and shifty" that some folks complain about is something I enjoy. There is skill in finding the breeze and positioning youself for breeze that may be a significant distance away from you. Driving for those races was really gratifying for me - Tom had his head completely out of the boat timing the puffs and shifts and putting us where we needed to be. It was hard for me to ignore his crew work sometimes and focus on driving - invariably, if I took my eye off the ball to check out what he was doing, the boat would stopperate and all the apparent wind we'd built up flitted away like a pleasant dream.

Race management was top shelf - some groused when a decision didn't go their way, but them's the breaks. I can say that with authority. The club's hospitality was also out of sight - great place, and I hope they know how lucky they are in their primary resource: warm-hearted volunteers.

Best memories for the week?

Number 3 - Having Greg Goodall ask if he could take a look at my boat to try and pin down a pesky minor leak. Next thing I knew, like a NASCAR pit crew, he was laying under my starboard hull with a fresh batch of epoxy, touching up a tiny hole in the back of the boardwell - while he's doing that, Jill walks up and gives the boat a once-over, grabs my outhaul and says "hey, look here." She'd found a bent 16mm block in the outhaul assy. that she said had been tied wrong at the factory. She replaced it. It made me feel pretty good to have that sort of support after the sale. That's not a Cap commercial - that's just the way it was.

Number 2 - After Number 1 (see below) I'm riding high and into the beer. CSA brought in one of the most rocking bands for the Wednesday night party - I can't do them justice. For the first few songs, we were all in awe - after that, we rode that wave all the way in until they quit playing, even though we were exhausted from all the racing. It was the highlight of the regatta for me as far as the social schedule, and I was truly greatful to have a cold beer in one hand, an awesome band turned up to 11, and a bunch of great sailing budies to share it with.

and Number 1 - Sailing Wednesday. It was my favorite day on the water. We finished one race in a pack with 10 other boats in some good wind, 'chutes flying (the on-board video captured it, too). We got through the line and Tom fell on the deck laughing and yelling it was so exciting - he said he spent his entire day's adrenaline in that one finish, and I had a perma-grin. I wrapped up the day with an 11th after a really exciting upwind leg, just edging out Olli and Kelly at the line. We had similar finishes all the next day in a lot more wind, but for me the excitement of Wednesday's racing was the on-the-water highlight.

Looking forward to the next one. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

If you want even more fun - Come to the Worlds in Australia - Feb 2007 - Containers have been organised and you will be suprised how cheaply you may be able to do it. Remember this will be the last OPEN event Worlds for a few years.

Those who may not be in the top 6 - This is the best chance for you to go to a WORLDS