In the week from 23th – 30th July 2011 the first official F16 Worlds were sailed in France at the sailing club CVB ( Cercle Voile de Bordeaux ) on the lake of Maubuisson .
The organization done by the sailing club and its volunteers was absolute from superb quality , the people in the catering and on the starting vessels need to have a very big dumb up on the achieved result . There was no negative comment from anybody on this and everybody was enjoying the atmosphere.
We arrived with 2 Raptors F16 on Saturday night and did a quick diner after a 10 hour long drive and went to bed straight away. The next morning we were up early to go to the CVB and to assemble the boats. We did found out that most competitors were already arrived and the field of 33 boats was a very good achievement. During assembling the others came into the boat yard and did prepare them self to go for a nice sail despite the showers of rain we had. The wind was good and sailing could be done.
We assembled the 2 boats and they were ready to go for the Monday. For Stephane ,who sailed 1 Raptor in 2 up mode, it was the first time ever on the F16 and he went out early to have a test run and to see if anything needs to be modified. He had found no problems and was happy to have a boat ready to race from the box. On Monday he was not racing because he was part of the organization and this could not combined with racing. Hans was going single handed for the first time this year on the Raptor F16, the A class project took to much time to have any practice possible, and went on the water also early to check the newly build Raptor Mark II and to see if everything was working properly. Also no problems and the event was going to start.
Monday 25 July
The first race day with showers of rain and wind around 14 to 16 knots was a challenging one if you did not had the change to practice with the spin and this resulted in 2 capsizes in race 2 , but after a while the routine started to come back and this resulted in a 25, dnf , 23 . From the beginning on you could see which people who were going for the championship, Darren Bundock ( goes fast even on a wooden pallet ) Jason Waterhouse, Carolijn Brouwer and Taylor Reiss. The difference in boat handling and tactics were from a different level in comparison to the rest of the fleet.
Darren took the lead with a 1,2,1
Tuesday 26 July
The weather was improving a bit but still there was rain but not as bad as on the Monday. The races scheduled for the day should be started at 13.00 but because the wind was very shifty there was some delay in the procedure so it actually started around 14.00 , which was also giving the wind to build up and the one up’s had no change at all to beat the sloop rigged boats. Greg Goodall was swapped for this day to cat rigged because of illness of his crew. The request for doing this was send in to the jury and nobody was complaining one this further. Good to see that sailing and having fun goes above the competition in this. Stephane on the Raptor mark I was also going out and did good racing with a 25,19,20 result with no practice at all and on a new boat. He was really surprised on how the boat performed and how easy it sailed downwind. Hans was getting in the mood and had a good day with a 13,10,23 and did beat Greg twice this day with a good battle with Greg.
Jason Waterhouse was best this day with a 1,2,1 and followed by Darren with a 2,1,2.
Wednesday 27 July
Finally the weather was the way it should be, sunny and 27 degrees Celsius, and the wind was probably going to do what it normal does. Easy in the morning and building up during the day as a thermic wind into the 20’s. This would not exactly happing because the land was to could after the bad days but it was building up later that day to around 16 knots. Darren did show how to sail correctly and did not make any mistake with 3 bullets , it was his day. Stephane was increasing his results and was making a lot of improvement on the boat and was getting used to it. He did a 21,18,18 and was in race 2 close to the first 10 but made a tactic error what cost several places but overall he was really having fun. Hans in the morning was doing well because the wind was not to strong so the advantage of the sloop rigged boats was not to big yet and finished 13th , the wind started to build in race 2 and the sloops were absolute to fast, this was a 23 and 24 in race 2 and 3 for that day.
Thursday 28 July
The sun was shining and the temperature was around 27 C again so it was perfect and the thermic breeze would for sure come in today, and it came in. The first 2 races was sailed in perfect condition from 12 to 16 knots but during the 3th race the wind switched on and it started to blow constant 19 to 20 and gusts into the 20’s . This is for the 1 up’s a challenging adventure with the spin and a few were having troubles, the sloops were really flying fast. Darren also took this day with constant high level sailing . A 2,1,2 was the result and Carolijn also did well with 2 bullets. You could really see that these 2 were the best today in boat handling and tactics. Stephane did it well with a 19,28,27. He told me that his wife never sailed in these strong wind condition before and was pleased to manage this quite easy but she was for here feeling on the edge what she normally does but the boat handled all gusts very well and this made here to go on. Hans was doing average with a 24,17,22 and was more battling to secure his place as first single hander.
Friday 29 July
Last day racing and no wind at all in the beginning, everybody was waiting till around noon and then we went on the water in the hope to get at least one race done this day. The last signal should be not later than 15.00 and around 14.15 it went on . Darren was already crowned as champion and actually he did not needed to sail this last race. The wind started to build and we did a good last race of the event. Stephane was not on the water because of organization issues again and Hans was just defending his position to end as first single hander. With a 19th in the last race it worked out.
Jason finished first this day and secured his 2nd place overall.
Ranking first 5 overall
1. Darren Bundock/Celine van Dooren
2. Jason Waterhouse/Brett Goodall
3. Taylor Reiss/Matthew Whitehead
4. Carolijn Brouwer/Klaas Victor
5. Emmanuel Le Chapelier/Alexandre Noirot
Ranking Cat rigged boats
1. Hans Klok
2. Francis Ferrari
3. Philippe Ohse
4. Nicholas Touchot
We can say that this event was one never to forget and up to the next one, only the travel back needs to go better. Our car broke down on Saturday around 12 and this resulted in a long journey back and finally we did arrive home Monday evening late.
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