Formula 18s at the Grafham Cat Open
by Grant Piggott 30 Oct 2014 12:35 GMT
25-26 October 2014
The F18s returned to Grafham for the first time in a couple of years to attend the clubs end of Year Cat open on 25th/26th October. As usual several makes of F18 were present including Nacra Infusion, C2 and Australian Edge.
Saturday was 3 races back to back, run very efficiently by Peter Saxton and his team. It was a fairly gusty day at grafham with gusts from 15 to 20 knots, perfect for F18 sailing! Generally the F18's favoured the left hand side of the beat but played large gusts downwind.It was clear by the end of the day that the 3 main contenders were going to be Simon Northrop, David White and Grant Piggott all chasing hard for the lead.
At the end of the day though Grant Piggott and Simon 'Fraz' Farren managed to get 3 bullets to take the overnight lead, with David White 2nd.
Sunday was a much windier day, Peter Saxton said they recorded 30 knot gusts. This took its toll on many boats on both the race courses. However all F18s finished the day unscathed except Matt Young who took a dive through his edge mainsail. Simon Northrop reveled in the conditions to win the only two races of the day, David White Took a swim whilst laying 2nd in race one to allow Grant Piggott through which meant he had won the weekend.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 1828 | Grant Piggott | SImon Farren | Weston Sailing Club | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -3 | 5 |
| 2nd | 1581 | Simon Northrop | Hazza Willett | Minnis Bay Sailing Club | -4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 3rd | 1234 | David White | Jon Sweet | Grafham Water Sailing Club | 2 | 3 | 2 | (DNC) | 2 | 9 |
| 4th | 503 | Matt Young | Sam Barker | Minnis Bay Sc/ Castle Cove SC | 3 | 4 | 6 | 3 | (DNC) | 16 |
| 5th | 501 | Will Sunnucks | Freddie White | Brightlingsea Saling Club | 5 | 5 | 4 | (DNC) | 4 | 18 |
| 6th | 1577 | Tim Neal | Bob Fry | Parkstone Yacht Club | -6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 20 |
| 7th | 311 | John Tuchwell | Chelsea Furber | Bala Catamaran Club | 7 | 7 | 7 | (DNC) | DNC | 29 |