Larsen and Van West Impress at Formula 18 Worlds

Four races were sailed on the second day of the Formula 18 World Championship with defending champions Gunnar Larsen and Ferdinand van West impressing to lead the 167 pack.

Mitch and Ruben Booth follow in second and Oscar Zeekant and Karel Begemann occupy third.

Conditions on the water were spectaculair and sailors often did double trapeze with smiling faces all over the race course. Although the wind was very shifty, sometimes shifting 50 degrees, Larsen and Van West did a very good job. In their highly competitive (yellow) fleet they are were up against some of the topdogs and showed that they will do everything to take the trophy back to the Netherlands again.

Huge crash – 3 boats involved
Unfortunately, there was also a big crash on the day with three boats were involved. Simon Flack, one of the victims said, “Shortly after the start of race 3 of the series Neil and I sailed a port lane out and sailed past a French boat stuck ‘in irons’. As we passed, the boats powered up behind and upwind of us. This was just at the moment that we were crossing behind a German boat. The French bore down on us at great speed hitting our boat and knocking myself off the back. Result: our boat screwing hard into wind and into the passing German boat. We hit his shroud causing his mast to fall down and cutting a huge slice out of mine!”

On Thursday conditions are expected to be very light. Races are scheduled at 10:00 with the qualification series to come to a conclusion. All races can be tracked online thanks to the GPS-tracking on board. All results can be viewed here.

Event Facebook website: https://www.facebook.com/f18worlds2015
Official Formula 18 Facebook and galleries: https://www.facebook.com/F18International
Official Formula 18 website: www.f18-international.org
Replays: http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=558