Photos: Rich Roberts

In the bag for Backes and Vandame

Wind fades for the finale of the GlobalTech Formula 18 World Championship

Saturday September 15th 2012, Author: Rich Roberts, Location: United States

France's Olivier Backes and crew Matthieu Vandame figured they needed to sail only two of the last three races to pocket first place in the GlobalTech Formula 18 World Championship today.

Wrong. They needed only one as a light southwest breeze gasped its last against warm desert Santa Ana winds - a local autumn phenomenon - blowing offshore from the opposite direction, leaving the fleet of 118 Gold and Silver flight boats from 16 countries drifting helplessly in the event hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club.

The regatta was caught in the middle. The single race was delayed 1 1/4 hours by racers' early starts and course changes required with shifting light winds of 3-7 knots. Later, as the stragglers crept in from the mile-square trapezoid course, principal race officer Mark Townsend debated for an hour whether to continue.

At one point he even studied smoke from the oil refinery fire west of Long Beach for clues to what the wind might do. Then at 3:30 he called it a regatta, and Backes and Vandame's coach, Alex Udin, jumped aboard their cat to provide the winners a champagne shower.

"When I put up the [abandonment] flags, all the boats cheered," Townsend said later.

As far as the championship was concerned, ending two short of the 15 scheduled races made no difference. Backes/Vandame finished 15th in Saturday's only race, but none of their challengers finished better than sixth - not nearly enough to threaten their lead, especially with a second throwout to play.

Even with the subdued climax, Olivier said the victory was better than his first win of the F18 Worlds two years ago in France.

"The first time I won there was a big fight for the win at the end with three boats," he said. "This was much better."

Olivier had another crew in 2010, so this was Vandame's first F18 Worlds title. "I'm really happy," he said.

So was Karel Begemann, crew for Oscar Zeekant on the runner-up boat from The Netherlands.

"We didn't really come here to win," Begemann said. "We just hoped to be in the top five."

In fact, Dutch boats seized four of the top six places overall.

It was the first F18 Worlds in the USA. The top American boat finished 10th, sailed by Michael Easton and Tripp Burd of the New England Nacra Sailing Association (NENSA).

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Gold fleet results:

Pos Nat Helm Crew Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 Tot Net
1 FRA Olivier Backes Matthieu Vandame 2 3 6 6 3 2 1 3 4 (61.0 OCS) 1 3 -15 110 34
2 NED Oscar Zeekant Karel Begemann 5 5 -10 3 2 5 -10 7 2 10 3 2 8 72 52
3 SUI Billy Besson Jeremie Laguarrigue 3 6 1 1 4 7 2 4 -24 11 -14 8 6 91 53
4 NED Mischa Heemskerk Bastiaan Tentij 8 8 5 12 2 1 9 1 3 -18 4 4 -30 105 57
5 NED Gunnar Larsen Gerhard van Geest 7 5 6 2 6 8 6 2 7 -15 7 1 -26 98 57
6 NED Coen De Koning Thijs Visser 3 15 8 13 3 6 3 -17 6 -21 6 5 1 107 69
7 AUS Darren Bundock Jeroen van Leeuwen 9 11 3 2 5 1 5 5 9 -28 8 (61.0 BFD) 27 174 85
8 SWE Tim Shuwalow Thomas Ekefalk 6 4 4 7 7 5 15 (61.0 DNF) 23 3 13 6 -42 196 93
9 FRA Gurvan Bontemps Benjamin Amiot 17 16 18 4 1 3 7 18 1 (61.0 OCS) 2 7 -44 199 94
10 USA Michael Easton Tripp Burd 4 13 1 3 10 13 -31 14 -21 5 16 14 2 147 95
11 FRA Emmanuel Boulogne Frederic Moreau 18 9 3 14 1 3 11 8 5 16 11 -31 -40 170 99
12 USA Taylor Reiss Matthew Whitehead 8 3 -29 5 4 4 12 -23 10 4 10 22 20 154 102
13 BEL Carolijn Brouwer Wouter Samama 4 2 2 6 6 -29 14 11 14 22 5 18 -29 162 104
14 NED Jorden Veenman Frank de Waard 10 1 5 4 12 7 -21 15 18 -20 12 9 13 147 106
15 FRA Pierre Le Clainche Antoine Joubert 11 8 12 12 7 8 4 9 15 7 15 -16 -46 170 108
16 AUS Jason Waterhouse Brett Goodall 11 6 8 1 8 2 -19 10 13 -32 18.5 RDG 18.5 RDG 18 165 114
17 USA Robbie Daniel Hunter Stunzi 5 13 2 11 5 4 20 (61.0 DNS) 11 8 18 17 -33 208 114
18 FRA Charles Hainneville David Fanouillere 21 -26 11 8 9 6 16 13 17 12 9 11 -23 182 133
19 ITA Vittorio Bissaro Carlo De Paoli 7 19 10 9 8 11 -26 22 22 19 -46 12 14 225 153
20 ARG Cruz Gonzalez Smith Mariano Heuser 16 14 16 17 11 10 8 16 12 -29 -20 19 19 207 158
21 AUS Andrew Macpherson Shannen Marck 23 18 15 13 15 18 -32 29 -33 9 19 20 3 247 182
22 USA John Casey Dalton Tebo 26 22 4 21 14 10 24 24 8 -44 -29 24 10 260 187
23 PUR Enrique Figueroa Jayson Moore 13 27 19 32 13 9 13 6 30 -34 27 10 -36 269 199
24 NED Willem Geijssen Dominiaque van Asselt 13 9 18 17 13 21 28 21 28 -45 -35 21 11 280 200
25 USA John Tomko Ian Billings 9 7 12.4 RDG 16 21 9 29 19 -39 31 21 27 -37 277.4 201.4
26 USA Matt Struble Damon LaCasella 2 20 14 10 25 16 36 (61.0 DNF) 16 23 17 23 -45 308 202
27 NED Froukje Feenstra Mischa de Munck 12 20 9 22 12 14 -33 25 26 30 24 13 -32 272 207
28 USA Bob Merrick Tyler Burd 6 10 24 7 18 14 -42 -46 38 6 41 30 22 304 216
29 AUS Rod Waterhouse Chris Way 21 29 12 14 9 15 18 32 35 1 33 (61.0 OCS) -38 318 219
30 ARG Esteban Luciano Blando Nicolas Aragones 24 10 7 16 20 -39 30 30 29 (61.0 DNC) 31 15 12 324 224
31 NED Vincent Huntleman Olivier Witteveen 19 12 14 19 18 19 25 36 -40 -38 25 29 9 303 225
32 NZL Mike Drummond Finn Drummond 14 7 25 10 24 26 -48 27 19 25 -34 26 24 309 227
33 USA Pease Glaser Jay Glaser 15 4 21 8 27 22 -45 34 32 17 -45 34 17 321 231
34 CAN Louis-Philippe Ethier Maxime Loiselle 20 21 21 31 14 16 27 20 -41 13 28 25 -52 329 236
35 USA Greg Thomas Jacques Bernier 12 11 13 15 11 20 35 31 27 (61.0 OCS) 30 (61.0 DNC) 35 362 240
36 ARG Ian Rodger Andre Noe 22 18 20 19 16 11 39 37 31 2 -40 (61.0 DNC) 34 350 249
37 USA Drew Carlyle James Wierzbowski 16 25 13 9 28 20 22 26 -49 43 26 37 -49 363 265
38 USA Steve Rosenberg Jacob Rosenberg 17 19 19 30 26 24.0 RDG 38 28 25 42 (61.0 DNC) (61.0 DNC) 16 406 284
39 USA Scott Miller Hailey Miller 19 17 23 31 21 24 -50 -45 36 27 43 44 5 385 290
40 AUS Greg Goodall Christa van Helden 20 24 25 27 23 17 (61.0 DNF) 33 37 -40 36 35 21 399 298
41 USA Sarah Newberry Maxime Hainneville 1 2 23 28 23 19 40 -49 48 -54 38 47 31 403 300
42 CAN Nicolas Dube Vincent Gagne 27 16 22 27 26 28 43 40 34 14 -48 -51 41 417 318
43 USA Ian Sammis Paulo Gabella 35 27 33 24 19 34 -44 35 -47 41 32 36 4 411 320
44 USA Larry Harteck Larry Harteck 29 14 11 18 28 36 -46 44 43 33 42 32 -47 423 330
45 USA Todd Riccardi Brendon Scanlon 45 36 31 22 17 17 -52 38 20 -50 22 33 50 433 331
46 USA Sandra Tartaglino Chris Titcomb 30 15 28 23 35 22 -56 43 46 24 39 41 -56 458 346
47 AUS Michael Broise Miranda Powrie 30 25 17 20 36 26 -51 39 44 47 37 28 -54 454 349
48 ARG Juan Pablo Sucic Esteban Luis Daneri 14 12 32 18 32 36 57 48 (61.0 DNS) (61.0 OCS) 56 38 7 472 350
49 CAN Anthony Boueilh Maxime Picard 36 30 20 33 15 15 41 (61.0 DNS) (61.0 DNS) 26 53 39 51 481 359
50 USA Chris Tuckfield Sebastien Gouin- Davis 27 28 34 15 30 21 49 42 -50 -52 44 43 28 463 361
51 NED Jolbert Van Dijk Niels Kleijweg 29 17 26 -47 33 28 34 41 45 39 -47 45 25 456 362
52 GBR Hugh Styles Alain Sign 10 1 9 5 60.0 DNS 60.0 DNS 23 12 (61.0 DNF) (61.0 DNC) 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 485 363
53 CAN Olivier Pilon Alberto Torne 24 21 26 26 20 25 53 47 (61.0 DNS) 36 50 50 -55 494 378
54 ARG Juan Faustin Gaston Terrab 28 38 30 37 19 18 (61.0 BFD) (61.0 DNF) 61.0 DNS 53 23 42 43 514 392
55 CHI Nicolas Kovacevic Lukas Kovacevic 34 33 7 20 34 32 -55 52 51 35 49 46 -57 505 393
56 USA Brooks Reed Jeff Dusek 25 23 17 33 30 33 47 (61.0 DNF) 52 48 -55 52 39 515 399
57 USA Annie Gardner Eric Witte 22 32 16 25 25 27 54 (61.0 DNS) (61.0 DNS) 49 52 40 61.0 DNC 525 403
58 CAN Chris Prentice Craig Guthrie 33 35 37 38 22 13 37 50 42 51 -54 48 -53 513 406
59 USA Karl Langefeld Beth Langefeld 15 31 15 38 44 32 -58 51 (61.0 DNS) 46 51 49 48 539 420
60 ARG Sergio Mehl Juan Martin Benitez 23 60.0 DNF (61.0 DNS) 21 17 12 17 (61.0 DNF) 61.0 DNS 37 61.0 DNF 61.0 DNC 61.0 DNC 553 431

 

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