Dear F16 Sailors,

The year 2018 has been full of thrilling events and a lot of interesting topics concerning the future development of the class. After 18 years, the class is still going strong and producing top level sailors in highly competitive fleets. The Catamaran market is currently a bit fractured and still reeling from the change of the N17/15 shift. As the F16 association we will continue to work on our visibility and structure in order to maintain stability, grow and improve our wonderful class.

Read the entire letter here

The notice of race for the upcoming F16 Europeans in France is now available, check it out here: NOR – F16 Europeans 2019

After the succesful 2011 World championship, the F16 class returns to the water of Maubuisson, France. Located in the South-West of France near Bordeaux (famous from the wine) and the Atlantic coast, Le Lac de Maubuisson offers a nice sailing water.

Similar to Hellecat where the F16 Europeans were held this year, it is a sheltered water close to sea offering stable winds.

La Cercle de la Voile de Bordeaux, the organising sailing club yearly has a big cat regatta beginning of November and is used to these type of events.

Come over and enjoy ‘la douce France’, good food and great sailing.

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This will be awesome indeed! Only 90 days until the F16 Europeans in Hellecat! So if you want to go and compete, now is your time to register!

Join in on the fun of this great location now!

Subscribe here: https://www.hellecat.com/pages/67/Entry-Subscribe/

Dear F16 Sailors,

Last year was one full of high and lows. We had a great series of events showing growth on the other
hand we face the fact that the N17 and N15 are having an impact on our class as well. The olympic multihull business still eats away parts of the F16 fleet, but on the other hand, the class may be lucky that professional sailors don’t jump on it these days. Outside the olympic circuit, the N17 class seems to be dead. Also in some countries the N15 has been chosen as youth class instead of the F16. But there we see great synergies between both classes hosting regatta’s together. The U.S: fleet is working on another combined event in 2018 as well. We are also convinced that after the N15 only few will progress to the N17 and we can expect many to enter the F16 or F18 class depending on weight. So let’s enjoy what we have: one of the best, most versatile and fastest sailboat classes worldwide, being affordable and serving sailors from kids to seniors.

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Four of the top five spots at the event recently completed in Clearwater, Florida were captured by
teams tipping the half century mark at both helm and typically crew. After three consecutive 4-race
days in double trapeze conditions, the team of Robbie Daniel (Florida) and Gary Chu (Wisconsin) came
out on top with six bullets and no other finish lower than a three. Second Place was captured by
husband and wife team, Matt and Gina McDonald (Florida), with impressive throws of just a three and a
four. Defending Champions, and the only Top Five team without gray hair on board, were youth team,
Mark Brunsvold and Dylan Heinz (Florida) finishing in Third. The single-handed Champion was Ken
Marshack (Washington).
Embracing the importance of attracting more youth to catamaran sailing, the Formula 16 Fleet invited
the Nacra 15s to participate in the event. The two fleets shared a single start, amounting to 23 boats on
the line. The youth teams sailed exceptionally well, gathering valuable bigger fleet experience.
Matthew Monts (South Carolina) and Carlyn Blauvelt (Georgia) claimed First Place in the N15 Fleet.
Great sportsmanship was displayed by all sailors throughout the event, as evidenced by the fact that the
Protest Committee was not called upon a single time throughout the week. The Race Committee also
conducted a flawless event, much appreciated by all participants. Special thanks go out to lead sponsor,
Red Gear Racing, and to Jill Nickerson for her never-ending support.
At the Class Meeting, which preceded a spectacular dinner, the new leadership team was nominated
and elected. Meeting Minutes will be published at USF16.org soon detailing all agreements.
Plans are also in the works for a 2018 Championship. The leadership team expects to make an official
announcement before year-end.

Results Link:
http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=14935&show_divis
ions=1&show_crew=1

Below you can find the link to the report of the Class meeting during the European event in Morges.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uiouhxvm78jep8m/WGM%20Morges%20F16%202017.pdf?dl=0

What a great event! The class keeps growing and the events keep getting better!

First a big thank you to the Voile Libre Morges (VLM) for the super professional organisation, especially in the challenging conditions of Lac Leman. Below a short report of the week.

Sunday we had 2 practice race in light 6 to max 8 knots. At the evening the welcome dinner was at the castle nearby which was a great setting and good food.

The 43 boats (46 subscribed but couldn’t participate) stayed on shore on Monday as there was no wind. A good call of the race committee not to make us wait on the water. They really adapt to the F16 needs to find a balance of getting as much as possible racing but keeping a true holiday spirit.

On Tuesday we waited on shore again in the morning and got 4 races in 6 to 8 knots again. Fairly stable winds so great racing (if you like the light stuff). The usual suspects (Lechapelier and Bague) were up there together with Eric Proust, sailing with his son. Swiss champion Andi Lutz managed good races and some lesser ones as the starting line was quite short making it extra challenging. But results showed mixed, youths, masters are all in the mix in this class.

Wednesday we got 4 races again in stronger winds (18/20 knots going down to 14 knots). The Dutch teams climbed up the ranking in these conditions.
Unbelievable how quickly the wind and wave conditions can change in Morges.

On Thursday the fleet, including all female teams and 4 solo sailors, had an early morning start at 9h30 as the wind was expected to die towards the afternoon. We managed 4 races in somewhat more unstable wind direction conditions. The race committee managed them pretty well, but racing was definitely more difficult than on the first days of racing where the direction throughout the race was much more stable.

Finally on Friday one last race was sailed to conclude the championship.

https://www.facebook.com/voilelibremorges/videos/1119905934820440/

In the end the results of the final days were in line with the first days and so the top teams managed to read the wind and get in the top spots again.

I can’t stress enough how great the hospitality of this club and organisation was. A great social programme and in the end a good series of races that pleased the racers and the weekend warriors.

A big thanks as well to the 2 Australian teams that made it over: FRA83 Jack Felsenthal/Shaun Connor – Bimare F16 and BEL101 Jake Liddell/Emma Jones – Falcon F16

As the F16 is all about diversity there were different prizes to be given.

First solo: Geert Ruesink – NED789 – 29th overall – Falcon F16
First female team: Anna Kroon/Doortje Hörst – NED11 – 16th overall – Nacra F16
First youth (both under 20): Guillaume Rol/Alexis Mégevand – SUI22 – 7th overall – Bimare F16
First master (over 100): Andreas Lutz/Andrea Lutz – SUI10 – 6th overall – Falcon F16
First mixed: Pierre Boublin/Rose Dorange – FRA68 – 5th overall – Viper F16

Top 3:
1. Emmanuel Le Chapelier/Eric Le Bouëdec – FRA89 – Bimare F16
2. Thomas Proust (youngest sailor)/Eric Proust – FRA17 – Viper F16
3. Alec Bagué/Stijn Vandaele – BEL202 – Viper F16

For next year Holland was chosen as location for the Europeans, again 3rd week of July. But first the worlds in Australia ofcourse! Contact Gill De Bruyne for more information about container shipment from Europe for this event: gill.debruyne@gmail.com
If the US does not manage a container some additional boats could be shipped from Europe.
Below a selection of pictures (credits to D. Carlier and Guillaume Fisher). The full result list and all pictues can be found here: http://www.f16europeans2017.ch/

Gill

Wanna race in Melbourne?

Here are some options:
Charter a boat. But as we will have very few boats available, quickly contact Gavin on
gavin@rietmans.com.au
Find a crew or helm: contact Gavin as well
Buy a 2018 Viper: Goodall design has offered to hand over Vipers to European customers at the
Worlds and take care of shipping them to Europe afterwards.
Ship your own boat: Go to Bordeaux in November, race at the GPA on the Lac du Maubuission, store
the boat in the container provided nearby, receive it in Melbourne and have it ready to sail again in
Europe in March. For this option, please contact Stéphane Etienne directly. We need 10 final
commitments by the end of August.
See you on the racecourse at the Worlds 2018!

From 28th of May untill 2nd of June 9 teams attended the F16 spring meeting in Domaso, lago di Como.
This 3rd edition of this type of event builds on the previous successes with a mix of leisure sailing and training on sunfilled lake of Como.
For this edition teams from Belgium, Germany and Switzerland attended.

It was a good representation of what the class is about. Mostly mixed teams, 2 all male teams and a father and son took part. With winds ranging from 10 knots in the morning to 18+ in the afternoon there was a wide, sometimes challanging, range of sailing conditions.

During the week Silvia Sicouri, fifth at the Rio Olympic games in Nacra 17, trained the teams for 3 days. What a great coach she is! The programme consisted out of morning briefing, on the water training and than a video debrief at the end of each day. A huge amount of info and tips to get everyone confident on the boat in any condition.

Nothing but happy faces at the end of the week thanks to the good atmosphere and great training. For sure we will organise a similar event next year, so keep your eyes open!