From July 16th till July 22nd, the Formula 16 Worlds 2016 will be held in Knokke-Heist (Belgium).  The best international sailing teams will park their catamarans on the beach of this picturesque town. Expectations are high that a very competitive fleet will show up at the start. Online entry is now open! The Formula 16 Worlds will be hosted by the Royal Belgium Sailing Club (RBSC) which was founded in 1863. Participation is expected to be high at this edition with at least 50 boats racing in the waters off Knokke-Heist. The RBSC is well known when it comes to hosting major sailing events including the Formula 18 Worlds, Dart 18 Europeans and Worlds, Orma Grand Prix (60 feet trimaran), Hobie Europeans, and the Laser Masters Europeans. So there is no lack of experience at all in putting on a world class regatta!

The Formula 16 is known as the high performance youth catamaran and works as a stepping stone for many young sailors to the bigger and even faster catamarans. The class was founded in 2001 and developed quickly; the first major international events were held in 2010. Every two years a Formula 16 Worlds is organized in one of the three continents (Europe, USA and Australia/New Zealand). In the in between years, national and continental events are held.

The Formula 16 catamaran is not only very popular among the youth, this class is also focused on recreational mixed teams (father/son, mother/daughter) as well as solo sailors. In addition to racing, the social aspect is very popular; knowledge is widely shared on the beach accompanied with ample supplies of drinks and food making for a beach holiday. What else do you need?

The previous Worlds 2014 in Newport (USA) was won by the Australians Adrian Fawcett and Jesse Dobie. The Belgium youngsters of Henri Demesmaeker and Alec Bagué recently won the 2015 Europeans in Italy. Expectations are high for them; they literally grew up on the waters off Knokke-Heist.

Entries are open

Entries are open now with an attractive early bird fee. The Notice of Race is also available and can be downloaded. Subsribe here: www.f16worlds2016.com

Program:

• Saturday July 16th and Sunday July 17th – Registration, measurement and inspection

• Sunday July 17th – Official Opening Ceremony at 17:00

• Monday July 18th till Thursday July 21th – Races

• Friday July 22nd – Spare day in case of non 12 races have been sailed by July 21th

• On Tuesday July 19th and Thursday July 21th a sailors diner is organized for all participants.

• On Saturday July 23th the traditional Belgium ‘Zwin race’ will be held and is open for many classes. This race starts and ends in Knokke-Heist with a lunch stopover in Cadzand.

The Formula 16 catamaran is produced by eight different builders in accordance with the box rule. This box rule is secured by ISAF. For more information please visit the following websites:

• Event website: www.f16worlds2016.com

• Event Facebook page: www.facebook.com/f16worlds2016/

• Official website RBSC: www.rbsc.be

The Formula 16 Worlds 2016 is made possible thanks to our sponsors: The community of Knokke-Heist, Land Rover Belgium, DUO, Mc Donalds Belgium, BMC, Delen Private Banking and Flamand & Partners.

Dear sailors and friends of Formula 16 sailing,

another year full of thrilling events and awesome sailing has passed. Our class is growing and the international class association as well as the national organisations proved stable and delivered the service required by their members. A lot of people spent a lot of hours organizing a sailing year for our members. Supporting the clubs in organizing racing events, securing the financial basis and taking care of our national and international visibility would not have been possible without the engagement of everybody loving F16 sailing.

The Formula 16 class was presented at most of the major of the boat shows within the sailing world. We managed to host national championships and with the Europeans in Cesenatico, Italian hospitality and F16 fun merged into one week of first class sailing entertainment. Apart from that, the Euro clearly showed what F16 sailing is all about: youngsters and adults having fun together. High speed catamarans with a broad range of brands to choose from. And the nursery of future heroes in professional catamaran sailing.

In 2016 the Class Associations are busy in preparing the menu. There will be spring training events in Europe being followed the national French and German championships in spring and early summer. We will work on a better visibility in the big events like Carnac or Texel. And we will have another World Championship in July, where some overseas friends have already confirmed attending!

Next to racing and having fun together, 2016 might set new milestones for the boats design as we can redesign our box rule. In general, the box rule seems to work. We have 6 builders competing, new designs being tested and there is no brand dominating the fleet due to technical reasons. No, the F16 boats will not be flying in 2016 as the Management Committee believes, that the current foiling technology has not left the early stage of development yet. But it is about time to modify certain issues like the minimum weight, sail design or daggerboard features. The ballot will be finalized at the 2016 WGM and then will be published. Nonetheless, the builders are free to build boats capable of flying as long as the conformity with our rules is secured when racing within F-16 fleets.

Thank’s a lot to everybody being engaged in the growth of our class. See you on the racecourse or on the beach. Have fun, take care and enjoy catamarans sailing.

à bientôt, Servus, cheers , tot ziens!

The Management Committee

The F16 class will be present on the Paris boatshow from 5 till 13th of December! Come and visit us!

More information here: https://sites.google.com/site/assofrf16/actuality/laformule16sinviteaunauticparis2015

The F16 Nationals hosted by Sarasota Youth Sailing and the Sarasota Sailing Squadron was a great success!  Racing was held over four days in a wide variety of conditions.  Day one started with an onshore postponement until a light sea breeze filled in and three races were sailed.  Day two again started with a postponement until the sea breeze filled in and another three races were sailed in light air.  The start time on day three was moved up one hour to take advantage of the best breeze of the day.  Four great races were sailed in 8-12 knots of breeze.  The final day of racing had the best breeze of the week.  Four races were sailed in 12-18 knots making for an exciting day of racing.

Thank you to Charlie Clifton and his RC team for running great races.  And a big thank you to Jesse Brunsvold and Maria Rocha for all their hard work as the event co-chairs!

Alana O’Reilly
Director of Sarasota Youth Sailing

Check out the video of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYb_Tlze724&feature=share

Event results here: http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=10347&show_crew=1

1  Mark Brunsvold/Anderson Brunsvold  – Falcon F16
2  Matt McDonald/Gina McDonald – Falcon F16
3  Sophia Schultz/Nicholas Schultz – Falcon F16
4  Robbie Daniel/Gary Chu – Viper F16
5  Ken MARSHACK/Arielle Darrow – Viper F16

Other awards for:

1st Single Handed = Mark Thomson
1st Masters = Matt & Gina McDonald
1st Youth = Sophia & Nicolas Schultz

Congratulations everybody!

The U.S. Class Association is holding the US Nationals in Sarasota, Florida, starting on October, 29th.

This four day event is hosted by the Sarasota Sailing Squadron and Sarasota Youth Sailing. At present, 21 boats have registered with competitors coming from as far afield as California and Washington State in the West, Minnesota and Canada in the North and New Jersey in the East.

The Class is expecting light to moderate conditions with air temperatures in the high 20’s celcius. Ravi Parent and Sam Armington who have won this event for the last two years (last year top US team in the Newport worlds) are not competing this year, so there will be a new champion for sure.

The youngest competitors this year are a pair of 14 years old twins sailing on two different boats.

The Nationals are sponsored by Red Gear Racing and Parcus Medical.

The Class will be awarding the overall national championship, as well as awards for masters, youth and singlehanded champions.

There are still open slots to register on www.regattanetwork.com.
The event website is here: http://usf16nationals.org/.

Formula 16 European Championships in Cesenatico: Henri strikes again!

The podium: 1/Henri & Alec, Viper F16 2/Manu/Eric, Bimare F16 3/ Aurélie/Morgan, Falcon F16

Three years after having been the youngest World Champion ever on a high performance boat, Henri Demesmaeker together with Alec Bague grabbed the European crown 2015. With six bullets in eleven races, and winning all races on the last day, there was no doubt, who was setting the benchmark in this light wind event. The race committee managed to start 11 races over a series of four days in steaming hot weather conditions with water temperatures reaching more than 30 degrees.

Neither former European Champion Kim Anne le Formal nor current World Champs Adrian Fawcett with his crew Jessie Dobbie had a chance to get near the young Belgian hotshots, who also won thetrophy for the best youth team. With 43 boats from six nations, this Euro on the Adriatic coast was the biggest F16 event ever. Most teams were mixed with girls and boys on the helm. And with two youth teams on the podium, some all female teams and four single handed sailors in the fleet the class again gave proof of the versatility of those catamarans.

Except the boats from Manu Boulogne, all common brands were present. The box rule seems to work as the first ten places were just about eventy shared by Viper, Bimare and Falcon boats. The Nacra F16 carrying a bit more weight does not seem to like those lightwind conditions. But as next year’s Worlds are in Belgium, this boat might again show it’s highwind potential. Mattia, showing up with a new developed F16 probably came for testing. Let`s hope, that they will establish the boat on this very competitive market.

The Circolo Vela Cesenatico did a brilliant job on the water and on shore. The maximum waiting time between the last boat crossing the finish time and the next warning signal was less than five minutes. And getting your boat hosed with fresh water while pulling it to the boat park surely is a service, that is not common either. Grazie mille!

An overview of pictures on the beach can be found our Facebook page, stay tuned there for even more racing pictures!

Thomas Koenig, Chairman F16

Register now online for the F16 Europeans in Italy this summer!

http://goo.gl/forms/33gNp4Hv0C

The entry fee for registration =
Doublehanded € 280

Singlehanded € 200

NOR to be found here

Information about accommodation in the area:

RESIDENCE SUNRISE CESENATICO (20 m from Circolo Vela)
Viale Cavour, 44 – 47042 Cesenatico (FC)
Tel 0547 84945 – Cel 3477336838
info@sunrisecesenatico.it
www.sunrisecesenatico.it

HOTEL SPLENDID ** (ca. 200 m. from Circolo Vela)
Via Cavour
Tel. 0547. 81882
www.hotelsplendidcesenatico.it

HOTEL Ragno *** (ca. 200 m. from Circolo Vela)
Via N. da Recco
0547.81339
www.hotelragno.it

HOTEL ALEXIA PALACE ****SUP. (ca. 600 m. from Circolo Vela)
Via Cavour
Tel. 0547.81071
www.alexiapalace.it

CAMPING MOTEL ** (ca. 600 m. from Circolo Vela)
Via Cavour
Tel. 0547. 678020
www.campingmotel.it

CAMPING CESENATICO*** (ca. 2 km from Circolo Vela)
0547.81344
www.campingcesenatico.com/

RESIDENCE Mocambo *** SUP. (ca. 200 m. from Circolo Vela)
Sunrise Residence
0547.81229 – 0547.672204
www.hotelmokambo.it

20th to 24th of July the 2015 F16 Europeans are hosted by Circolo nautico Cesinatico in Italy and the event promises to be best ever organised in Europe.

Charters Boats available for 2015 European Championship.
Full boat ready to sail dispatch at the sailing club.
Week Rate 1.200 euro
Insurance full coverage : 240 euro
Additional days : 150 euro/day

Contact: Stéphane Etienne

What looked like to become an edition with very little sailing ended well with 2 races today and the sun coming out in the end.

For the F16 class this was a key event as we wanted to break with the rating sailing and go for an F16 ranking.
Over the last months we have been grasping what sailors really wanted and most of them were keen on going as F16, with the result that over 15 boats registeredas F16.

And the racing was great.
On the Friday we had 15 up to 22 knots and did 3 races. ‘Des conditions cousteaux’ as the French say.
With the inner/outer loop principle we had a long dogleg which was a survival leg for all teams in the last race.

The Belgian youth teams were fighting it out with Manu Lechapelier for first on day 1. 3 teams had 7 points after 3 races. Another French team and Gill De Bruyne followed on equal points for place 4 and 5.

On Sunday there were 2 more races in again windy conditions. Henri&Alec secured the lead with Manu following in second. A great battle showing what the F16 class is all about.

For the class Eurocat was a great success as most F16 compliant boats registered as F16, preferring the class spirit above individual gain with ratings.

A big thanks to all sailors registering as F16 and to Antoine Menieur andStephane Etienne for the support to make this happen in the rating driven French sailing world.

Full results here: http://www.yccarnac.com/files/Documents/Regate/Eurocat/Resultats/overall%20F16.pdf