One week to go

Things are hoting up as competitors start arriving for the F18 World Championship

More than 80 crews from over a dozen countries are assembling for the 2007 Seawind F18 World Championships to be sailed off Rydges Resort Yeppoon in Queensland, next week.

The first crew to arrive was the French pairing of Jean-Christophe Mourniac and Franck Citeau. Amongst the favourites at every one of the F18 Worlds, they came second in 2001 and 2002 and led after the qualifying rounds at Hyeres in 2006, only to finish fourth overall. A determined set in the jaws of the French combination, as they are spending long hours on the water practising all week. One thing is for sure these guys are not keen to be the perineal bridesmaids.

Another of the teams arriving early to 'acclimatise' was the British pairing of Luke Yates and Mark Angell. Both in their early 20's, they will be racing at their third F18 World titles this year, after a big 12 months setting records. The pair circumnavigated the British Isles last year on their Hobie Tiger and so have plenty of ocean time under their belts.

It seems some local sailors, no doubt looking to make some of the international crews nervous have been telling some tall tales about the shark infested waters with the 1 to 1.5 metre local Black Tip Reef sharks seeming to have grown into five metre Great Whites.

It must have created some doubt, today the Brits took a breath from talking about cricket long enough to comment on the local marine life.

Yates commented, 'We've come early to get over the jet lag and get used to the heat. We haven't seen any sharks yet, I hope we will be going too fast for them and we are not planning to capsize anyway.'

Yesterday the temperature was in the low 30's and there was as strong northeaster 20-25 knots and some cross chop. Today its much more pleasant, a tropical 30 degrees centigrade again, 12-15 knots and in blazing sunlight more than dozen boats are being assembled on the beachfront.

The crew with the hottest form going into this World Championship is the 2006 Tornado World Champion team of Darren Bundock and Glen Ashby. They have also arrived in Yeppoon fresh from their win at Miami OCR and their second in the Tornado North Americans, after their boat was T-boned in race three.

Bundock is looking relaxed. 'We are campaigning hard on the Tornado circuit and the F18's provide a great break. They are a blast to sail and down wind, it's a great ride.'

Bundock and Ashby believe there could be as many as a dozen crews who could win races and many of them could take the championship title.

Amongst the international contestants they consider the World Number two ranked Tornado team, Spaniards Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz, the competitors to beat along with Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhis (NED), Moniac and Citeau (FRA) and Mischa Heemskerk and Cristopher Rasley (NED).

The task for the International fleet was unfortunately made a little easier this week when 2006 F18 World Champion Helges Sach, who was already in Australia, had to fly back to Germany because of a family illness and he and his brother Christian will now not be defending their title.

The host country, Australia, has a strong fleet. Bundock and Ashby are the stand outs but there are plenty of threats . Steve Brewin, the former A-Cat World Champion has trained hard for this event and Mark Laruffa, the Regatta Director, has a brand new boat and could be fast if he has time to get it sorted.

Leading southern hemisphere catamaran manufacturer, Australia's own Seawind Catamarans, are the naming rights sponsors for this event. Seawind's Marketing and Sales Manager Brent Vaughan will be racing at the Worlds in a F18 emblazoned with Seawind logos on the sails.

On the World Championship Lay Day, February 23rd, Seawind will be sponsoring a 'Seawind and Sand Marathon Race' to Great Keppel Island, in association with the Capricorn Cruising Yacht Club.

Boats of all sizes are welcome to join in and for those without boats there will be live entertainment, beach activities and a beach BBQ available on arrival from 12pm.

This World Championship is organised by The Australian Formula 18 Catamaran Association in conjunction with Keppel Bay Sailing Club and Rydges Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon.