| 2002 North American Formula 16 Nationals, Key West |
| Document data |
| Related links |
| By : Various Created : 20 november 2002 Last updated : 24 juli 2003 Classification : general publication Copyright : restricted freeware |
| Created by : Projectgroup, 20 november 2002 |
| Go back to website F16 class |
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| The First Formula 16 Nationals in History |
| The North American Formula 16 Nationals for 2002 where held together with the Formula 18HT class at 15 to 18 november 2002. The F18HT class had chosen to hold their nationals at Ricks resort in the Florida Keys and have Rick White conduct the races. Their chairman kindly offered to share this venue with us and as we as a class excepted this kind offer. We were pressed on resources ourself and this was an excellent way to have a nationals given our limitations. The F16 Nationals was a week after the Taipan Nationals at Dunedin Courseway at Tampa; higher north in Florida state. Initially we had entlisted 5 sailors (two teams + one crew for a US boat) from Europe to fly in and participate as well as 6 US based teams. One European team would bring a F16 design (Stealth) themselfs and the other would either use the Taipan 4.9 offered by Rick White or by Bill Moran if Ricks boat was used by another crew. For the First nationals in F16 history this 7 boat fleet would be a nice turnout. Considering out first event ever was held just that spring.. However at the last moment and after the full cost of participation became clear we received cancellations from both European teams as well as from 2 US teams. At one point the cancellations caused even more cancellations, the negative feedback kicked in. This was a little bit of a desillusion for us as the F16 class too. Especially after the Taipan nationals attracted some 8 teams and boats just the week before. Unfortunately many of these Northern Florida couldn't make it to the Keys. Thankfully a few determine US sailors expressed they would go, no matter what would happen. This saved the event to some extend and the The 5th European sailor did fly in and in this way a 4 boat fleet finally participated in the first F16 Nationals. Rick White conducted an excellent series of races and managed to conduct 11 races in the F16 class despite the fact that we had to shorten the F16 event by 1 day on the request of the crews participating. |
| The teams participating |
| The teams participating were : Dave White (US ; skipper) and Ben Gunn (US ; crew) Chuck Harnden (US ; skipper) and Mavis Harnden (US ; crew) Kirt Simmons (US ; skipper) and Geert Ruesink (NL ; crew) Jennifer Lindsay (US ; skipper) and Gordon Isco (US ; crew) |
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| F16 National champions Dave White and Ben Gunn close on the C-mark under spi |
| The event |
| Sadly not much photo's are avaible from this event. So we'll just have to do with the report that were posted on the Formula 16 forum right after the event. But first the short reports by race leader Rick White. |
| The first post |
| And Dave White and Ben Gunn have proven to be the best sailors and earned the title US Formula 16 champions 2002; Congratulations. Speech, Speech , Speech ! I expect at least one of them to amuse us on this F16 forum with a report describing the situation from the perspective of their boat. It must however be said that especially mr and ms Harden gave the winners a good run for their money. At the end of the first day (4 races) boat White/Gunn had all but a decisive lead over the others. Their championship was totally won on the second day of racing. They started with three 2nd places when team Harnden put in their streak of 4 bullets, which was started at the end of day 1. But later in the 2 nd day the other teams, Simmons/Ruesink and Lindsay/Isco, found an answer to the winning streak of team Harnden. Ofcourse the Team White/Gunn found the most decisive answer and were able to bend lady Fortunes favoritisme towards themselfs. And Ohh, the fact that Team White/Gunn is expected to speech does mean that the other teams are excussed to not give us their version of the story on the Forum ! Regards, Wouter |
| The first reply from the winner himself |
| The race started with mixed up winds with plenty of holes for the unsuspecting sailor. Ben and I found enough bad places to sail into to give us a feeling that our boat wasn't up to speed. On the 3rd race of the day we finally got our act together and pulled off a win, then a second on the final race of the day. On the second day, the winds picked up and the boat felt much faster. Chuck Harnden and his wife had boat speed on us up wind, but down wind we were reeling him in. We both had trouble with the tack of our jib letting go,(the small line that attaches the tack to the plate of the forstay). Chuck on the 4th race of the 2nd day lost the halyard to the jib because his tack line let go and retired from racing for the rest of the day. The harder the wind blew the faster the boat seem to go by comparison. The new Calvert spinnaker seem to consistently be faster than the other boats in the class in all the winds we encountered. We also seem to have an edge in the raising and lowering of the spinnaker by hand, as most of the other competitors seem to have problems raising and lowering theirs with snuffer systems. Dave White |
| The second reply from the runners up |
| As found on the Florida sailor forum, written by Chuck Harnden Here is a copy paste of what was written there : ******************************************************************** Yep, We got about a years worth of sailing (for us) in the last two weekends. Had a great time - met some nice people and realy had fun racing. Taipan Nationals were in GulfPort near Tampa. Gulfport Yacht Club is a cool club on Boca Ciego Bay (or something like that) Cats pay something like $400-500 to be a member and keep their boat on the trailer year round. They have a rigging yard and it is a killer place. The wind was pretty fluky when we were there - but that happens everywhere. Eight Taipans sailing sloop. We had good boat speed against everyone and if I could have hit less holes we would have been right up there. Holes and going downwind. Jennifer who has sailed Sunfish for 20 years or so kept working me downwind. By the second day I was atleast keeping up - but you couldn't rest a second. Anyways a nice group of people and very nice to race 1 design for a change. They have a couple other people thinking about buy a 4.9 and also say they will head to the east coast for a couple of races - so hopefully this will be the start of a trend. The next weekend we added the spin and sailed F16hp down at Ricks. The first day was fluky as all get out again - but there was wind so that was okay. This was the first buoy race Mavis and I had done with the spin and if it was up to me, we would probably run spin all the time (except for set up time). Not only do you not have to worry about barberhaulers and the like but going upwind becomes the long part of the race - what a difference. Was really surprised how manageable everything was even when it was blowing - the boat definitely had some lift on the bows - I think it was easier to sail with the Spin than just main and jib. Of course I had lots of problems with sets and takedown - my bottom patch ended up getting stuck in the top patch - chute wouldn't go up or down. Midway through what ended up being the last day of racing (for the 16s) My jib halyard broke and the jib came down. That happened in the middle of the 5th race of the day so I figured I wouldn't be able to repair it and get back out there for the last race. Ended up they had 7 races that day (Rick really likes to keep them going) so we dropped from the lead. But we had a great time - Mavis did an awesome job - I sent her around the horn twice once driving the hauls down when bearing off fast with the spin loaded up and then getting caught on a crab pot. Both times she came back strong and ready to go. I'm ready to go again this weekend! But think I had better get back to reality for a while and do some of the chores that have been piling up. Chuck |
| And the third reply was also the longest; from Kirt Simmons |
| Thank you all (Dave, Mike, Kirt) so much for taking the time to write these reports and make us non participating sailors enjoy the races too. Although Kirt, You didn't send in a report but rather a short novel. Not that I'm complaining though, no sir. By the way Luck was definately not on your side during the races. Here goes Wouter ****************************************************************** [Simmons, Kirt E] Wouter- I seem to have lost my posting privileges (again!!) on the Forums- You asked for a report on the races- Well, here's mine- We had a great time in Tampa and some great meals with more Taipan sailors than I had ever seen before in one place! We also knew our work would be cut out for us the following weekend since the only two boats going to Rick's place- Jennifer and the Harndens- had both beat us in all but one race! Geert stayed in Gulfport and enjoyed the Coffman's hospitality for the next several days and tried to address some of our "issues" we had had (slippery line used for the traveler repair and jib sheets that would not hold!!) while I flew back Monday to participate in a clinic I couldn't get out of. Got up at 4AM again on Thursday morning and flew back into Tampa where Geert picked me up and we headed off to West Marine to try to find some new jib blocks with cleats or at least cleats (my boat came "Aussie style" with ratcheting jib blocks w/ no attached cleats but cleats on the side stays- hard to work from the low side of the boat or with spinnaker and the Seaway cleats had already failed us). Couldn't find any ratcheting jib blocks so just got new Ronstan cleats and headed for Key Largo. Got into Key Largo about 9PM and dropped the boat off at Rick's place to find 3 other Taipans. I was a little disappointed but the F 18HT's had only managed to draw a little over twice that number so that assuaged my feelings. Made it to the grocery store to get water for the next day right before it closed and then to Kelly's to our room - small but comfortable and nice resort (mainly divers but very close to Rick's). Got up early the next day - Friday- and set out riggin the boat and installing the new traveler and jib sheet lines, the new cleats, and rigging the spinnaker and "skunk". Only having raced once before with the "skunk" and not with the F 16HP spinnaker this was a challenge. I decided to leave the spi bag on TOP of the tramp since at the last regatta I did when we could not "snuff" the chute with the line we could at least stuff the spi in from the front while pulling it from the back of the bag!! Also, it kept the bag from dragging and simplified setup (no lines under the boat!). I ran a 2:1 halyard but 1:1 snuffer line as a "trial"- I do NOT recommend this! When the spi is "snuffed" there is about 20' (it seems anyway!) of halyard laying around on the tramp! No time for "sea trials" though- we launched the boat and headed out. Decided to do the same as before with Geert at the back and myself at the front of the boat. We talked about powering the boat up more (compared to Tampa) but decided against it. On the way to the line Geert talked me into flying the spi to see if everything was allright. I still don't know what happened (I think maybe I was hosting leisurely??) but somehow we ended up "shrimping" and running over the spi!! I had to jump into the water and attempt to get the spi out from under the boat and then back aboard the boat and then "snuffed"! Very tiring and I wasn't sure what would happen then when we tried to launch it in the race! Small fleet this time, but they all looked fast- Who to follow/cover? Dave I figured had the "local knowledge" but I had no idea of his boatspeed while I knew Jennifer and Chuck were fast. We got a pretty good start but again it looked like we were a little down on upwind speed. We rounded the top mark behind but popped the chute easily and found we had good downwind speed, catching everybody but Dave on the downwind. He went to one side while we followed while Jennifer and Chuck went the other way. We decided to follow Jennifer and Chuck and Dave got left out in the cold in a "hole". Rounded the downwind mark and I thought there was more wind to the right so we went right, everybody else went left, and we rounded the last upwind mark well ahead and cruised to a first place finish in the first race of the first F 16HP Nationals! After our experience in Tampa we were elated! Second race, similar to first- flukey wind- we rounded the first downwind with the pack- Dave went far right, the others left. I convinced Geert we should play the middle (we had been following Dave) so we tacked and got lifted beautifully right to the mark! No one could catch us after that leg as we covered the nearest boat and we won the second race! Rick was running races one right after the other so we got in three more races that day- with the wind building throughout. We then proceeded to "slow down and dumb up" and steadily dropped places, although we still finished the day ahead. Launching the spinnaker as the wind built it became increasingly difficult to get the spi fully raised (probably due to the mechanical disadvantage) and dropping there seemed to be a "point of resistance". Made it back to the beach thoroughly tired and last boat and Rick asked me to be on an F 18HT protest committee! Of course I couldn't refuse but it was a long night before we got that and the boat "put to bed" and got ourselves to bed. We awakened very early the next morning as I wanted to rerig the spi halyard and try to address some of our problems from the day before since we were expecting more wind than yesterday. We got the boat in the water and layed it over (about 5 times total!!) so I could rerig the halyard "Tornado style"- with an upper halyard and lower halyard connect by a back-to-back double block resulting in 1:1 halyard. We also rigged a bit of bunji across the shrouds at the diamond spreaders to prevent the problem of the halyard getting hooked around the diamonds- as we had experienced the day before! Finally got everything set, rigged and out we went. Popped the chute again going out and only problem was one of the sheets went all the way around the spi so I retied it taking it between the snuffer line and the chute- This proved to be GREAT! It ended up pulling the lazy sheet into the snuffer bag at the bottom patch and completely took all the "slack" sheet up when the spi was snuffed! Anyway, got to the line- got a good start and a respectable upwind leg, powered downwind and rounded "C" right behind Dave in the lead. I jump out on the wire, sheet in the jib, then hear a sickening, Dutch "Uh-oh" behind me and look back just in time to see Geert succumbing to gravity without a trapeze line hooked in! I could see the tiller extension in his hand as he was doing a back roll off the boat and I quickly prayed he would release it but his survival instinct was strong and he held on for dear life! The tiller responded by graciously sacrificing itself by bending around the end of the rear beam. I hung on out on the trapeze as the hull flew higher without Geert there to assist me in keeping it down and managed to keep the boat from flipping. Geert hauled himself aboard, I proceeded to convert our bent tiller into two tiller pieces (of course the longer one was the one that was now no longer attached to anything!) storing one at the front of the tramp and we finally got going again after "allowing" the other two boats to pass us. Dang! Back to the end of the fleet, the wind was building, we had a four foot tiller "extension" (it only extended about 4" further than the tiller arms themselves!), our traveler was consistently releasing at any position other than centered or fully released and it was only the first race of the day!! Needless to say, next race we got killed upwind as everyone else was double trapped upwind and driving and our downwind speed was not good enough to overcome this disadvantage. We decided we had to change something now or we would be at the end of the fleet. Geert is taller and heavier than me so we decided since only one of us could trapeze (and that person could not steer!) I would steer upwind and he would run the jib while I hand held the traveler (since it had a nasty habit of releasing by itself!), hiked and steered. We still couldn't drive with the double trapped boats but we were able to outpoint them such that we did much better upwind than before (although we were still slower primarily due to slow tacks). Downwind we had to switch positions so I could launch/fly the chute while Geert drove. This worked pretty good until when we tried to switch at the leeward pin chasing Dave and I was low snuffing the chute while Geert was reaching up we rolled the boat over! Finally got it righted, got aboard (try that with one arm and your "helper" with a broken toe!), and figured we had not gone through the gate so I sailed upwind, dived through the gate (which had drifted very near the start/finish line), jibed around to go back to the right side of the course and suddenly realized I had sailed through the starting line (which was an "obstruction" according to the rules!). No option but to retire so we notified the RC and then noted Jennifer and Gordon had also rolled their boat! Watched them right it and take off thinking they would now get at least a third but they too retired. Wind kept coming up, Dave was clearly now the boat to beat. Both Jennifer and Chuck seemed to be having spinnaker problems- Our only problems were sailing the spinnaker smoothly and keeping it drawing in the big puffs- Seemed just about the time we got it dialed in a puff would hit, we would go low, the spi would collapse, we would come up, sheet the spi hard, it would snap full and then the boat would be overpowered, etc. Hoisting was easy but we had to exchange crew positions first so this accounted for our "slow hoists" and then we pretty consistently missed our downwind jibe angles so we were coming in to the gate WAY too high to carry the chute in the puffs so had to drop early and also had to drop early to change crew positions again. We finally figured it out and were able to chase Dave while Jennifer and Chuck had boat problems and "paid us back" so we finished with three second places. We got everything sorted out with the boat that night and I went out solo until dark checking the new traveler cleat and tiller, determined to come back on Sunday and do better but alas, about 3AM I was awakened by a torrential downpour and a classic Florida squall. I had anchored my boat securely, being closest to the water but was concerned about some of the other boats which might not have been secured. My boat did fine but unfortunately one of the F 18HT's flipped onto Jennifer's boat and did the most boat damage to a Taipan of either regatta - breaking her spinnaker pole and denting her hull. We spent Sunday packing up, comparing notes and watching the wind scream directly onto Rick's beach. The awards/dinner party that night was great with the wonderful trophies Mary came up with being presented (unfortunately Chuck and Mavis had to leave early so they missed it and they were missed!) while we ate great Mexican food. Geert and I then excused ourselves from the festivities about 9PM and began the long drive home, non-stop, arriving in Little Rock about midnight Monday. The drive was fairly uneventful except for the fact by then Geert had my cold so we were both sniffling/coughing constantly! I did introduce him to grits and we stopped in Mississippi at a restaurant that had fried dill pickles but I couldn't talk Geert into trying them! He did try conch fritters in Florida though! So- it was a long trip but lots of fun and we got to spend a lot of time together swapping sailing stories and sailing with some other great Taipan skippers. Gulfport has offerred to host both the Taipan Nationals and F16 HP (are we still "HP"??) and F 18HT event back-to-back next year so we are off to a great start for next year! Kirt (Now with mainsails bearing Aus 159, 184 and 032!) |
| First day Also the F16HP class has some extremely close racing going on. It appeared after the first two races that Kurt Simmons and Geert Ruisink were going to walk away with it -- they took two bullets and were far ahead of the fleet. But then Chuck and Mavis Harnden and Dave White/Ben Gunn came alinve and they are in that order all one point apart. Second day The wind jumped up to the 15-20 mph mark today, yet still with pretty flat seas. And the action was fast and furious with lots of capsizes and pitchpoles in both classes Meanwhile, in the F16HP Class It appeared that Chuck and Mavis Harnden were going to walk away with the event taking four bullets in a row. But Dave White and Ben Gunn were always right behind and always poised to take the lead. The heavy winds took their toll on the Harndens and White/Gunn then rattled off four bullets to take a 5-point overall lead in the standings. Dave White is the son of Rick White. Dave White and Benn Gunn were the only ones not using a snuffer for their spinnaker and had much better spin sets and take downs than the other boats -- most of them had lots of problems in the heavier air. The third day A strong cold front roared through the Florida Keys this morning bringing storms and winds that are around 30 knots, gusting to 40 knots. A number of boats blew over on shore in the strong winds but there was minimal damage. At this point races are canceled for the day. The RC hopes the forecast is correct for tomorrow and the winds will switch to the northeast at around 20 mph. Since there are no races today the F16HP class event will be over and the present standings will count for the championships. They scheduled their races to end today. This means that Dave White and Ben Gunn win the First Annual F16HP Nationals, with Chuck and Mavis Harnden taking second spot and Kirt Simmons/Geert Ruesink placing third. The results |
| 1st Dave White - Ben Gunn 2nd Chuck Harnden - Mavis Harnden 3rd Kirt Simmons - Geert Ruesink 4th Jennifer Lindsay - Gordon Isco |
| 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1- 1 - 1 ; total = 30.0 2 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 4 - 4 DNS ; total = 36.0 1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 3 DNF 2 - 2 - 2 ; total = 38.0 4 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 3 - 4 - 4 DNF 3 - 3 - 3 : total = 50.0 |