Posted by Beau White on the F16 website following their recent Worlds win in Lake Como. Grab a coffee and have an entertaining little read.
Picture yourself on a boat on a blue lake, with breeze in your sails, boards whistling as you fly. Soaring Italian alps surround you, the air warm and thick. Clear skies on the morning bring gusts toward the night. Centuries old structures adorned in summer bloom, foreshore and cafes filled with flowing dresses and paper thin moustaches.
Colour, texture, shape and form abound wherever the light touches – there is no substitute for human hand crafted endeavour, unique with every stone laid, weathered wooden medieval door panels and blacksmiths iron mongery – individual, yet stereotypical. The aesthetic deluge is accompanied by a never ending aural stimulus of voices, mopeds, motorcycles, children, delivery vans, clinking cutlery, laughter and bursts of extravagant greetings.
Gravedona is everything you want Italy to be, so wonderfully exuberant, quite wild and brimming with character. The kids ripping down the foreshore at 2:30 am on two banger motocross bikes, the hunched huddles of oldies smoking cigarettes with their morning coffee in the cafe. The scarcity of women’s supportive underwear at the weirdly irregular day markets, the jazz band and events on random evenings at pubs and restaurants- just wonderful! There’s something for everyone on the shores of the magnificent Lago Di Como and mountains of Gravedona.
The F16 Worlds due to its ethos and demographic demand a vibrant and diverse location which only very special places akin to Gravedona can provide. The Formula 16 cohort fills every aspect of society. The middle aged men sailing single handed sipping wine under the grape vine post race together, the development kids teetering on drinking age aspiring to prove their prowess in the hope of impressing the opposite sex, strutting about displaying their youthful bodies, the fathers and sons grappling with communication and tolerance, young couples blasting around – celebrating a week away from the unrelenting pressure of work, a kid with only one arm shredding downwind with an impressive crossed over tiller steering style, older couples enjoying their semi retirement life on their wonderful boat, old mates just going full send and ensuring the bar is closed before heading home.
Formula 16 has it all for everyone and Gravedona certainly did not disappoint.
A class blessed by boats so exhilarating to sail that morph with leatherman versatility to suit all sailors poses a veritable challenge to convey the two week episode that the Formula 16 worlds was.
A bit about the boats
At 123kgs, 5m long by 2.5meters with a whopping 36.2meters of sail area, a Formula 16 is spectacular to watch, has power to burn, is perfect to take mates for a first time cruise on Lake Como and an absolute hoot to race. The boats are surpassed only by the community of sailors they attract. Physical conditioning, a dollop of courage and a willingness to develop one’s skillls are the character hallmarks one finds at the back slapping boisterous gatherings of this cohort. This ethos snowballs exponentially at the Formula 16 worlds. Everyone here likes going fast while sharing the experience. Best part…… they are all agree with each other – that their boats are the best thing ever!. The excitement ramps to fever pitch.
Swedish, German and Dutch teams arrived a week early with the Australians. The Aussies due to the challenges of new boats, jet lag and a desperate desire to train in such an idyllic July location, arrived with 8 days to prepare. Long days in the grassy boat park with the hot Italian sun assembling boats under the watchful church spire finally transformed to sailing. The sailing days filled with early light air testing to late afternoon sessions in firm stable thermal breeze, post thunderstorm sends at 21 knots on flat water – it had it all. Sailing in warm snowmelt fresh water is invigorating. Initially as the splashes hit when zipping at warp 3, you expect to spit salt and wipe the burn from your eyes. No no, it’s a splash in the face of cool, fresh clear water, a post shave sploosh if you will. It’s tough to focus when the views of the villages, bridges, mountains, clouds, castles…..belissimo!
Days quickly settled into a natural rhythm. Stirring from a slumber as the old folk greet each other loudly outside in the piazza, then get out of bed when the delivery van arrives at the restaurants below and the ubiquitous motorbikes go buzzing off. Snack and socials in the apartment, head to a cafe, greet Carlos as you take a seat and confirm you want that espresso he just offered. Looking at the sky over a 10:00 am espresso from the waterside cafes you learn quickly. If it’s clear, get ready by 14:00 if not, be patient and prepare to sail around 4:30, try stay off the beers.
The early arrival teams sailed prolifically. A Formula 16 is fast, responsive, quick to turn and trim is vital. Keeping the boards loaded is essential and patience with phasing wind requires discipline and trust between the team. On the fly mode changes downwind and up with weight shifts, trapezing combinations to climb over teams ahead or defend a position, mast rotation, traveller, outhaul and downhauls need to be second nature on these boats. Things change fast, poor trim is slow and you will get rolled if you cannot adapt correctly and gear shift.
Pitchpoles are an ever present danger, a slip of concentration – a look back at the just the wrong moment make the bow stuff inevitable. You gotta be on it and working the boat – all – the – time. Steering off the breeze while working the main is an art form, more impressive when combined with crew kite control co-ordination and weight shifts.
Manoeuvres are fast in time and boat speed, kite drops at 6 seconds from release of the halyard to being on the wire are essential at the pointy end of the fleet. This is a hard core race boat in a fluffy wrapper. You miss the mast rotator, jib, snag the halyard, skip the boards or jam the tack line and four boats will be inside you faster than a prison gang. All that and keeping eyes out of the boat for gusts, shifts, competitors and crossing traffic is not achieved overnight. Hundreds of hours on the boat as a team yield an essential sixth sense. The boat becomes an extension of you and the team move as one without needing to explain other than a gesture, key words or a wiggled foot for adjustment.
Vitally, no matter the situation, words should never spoken in anger or disrespect. This is the holy grail of double handed sailing, a shared experience that when achieved, yields results and is possibly one of the most euphoric feelings. A formula 16 provides the perfect platform for reaching this state and Gravedona…the perfect location.
Come Friday the boat park filled in earnest with fit, slim, good looking people. Beautiful people make beautiful children and both were here in abundance. Smiles, laughter, positivity are the pinnacle of human nature, it abounds in the F16 world. Happy people are wonderful, they exude youthful optimism that make the community self fulfilling and magnetic. This is not a class for complaints and personal loathing. The sailors are athletes, strong, sinued, slim, steely eyed but above all – super caring and friendly.
Many different boat brands adorned the grassy shaded foreshore – Mattia, Cirrus, Falcon, Befoil, Bimare, Nacra and Goodall. Sails from heaps of manufacturers ascended the masts. These boats although some are reaching the 15+ year old mark are in great shape, tuned, new gear where needed and competition ready. Formula 16 is not stuck in the past, it’s on the front foot driving forward, so good!
On the sails front somewhere close to 40 out of the 51 boats that launched on the practice race were sporting deck sweeper main sails. Deck sweepers became legal in the WS ruleset two years ago.
Decksweepers
The boats look modern, balanced and with their fit crews create a very attractive and progressive package. The new sails have made these high performance catamarans a lot more manageable in heavy air and widen the sailing groove upwind. A group of F16s ripping have a character that is unique, the rake of the masts, the slab of mainsail to the deck, the spray, the sheer speed and rapid hull movements over the chop seem to imitate video at 1.5 speed. F16’s lightweight provides superb manoeuvrability and fast acceleration, this means you can work shifts – pretty unique to a catamaran.
Back to the worlds…..The practice race was held Sunday afternoon with the usual general recall and then a ripper of a race. I came bombing across the finish for a hard fought third, wild eyed with excitement, full adrenaline dosed, hands shaking, speaking loudly and rapidly. 51 F16s at full noise is wild!!. So much going on! The superstition of not finishing the practice race evaporated in all the chaos.
The second practice race was abandoned due to falling and unstable breeze – booo!
Opening ceremony
With the clear evening light, backdrop of the mountains, lake, coloured flags gently flapping in the warm evening as the night breeze gently wafted was another Gravedona visual masterpiece. Thomas from the F16 association as MC opened the proceedings followed by short and on point speeches from the race committee who introduced themselves in a manner that was – light hearted and friendly with smiles and jesting but quietly serious and capable. Then followed a very …ah how shall we say…..”comprehensive”opening speech by the author.
– I could not help myself, I was loving the boats, the people, my housemates with turbo charged Luigi Abbott, the place, the sailing, the food, the light. This was already the best regatta ever and we had only done one practice race. In a very long winded way I tried to impress this upon my rivals that we should appreciate this rip in the cosmos moment and conduct ourselves with love, competitiveness and respect. Both on and off the water.
I don’t think I needed to waffle on, but I feared the worst…that the best regatta ever may get marred by vengeance protests, intolerant on water antics and poor off water behaviour. …as it turned out through the week, my fears were unfounded. It turned out to be a celebration of sailing with peace love and understanding. Sure there were protests, handled with respect and understanding – how good! 10 countries, 51 boats, 96 sailors – how awesome is that! A big “HURRAH” from the competitors and officials finished the ceremony, Matthijs ran about with his phone taking crazy videos, we snapped pics and hung out after in the sailing club for …. a long time
Monday it got real.. the slow mornings, the appreciation of the place, swimming in the waterfalls, day drinking, affagatos, espressos and so many other wonderful daily events were displaced by the task at hand – race like you trained to!
Race time
It was light, just tipping the 5 knot minimum. 1 race in building breeze, a second in falling breeze that was snakes and ladders. Everyone had a story from a lucky puff out the left , getting swamped by spinnakers to being becalmed at the last 30meters and paddling over the finish, a penalty…but at least a finish.
Brian Hillesdon from the UK sailing solo was the standout of the day. Sir Brian smacked the double handed crews with excellent positioning, boat speed and handling….these 8 single handers were going to be a factor if the light conditions prevailed.
The Forward WIP, Circle Nautique Ferret BeFoil team of Le Chapelier and Le Bouedec were solid – the all carbon convertible foiler appears to be the spawn of a Sail GP Formula 50. All black, beautifully built, gorgeous lines, menacing, always there, always going fast with a slick team. Then there was Michel Kermarek and the always smiling Fannie Merelle, they had height, speed and could sail out from a whirlwind of dirty air to emerge, by some sorcery, ahead and in position to hand a slap out with a 2013 Viper. Emma Rankin and Beau White (me) were inconsistent with a woeful finish in the second race. Although the experience of sliding back 12 places at the last mark was painful at the time it ended up being the source of gut splitting laughter that evening at the “Dinner des Nations”. I actually thought Andreas Luts was going to wet himself as I recounted the situation, through tears of laughter, of our boat going backwards whilst he and half the fleet had gently glided past. Mistakes in Formula 16 get hammered – but at least everyone gets a laugh out of them later..
Dinner des Nations
The “Dinner des Nations” is officially called the country dinner, for the uninitiated, “Country Dinner” comes across as possibly being cowboys and women of questionable morals wearing puffy dresses, some barn dancing, refried beans and bourbon – all culminating in the glass smashing bar brawl with broken furniture and a sheriff shooting a hole in the pressed ceiling. The “Dinner des Nations” is a way more civilised affair. Competitors bring a speciality dish and drink typical of their culture. These are laid out on tables at the club and we all eat, drink, chat and be merry. Cheeses, fish pastes, flat breads, pates, sausages, meats, pickled stuff, preserves, olives, wines, sweet digestives – it all gets a bit blurry with a steady flow of cold beers from the magnificent smiling Carla behind the club bar to accompany the degustation. You have to love F16nism, a great ice breaker, decompressor from heated racing with meet and greet and a fun activity. Fabulous!
Second day dawned with clear skies and produced 4 big races in good strong breeze. As I sipped my 10:00 am espresso, the breeze was already starting to tickle the sweet lake Como surface into ripples. Pressure on the less practiced teams with the chop and stronger winds became evident as the day wore on. Great photos emerged from the day as the heavier air orientated Australian teams moved up the score card. At the end – the lines of battle were firmly drawn between the two Australian top teams, the BeFoil Boys and the Sorcerers.
Disaster struck with Michel and Fannie’s eye bolt ripping out in the final race of the day and their rig dropping. They were holding second at the last mark when disaster struck.
LUCK!
As I discovered in Costa Brava at the F18 worlds – you need luck on your side to win a worlds too. “Luck” cannot be discounted, that screw that just held on, a severed rope that makes the final race, a halyard cleat half out but holding, a general recall when you are buried on a start. There is an element of luck, it’s not a strategy, just a factor.
An eye bolt stripping on day 2… lucky it was the last race of the day and not the first, …but, with 6 races still to come…phew – it was going to be tough. You gotta ask, why did it not strip three weeks ago? Why at worlds? That’s the luck, the roll of the dice.
Class Pizza night followed, teams were pretty spent from the heavy days racing, seems it was a recovery night and the hot sticky evening with heavy food was short lived, particularly after the exuberance at the “Dinner des Nations”
10:00 Espresso – zero wind
Day 3 emerged light – the scorecard was about to get reshuffled as random results poured in from the gamblers delight race course. The Befoilers were weapons in the light they had worked the course pattern out, Michel with his jury rigged port stay worked his magic till the bolt again started wiggling out and forced a final race dnf – two drops…oooooh. The M&M N15 dream team of Mateo and Mathieu from Belgium clawed up the scorecard with light conditions favouring their weight and experience in shifty light shxx breeze. ( does it show I hate light air?) Camille Riguard and Johnson Lorcan slotted into a solid 4th with consistent scores on a rollercoaster day. The Mineur bothers that showed great heavy air speed with great scores on day 2 tumbled down the results page in the light air of day 3.
Click HERE to read the rest of Beau’s report
