Cream of the big fast cats

By ROBIN BAILEY

A new class of yacht racing is on the way. The boat is the Formula 18, a catamaran with a French pedigree that has established a big following in Europe, North America and Australia and is now about to reach New Zealand.

Billed as the fastest-growing class in the world, the F18 is a genuine high-performance racing machine that attracts both club sailors with a yen for speed as well as graduates from the Olympic classes.

A big part of the appeal of the class is that it has been developed to cater for male, mixed and female crews.

It is also spectacular to watch, and that is part of the plan to ensure the class takes off in this part of the world as quickly as it has elsewhere. The racing also attracts huge media interest, particularly television coverage in Europe.

Among those keen to bring the yacht to this part of the South Pacific are catamaran enthusiasts Matt Woodley, Chris Tucker and Chris Green.

They have found a home for the class at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, and a meeting there at 3pm on July 31 will be used to kick-start the class and get interested sailors to put their hands up and order new or second-hand boats.

The aim is to have class racing centred at Akarana, with the F18 quickly building a regional presence in Tauranga, Wellington and Nelson, then further afield.

Green began his sailing career in the youth classes and Lasers, then moved up the ranks, including a stint in J24s in Britain and the United States.

Looking for something more exciting, he got into F18s and soon became a top 10 contender on the European circuit. He sees a huge future for the yacht here.

The performance parameters for Formula 18 were created in 1994 by Frenchmen Pierre-Charles Barraud and the present F18 international association president, Olivier Bovyn.

Their object was to provide fair racing for crews of various weights from 130kg to more than 160kg. This was achieved by using two different sail sizes of jibs and spinnakers, linked to the use of corrector weights.

The rules eliminated chequebook sailing and made it possible for mixed and all-women crews to compete with the heavy brigade.

Green: "The rule means a lighter women's crew can compete against two big blokes. Now wives and partners can go sailing together, and be competitive.

"The boats have also attracted a lot of monohull diehards as the class is the first of a new breed of catamaran that offers high quality, technical racing as well as high-speed action."

That is one aspect of F18 racing that he knows a lot about. He sails with partner Katie Jennings and the pair are now living in Auckland after a two-year trip here in a Camper & Nicholson 58-footer.

Amazed at the lack of top catamaran competition in the City of Sails, they immediately determined to change that by bringing in a fleet of F18s. They teamed with Woodley and Tucker and did some research with their British contacts about the availability of second-hand boats, and approached Akarana.

Thinking similar thoughts was Emirates Team New Zealand sailor Ian Stewart and his sailing partner Craig Smith. The duo had an F18 parked at Westhaven and were tentatively getting to know it.

Stewart: "We've still got L-plates on. We know nothing about multi-hulls but we are keen to get the hang of them, having seen big F18 fleets in action in Europe and the States. Even though we've done a heap of Whitbread/Volvo races, the F18 is a completely different sort of sailing.

"Like Chris and Matt, we are sure the class will catch on quickly here, particularly because of the class rule and the costs.

"We can land a new F18 here for about $25,000, which makes a lot of sense when you are looking at $60,000 for a top Tornado and that class is still developing."

Stewart and Smith have the New Zealand agency for the Australian built Nacra model and are right behind the Green-Woodley-Tucker RAYC initiative to get the class established here, and quickly.

Akarana commodore Richard Macalister had a meeting with the F18 heavy-hitters on Wednesday and says everything is firmly in place for the July 31 launch. On the web

New Zealand F18 Catamaran Association