18 FOOTER NEWS –  Even if you don’t own or sail one of these great sailing machines they’re great to watch.  The next event you can see these top sailors and boats sail is the European Grand Prix Season starting 27th – 30th Of April In Diessen!!!  Here is news from the secretary of the 18 footer.org:

Dear 18 sailors,

Ten days ago I invited all of you for a new fantastic European season. Due to some failure of the organization we have to learn again after Turkey to depend on sponsors money for all teams makes the event very insecure if the sponsor jumps off for any reason. The organizer Pablo Raiz has disappeared to hospital and requests at the town mayor and the Yacht club showed quickly that there has been some talks 20 days ago but no signal from town or Yacht Club doing it this year.

My lesson from this is: Unless its absolutely secured AND the money is paid long before. Otherwise we will stay near the homebases of all teams. My apologizes again to all teams and thank you for trusting me further.

Now I want to focus you on the first event of the season in Germany that will be legen…dary! We had thanks to Prinz Luitpold of Bavaria and Ström an organizing team in the Segelclub Diessen that organizes the biggest and oldest skiff-only regatta in Germany. This time we will be alone (the rest of the classes follow one weekend later) and we had always around 11 german teams participating there so with international teams we will be much more.

The program contains some highlights:

Friday 26th April
Arrival Registration from 13.00

Saturday 27th April
11:00 First warning signal, Race 1.
Race 2 and 3 of the day ASAP after Race 1
Food party in the Club

Sunday 28th April
First warning signal, Race 1. watch the noticeboard
Race 2 and 3 of the day ASAP after Race 1
VIP-Race after the races with prominent people from sport , then bus ride to the race night on Kaltenberg Castle

Monday 29th April
7.00 Bus going to the Ski race at the Zugspitze of Skiclub Garmisch organized by Christoph Hagenmeyer for the Class Association, this race will count for the races (best two results of all three sailors will be middled and ranked)

Tuesday 30th April
First warning signal, Race 1. watch the noticeboard
Race 2 and 3 of the day ASAP after Race 1
Price giving ceremony 2 hours after the last race of the day.

Don’t forget to enter the races:

https://www.formstack.com/forms/?1152609-Ji4qI5gS9D

For more details see:
http://www.18footer.org/Racing/GrandPrix/TheGrandPrix/Description/tabid/293/Default.aspx

See you at the races!

With best regards
sincerely
Norbert Peter
Your Secretary

18 FOOTERS – Gotta Love It 7’s Seve Jarvin, Scott Babbage and Peter Harris became the 2013 champions when the took out Race 7 of the Winning Group JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour today.
 
Following yesterday’s wipe out in Race 6 of the championship it all came down to today’s final race in a strong North-East wind with Gotta Love It 7 and Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel level on a net 8 points.
 
Allowing for discards being introduced, Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel (Jack Macartney, David Witt and Mark Kennedy) had to finish within the first three placings today and ahead of Gotta Love It 7 to win the title.
 
A great start by the ‘7’ crew saw the red flying machine quickly take the lead from The Rag as the fleet sped off towards Bradleys Head.
 
Gotta Love It 7 maintained her advantage over Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel, and when the latter team capsized near the Beashel Buoy the title was as good as won by ‘7’.
 
With their main challenger out of contention, the ‘7’ crew appeared to sail more conservatively (if you can sail an 18 conservatively in a 25-knot North East wind) as Thurlow Fisher Lawyers led the fleet down the spinnaker legs back to Clarke Island.
 
Spectators aboard the two club controlled ferries and others in a variety of vessels following the race were treated to some of the most spectacular action the 18s can provide.
 
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Trent Barnabas, Dave O’Connor) led until the final rounding mark at Rose Bay but put on a performance to be remembered.
 
They had capsized on the second windward leg but came back to lead the fleet home, before a spectacular capsize on the gybe as the crew ‘gunned’ it hard.
 
7’s crew saw the swim and quickly pulled their kite down for the run between the islands to the finish.
 
New Zealand’s C-Tech (Alex Vallings, Josh McCormack and Peter Burling) finished 34s behind Gotta Love It 7, with Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel coming home another 3m15s back in third place.
 
The final placings in the championship gave Gotta Love It 7 (9 points) a two points victory over Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel, with Thurlow Fisher Lawyers third on 19 points.
 
C-Tech also finished the series on 9 points but lost to Thurlow Fisher on a countback.
 
Smeg (Nick Press, Dan Phillips, Dave Ewings) was fifth on 21 points and Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane, Paul Montague, Tom Anderson) sixth on 34 points.
 
The Australian 18 Footers League would like to thank all media and followers for their support of the championship.
 
Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League
www.18footers.com.au <http://www.18footers.com.au>

18 FOOTERS – Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, Race 3.

The defending champion Gotta Love It 7 team gave a faultless display in the 10knot North-East wind to take out Race 3 of the Winning Group 2013 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour today.

Seve Jarvin, Scott Babbage and Peter Harris crossed the fleet off Bradleys Head shortly after the start and from that point were never headed to record a 1m24s win over Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel.

Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel’s crew of Jack Macartney, David Witt and Mark Kennedy chased the leader all the way and were within 20s for most of the course but just didn’t have the boat speed to close the gap.

Appliancesonline.com.au (Micah Lane, Paul Montague, Tom Anderson) were back to their best form to finish just 22s further back in third place.

New Zealand’s C-Tech (Alex Vallings) was fourth, followed by UK’s Pica (James Mears) and the wing-masted Lumix (Jonathan Whitty) in sixth place.

Gotta Love It 7, with 2 wins and a second placing from the three races so far, holds a thiree points lead in the championship.

7’s total is four points, followed by Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel on 7, C-Tech 15, Appliancesonline.com.au 18, Smeg (Nick Press) 21 and Pure Blonde (Tom Clout) on 23 points.

Race 2 winner Thurlow Fisher Lawyers had a day Michael Coxon, Trent Barnabas and Dave O’Connor would prefer to forget.

They were “buried” at the start then, after fighting their way through the fleet to the wing mark off Shark Island, broke their bobstay and were forced out of the race.

Obviously using this as their discard keeps the team in contention but puts more pressure on for the next four races.

The race behind the two leaders created most interest as Appliancesonline.com.au, C-Tech, Lumix, Pica and Smeg continually exchanged positions throughout the race.

The first windward beat was tight as Gotta Love It 7’s lead was just 8s from Appliancesonline.com.au., with Coopers-Rag &Famish Hotel, C-Tech, Lumix and Pica close behind.

7’s crew opened up their 20s lead on the spinnaker leg into Rose Bay as Coopers-Rag & Famish Hotel moved into second place just ahead of Appliancesonline, C-Tech and Lumix.

Today’s result sheet and nine photos are attached.

Spectator ferries will follow each of the races in the championship, leaving Double Bay Wharf at 2.30pm, with the exception of  Race 6 (Saturday 23 February), when the ferry will leave at 3.30pm.

Race 4 will be sailed tomorrow with further races on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 24 February.

For those who can’t make it onto the spectator ferry, there are many ways to follow the championship:

Live Tracking:
http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=274

Video Coverage and ‘Pick-the-Podium’:
www.jj18footerstv.com <http://www.jj18footerstv.com>

For all official race results, race reports and photographs:
www.18footers.com.au <http://www.18footers.com.au>

Coverage is also available at www.18skiff.com <http://www.18skiff.com>