Produced by Steve Stroebel, IF18CA Vice-President
Following are the participation statistics from the 2024 F18 World Championship held in La Ballena Alegre, Costa Brava, Spain from July 1-5, 2024 with 131 boats and 262 competitors representing 23 countries and 5 continents.
Last year at Travemunde we had 97 boats representing 19 countries so the class is advancing very nicely with the best showing since before Covid. This data is based on the boats registered and passing through the boat inspection process. Additional data will be provided after the final results to compare this data with boat’s fleet position.
- Median Age = age when ½ of competitors are older and ½ are younger
- The age distribution is almost identical to Travemunde Worlds in 2023.
- One of the most remarkable statistics is that there are 7 crew who are 60 years or older with the oldest at 67.
- Oldest helm (skipper) is Willie van der Heijden from NED.
- Oldest crew is Marius van Dam from NED showing how hardy the Dutch are always sailing the North Sea.
- Youngest crew (15 years) is Daniel Perez sailing on ESP 2080 with his father.
- Youth is defined as under 23 years old.
- % of each category has remained fairly constant since last year except for the reduction in youth participants (reduced from 12% to 10%).
- Class needs to do more to attract more youth sailors (helm & crew 22 years old and younger).
All mainsails except 2 were decksweepers so the transition to DS mainsails is in effect complete.
