From Steve Stroebel, F18 USA Chair
The Winners
After four intense days and thirteen races on San Francisco Bay, Charles Froeb and Matthieu Marfaing prevailed to win the Americas Championship by two points over Matthew Monts and Matthew Whitehead from Florida.
Matt2 suffered two DNF breakdowns on day three but came back strong on the final day with two 2nd place finishes. Charles and Matthieu were the champions in the 2023 North Americans so this is two years in a row at the top in North America. The podium was rounded out by the Argentina team of Francisco Venetucci and Nicolas Quagliotti from Rosario who moved ahead of the American Olympian David Liebenberg on the last day with finishes of 1st and 3rd.
About the Regatta
The regatta was raced on the east side of San Francisco Bay on the Berkeley Circle out of Richmond Yacht Club. The regatta started on Tuesday with three races with winds ranging from 17 to 25 knots which challenged the fleet of 23 boats with numerous capsizes and equipment failures. On the second day the winds moderated so four races were sailed with wind 16 to 21 knots.
The third day was “champaign sailing” with four races completed with winds from 12 to 18 knots. It was ideal racing with the Golden Gate bridge in the background of the racecourse. The final day started very hot with no wind so there was so there was a 1.5 hour shore postponement but then the wind arrived and built to the 10 to 15 kts range so two races were completed before the time limit.
Special Trophies
- The fleet was very competitive with four different boats winning races including Canadians Olivier Pilon and Bastien Mony who won the final race. Olympian David Liebenberg with German Lena Weisskichel placed fourth on a borrowed boat and were the top of four mixed team.
- There was a large field of five young teams (U23) which was won by Luke Froeb and Aden Anderson. There were more young teams at this regatta than the Worlds in Spain.
- The top of five family teams were the Melvin brothers, James and Luke, sons of the Nacra F18 designer Pete Melvin.
- The top Master team was Brandon Wallace and Marc Umemoto from San Diego.
- The top Woman Helm who won the Sandra Tartaglino Perpetual Trophy was Kate Myler from Rhode Island sailing in her first F18 continental championship.
- Ken Marshack was selected as the recipient of the Steve Piche Perseverance Trophy. At 73 years of age he placed 9th overall. He capsized 2 minutes before the start of race 11 (the final race of day 3) and was not able to start until just before the time limit yet persevered to complete the race passing one boat and almost catching a second boat.
Results
Full results can be viewed at: https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=27264&show_crew=1