One would have guessed for close racing in this last Championship day, but truth has been stranger than fiction today in Roses Bay, Costa Brava, where the two leading teams did not stop playing Cats and Dogs…
Judge for yourself : When launching early afternoon, Aussies Bundock-Nicholas only got a mere 3 points advantage on Greek pair Paschalidis-Trigonis, who lead the Championship from Race 1 to Race 10.
By respectively finishing 10 & 5 in Race 12, the two teams went to a perfect tie, scoring 21 points each, but there was more drama to come…
Dany & Kostas got one more bullet in Race 13, when Bundy and crew finished 7th, hence the Greeks were virtually World Champions…
But there was still a race to sail… and this one went to the Australians, being then crowned 2019 F18 Worlds winners, Bundy becoming on this occasion quintuple F18 World Champion !
Same dramatic situation for Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser, when Mitch & Ruben Booth came pretty close, 2 points behind, by winning Race 12, and benefiting from the second discard, but, fortunately for the Argies, they did succeeded to keep Bronze, by scoring 14 & 4 in the last two races, Booth Family finishing then 2 points ahead builder/sailmaker team Brett Burvill-Max Puttman.
On a more general perspective, this championship has been a great success for the Class, thanks to Club de Vela La Ballena Alegre, and one need to consider the average skill level of the fleet, the effort and strength of both Argentinian & Australian delegations, as well emerging talents bringing new blood to the F18 Association.
See you next year Italy !
Full results here.