UK F18 Nationals

Parkstone Yacht Club hosted the 2009 F18 nationals over th ree da ys th is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a great variety of sailing conditions and some excellent race management.

For the 2009 UK National Formula 18 class Champions Hugh Styles and Ferdinand Van West the event was another major championships win for them in their already successful 2009 season, which has included, winning Eurocat regatta in France, the Texel Dutch Open and 3rd at the F18 worlds.

This weekends event was sailed in Poole bay, and the fleet were treated to a whole hoast of conditions, with a very windy Friday through to a light and fickle wind in the last race today.

There was a good turn out of boats for the regatta 27 boats which included 2 entries from Ireland. Racing in Poole bay provided some good tactical sailing with a south to south south west wind for the Saturday and Sunday, but with some big pressure differences across the race track, and a lot of tide there were a great deal of shifts to take and opportunities to maek gains on the race track.

Saturday dawned with much less wind and a race to catch up from Fridays missed last race.

Sunday and around 9 knots for the start of race 7 and after a shifty first beat Styles emerged as the leader at the first mark and worked away on each leg to have a commanding win by the finish.
Styles wins thel UK F18 National championships with a race to spare. Race 9 was a lighter wind affair and without Styles, who used the last race as discard, it was John Payne who showed the fleet home with Grant Piggott chasing hard in second and third Toby Orpin.

Top 10 positions: