BA Week 09: You can´t buy yourself Talent

Photo Jorge Cousillas – Lucas and Mariano 1st Place

Photo www.elojonautico.com – Part of the fleet

Photo Jorge Cousillas- Cruz and Ian, 2nd by two points,6 bullets for them! RC behind

Photo Jorge Cousillas – Mariano Heuser – More Photos as the photographers publish them..–
Lucas Gonzalez Smith has never participated in any F18 Worlds, though some crews here were able to go. He is being sailing all his life and in 2007 he discovered the F18 as he joined our Racecat project. Since then he sailed, race and promote the new class in a previous 100% monohull community with his Laser friends. Now Lucas is behind the local Cap project but was invited to sail an Infusion as the local Caps are being constructed.
In a tough fight with his brother Cruz and Ian Rodger, Lucas finally trimmed the Infusion and got more comfortable with his teammate, boat owner and Nacra local dealer, Mariano Heuser to win the last 6 regattas for a tiny 2 point lead over the 2nd.
Real close racing between the Infusion and Capricorn, where the crew finally decided the championship by a small margin. All bullets were owned by the 1st and 2nd crews overall.
So you can have the best boat, but to win you also need to be the best sailor, the F18 provide high competive racing between several brands. Our RC with some problems and weight handicap did well maintaning the rythm above 6knots. RC II is on its way for early 2010 along a new wing mast.
The RC I completed its goal, that was creating a class from scratch, now is time for bigger things and a new updated design.

Tornado local sailor, Esteban Blando, took the local F18 to some close situations with a handicaped weight boat, we hope Esteban can sell his Marstrom 😉 and join the class full time!
So I´m really glad we could get Cat racing down here, now we need to keep costs down to get a bigger and competitive class.
Thanks to Esteban for his guts racing against the best F18s on the planet (and really good crews) with the RC.

Also many thanks to Andrew Landenberger and Felix Egner from Landenberger One Design for their support from the 1st day when I contacted them for a 1st set back in 2007.
Their sails are top notch and were responsible for the extra performance of our ‘old school’ hull.
We will equipe our new F18 design with their sails of course!
2nd Arg Nationals: 5,6,7 December.