F18 Murter Challenge 2022

All images Murter Challenge 2022 / F18 CRO. An event that continues to grow each year, no wonder with such sailing area. Great work done by Drasko and the local F18 fleet. Winners Kalus & Bettina Dreier sailing a Nacra Infusion / 1D Sails. Second place for Chrsitian Vettori – Maurizio Stella (Scorpion / Oxxo DS / Ullman Spi) and third for Steve Stroebel & Steve Leuck (Nacra Evo).

Complete results below.

Report sent by Draško Andrić

7th Murter Challenge

It was successfully held once again in the beautiful Murter & Kornati archipelago in the near summer conditions. 

This edition was limited to 18 teams only, due to the last-minute cancellation of 2 ITA teams, 17 teams participated. Half of the fleet arrived a week before the competition and were able to train, trim and explore the beauties our area has to offer.

The plan for this year’s edition was to have at least two long navigations, west to the national park Kornati, and south to round Žirje island, which we have had on our agenda for a long time. Unfortunately, it will remain a challenge for the next year since the weather forecasts were not favorable to pull it off. There was plenty of action, despite low to moderate winds. 

The Kornati route was split into 3 legs, and only the last leg had to be shortened, after which the majority of the fleet was towed with 3 support boats back to Jezera Village holiday resort but some managed to sail back before the dark. The first day was hard for organizers but competitors as well after nearly 8 hours of sailing.

Due to the tricky weather forecasts, alternative routes for the next day were presented, to sail north. First, bora played with our patience, following calms and light breezes from various directions. Only 5 boats finished the first leg within the time limit. Although the wind increased up to 15 kts, it eased a bit soon and RC decided to skip leg 2 and sail back home with the 3rd course. Changing sailing plans on the water is always very tricky, and RC hasn’t managed to communicate the new sailing plan flawlessly, definitely an area that we will improve for the next occasions so we ended up with 3 teams not completing the race, and a protest was raised by two teams. Unfortunately, it was overruled and led to our biggest supporter SUI 797 deciding not to race the next day, a sad decision for all of us. 

For the third day, we planned another navigation but shorter and if wind/time allows us we would have up&down racing. Most of the teams needed to start packing and had a whole night driving to get home and to work on Monday, so we finished racing after 6 races in total were completed, although the wind was better than expected the last day. For the next edition, racing will be scheduled for Thursday to Saturday, with Sunday as a spare day, a much more relaxed option for all.

It was a tight racing on the top of the leaderboard as well as on the middle and the bottom. AUT 3 managed once again to get their names engraved in the Hall of Fame Murter Challenge Trophy, last year winners ITA 8 second, and USA 44 finished third with some impressive sailing in challenging conditions. The full results are attached.

A special thanks to our host Jezera Village holiday resort (https://www.jezeravillage.com/en/), RC and support team (https://www.jkval.hr/), CZE 56 for buying drinks for everybody although they were not able to come, our biggest supporter SUI 797 who is guilty we made 7th Murter Challenge this year and all competitors who made this event so special and fun. See you next year in the same week of May.