formula 18 catamaran sailing

[bcdoug]

this shot is from a day of testing and tuning a formula 18 catamaran in english bay, vancouver bc. taken from jericho pier.

i spent about 3 hours on the boat in the morning before handing off crew duties so i could take pictures. it's been a while since i did any cat sailing, and wow was it great! this thing is a rocket.

no editing to pic other than crop and resize. lens was 35-80mm

[yoyoboy]

she looks nice and fast, got any close side panos of the crew?

[sam walker]

hokey smoke a kite on a cat looks like a screamer I'm a slow blowboater on a Cal 29. Great color and action in your shot.
Sam

[bcdoug]

this is the best i have of a side view. they had just finished the gybe, got the kite flying again, and the driver was heading back out on the wire.

the driver is reigh north, 2 time worrell 1000 participant, and 1997 hobie 18 north american champion. i was his crew for several years on the hobie, winning the north americans with him. we are now campaigning a 34' dash keelboat in the pacific northwest, looking for a deal to get us in the van isle 360.

[bcdoug]

hokey smoke a kite on a cat looks like a screamer I'm a slow blowboater on a Cal 29. Great color and action in your shot.
Sam

thanks sam. the shots were pretty much point, zoom, shoot. i told the driver to bring the boat in as close as he dared to the pier so i could get some decent closeups. all i had at the time was the 35-80mm lens.

it wasn't extremely windy that day, about 12 knots of wind. the cats will go faster than the wind on a reach. with a kite, the rig and foils start to hum. this was the first time i'd been on a cat in years, so it was quite the workout for me. a lot of the development is now into a-kites on the cats. all the formula classes carry them, the hobie 20 has them, the tornado wrote it into the class rules. this particular cat was a nacra f18.

we only do about 12 knots downhill on our keelboat, a 34' dash, absolute kaos, with a sym kite.