Nacra continues to be innovative in the world of racing catamarans with the announcement of their new 20′ racing catamaran. The ‘F-20 Carbon’ features a new carbon fiber hull design by Melvin and Morrelli rumored to have similar lines to the two-time F-18 Worlds champion, the F-18 infusion. Most interestingly it has curved dagger boards that act as lifting foils. It will have a wing mast like the infusion, only 3 feet taller. The sails will also be made with carbon fiber. The whole boat is supposed to weigh less than 375 lbs. There are only two downsides to what will be an incredibly fast futuristic boat: 1) its 10.5 ft wide so will require a tilt trailer, and 2) it will probably set you back at least as much as a very nice new car
For more information on the NACRA Carbon 20 and other models get in touch with Brett at Icarus Sports.
I’m sitting here very grateful for the new addition to our family and excited to be the father of a brand new baby boy. At the same time I’m thinking how we could have timed it a bit better so we could be in long beach right now learning from some of the best F-18 sailors in the world! The nationals this year are probably as close as they’ll ever get to Utah with the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach California hosting this year’s event. This is the same place that Coty and I travelled to last summer to compete in the western area F-18 championship. We had a great time getting to know some of the sailors out there and were very thankful for their sailing tips and hospitality. I debated heading out there again this year, but after leaving Erin and the new baby for only two days for our annual Le Beau’s grand prix 20, I realized that there was NO way this would be possible. So here I am, following the results and cheering on our Long Beach friends from 700 miles away. I was happy to see that Dan Delave, a long time Hobie Tiger sailor, and former NAF-18 chairman is now sailing a Nacra Infusion. He has been doing very well and is now in 13th place over all as of the end of day 3. Ian Sammis who was kind enough to let us stay at his place when we were there is performing very strongly as well on his custom Infusion with a current position of 7th. The local favorite to win the race out there is Pete Melvin, the very one who designed the Nacra F-18 Infusion. He and his son James (14-15 years old I think) are sailing a custom baby blue Infusion with a purple spinny and are currently in 3rd place only trailing behind Coen de Koning, 2 time F-18 world champ, and Gunnar Larsen of Nacra Europe, both from the Netherlands. Just behind these top 3 Nacra Infusions are Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier on their new Hobie Wildcat. So at least half of the top 10 right now are sailing Infusions, with a couple Capricorns, and Hobies taking the other spots. We send our best wishes to our southern california friends! Check out the cool video above that these guys made recently of some great F-18 sailing in Long Beach! Also check out the results here.
The USA icebreaker was a great success last weekend with REALLY good consistent wind coming from the north-west that picked up at 3:00 sharp on saturday. There were more boats than people to operate them and so a couple never made it off the trailers. Overall it was a great first sailing weekend of the season with lots of setting up for the year and some really good sailing. Coty and I took his 5.8 out and flew all over the lake, shaking off the dust from the winter and breaking in all his new lines. There were some pretty massive waves that were a BLAST to ride and reminded me of sailing last summer off the coast of Long Beach. Coty’s boat seemed to ride very smooth, with those 19′ hulls handling the rough water really well. By the way, Coty showed up this year to impress everyone with his newly completed MOTHER off all sailing boxes on his trailer. This thing is big enough to store/transport all this sailing gear with room enough for him to sleep in the thing! Very technical engineering and craftsmanship on his part! We’re looking forward to a great season, and hope to you on the water soon!
We have now updated the events sidebar and the events page so you can all put these great sailing events into your 2009 schedule. We are looking forward to a monumental year of sailing and celebration of the Utah Sailing Association’s 50th anniversary. Come join us for some great sailing seminars, family outings, and regattas in 2009!
You may ask, “so now what do we do with the boats now that winter is here?”
If you take them to the top of a snow covered hill, push off and jump on, they make a great bobsled!
