Koning and Leeuwen take lead in F18 Worlds

If yesterday the breeze was scarce, Thursday, day 4 of racing was the complete opposite, with three races for both 'gold' and 'silver' groups held under grey skies that threatened rain from early in the day, and provided a true display of the spectacular speed and prowess of the best catamaran sailors in the world.

Two spectacular performances from British Olympic Tornado and X40 sailor Hugh Styles and Adam Piggott, whose two first places have moved them to sixth.

And it was also a fantastic day for Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis, who gave some absolutely beautiful starts for NED 1 at the Committee Boat end. A first and two thirds has moved the twice Olympic medallist and three times F18 World Champion from 16th to fifth place on the leader board.

Close on Booth's heels was young Dutch team Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen whose steady performance throughout the championship has moved them into a solid lead; two second places and an 8th ensures them a 25 point advantage at the top.

The Racing

The gold group headed out for the race course mid-morning with south-westerlies blowing 8-11 knots and swiftly rising as the fleet moved into the windward mark just in front of the Playa de Ladeira in Baiona. A favoured left under Monte Louredo gave those ashore a sight for sore eyes as the 66-strong fleet battled it out for solid positions at the top.

A fantastic day for Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis, proving that the F18 legend was in his element as the breeze continued to rise, peaking at 18-20 knots at the top mark. A first and two thirds has moved the twice Olympic medallist and three times F18 World Champion from 16th to 5th place on the leader board.

Close on his heels was young Dutch team Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen whose steady performance throughout the championship has moved them into a solid lead; two second places and an 8th ensures them a 25 point advantage at the top.

Admittedly happier in stronger breeze the French duo of Jean-Christophe Mourniac and Franck Citeau had a disappointing first race but moved up and forwards, to grab a second place in race 3 and in the general classification overall.

Consistency is the name of the game, as proven by fellow Frenchmen Vaireaux and Petit, even 2nd with FRA 11 at 48 points, with multi-hull magician Franck Cammas and Jeremy Lagarrigue dropping to 3rd.

As the cold front moved over and out of the Bay of Baiona, sunshine briefly put in appearance, enough to highlight two spectacular performances from British Olympic Tornado and X40 sailor Hugh Styles and Adam Piggott, whose two first places have moved them to sixth.

Tough competition indeed for speedy Dutch duo Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij who are now in 9th and will have some work on their hands tomorrow for the final day of the championship.

As the Gold group retired, it was the turn of the second 'Silver' 66 classified who were to face the brutish reality of the Galician elements at their very best. It was clear from race one that the wind gods were back with a vengeance as gusts of up to 28 knots swept the course at times.

A true test of nerves, strength and control as conditions worsened and a number of capsized boats dotted the bay, including several casualties with broken masts and other material damage.

Solid performances from British team Martin and Sam Chadder, silver leaders, followed by SWE 49 sailors Fredrik Karlsson and Gustaf Nyblaeus and Dutch team Coert and Marius van Dam in third.

F18 Worlds - Leading overall positions, after 9 races, 1 discard

1 NED 3 Coen de Koning, Netherlands, Jeroen van Leeuwen 1 3 1 5 1 -7 2 2 8 23pts
2 FRA 11 Jean-Christophe Mourniac, France, Franck Citeau 3 11 1 2 5 -13 15 4 7 48
3 FRA 56510 Vaireaux, France, Petit 8 2 2 8 2 -9 11 6 9 48
4 FRA 1 Cammas Franck, France, Lagarrigue Jeremy -11 1 4 1 3 1 27 10 2 49
5 NED 1 Mitch Booth, Netherlands, Pim Nieuwenhuis 17 16 5 2 6 (bfd) 1 3 3 53
6 GBR 957 Hugh Styles, Great Britain, Adam Piggott -15 6 6 9 2 3 28 1 1 56
7 NED 955 Gunnar Larsen, Netherlands, Stefan Dubbeldam 2 4 3 -17 9 4 12 8 15 57
8 AUS 308 Andrew Landenberger, Australia, Felix Egner 4-15 7 4 4 2 8 32 5 66
9 NED 7 Mischa Heemskerk, Netherlands, Bastiaan Tentij 1 1 15 1 6 (bfd) 4 36 12 76
10 NED 76 Reindert-Jan van der Meulen, Netherlands, Carina Knol 20 13 8 3 1 -22 6 27 11 89
11 NED 952 Willem Geijssen, Netherlands, Rico van Capelle -22 7 3 4 16 8 30 13 10 91
12 NED 930 Sascha Larsen, Netherlands, Christa van Helden 7 6 14 10 12 -41 17 11 16 93
13 AUS 959 Andrew Macpherson, Australia, Ferdinand Van West-8 8 7 6 4 6 39 24 6 100
14 GER 164 Helge Sch, Germany, Christian Sach 27 -31 12 7 21 12 16 7 4 106
15 AUS 136 Greg Goodall, Australia, Brett Goodall4 5 19 23 -26 9 5 22 20 107
16 CAN 101 Louis-Philippe ?thier, Canada, Maxime Loiselle 18 4 -25 17 10 11 62 15 22 115,5
17 FRA 919 Francois Morvan, France, Matthieu Vandame 5 11 6 -16 11 3 23 9 bfd 135
18 FRA 5 Sellier Thomas, France, Moreau Frederic 15 3 2 13 -22 11 13 18 dnf 142
19 SWE 11 Johan Gnosspelius, Sweden, Roger Boden 3 10 8 3 12 -23 22 40 45 143
20 GER 163 Justus Wolf, Germany, Rea Nies 5 8 20 7 20 -23 25 45 13 143
21 FRA 17 Motteau Romainm, France, Alexandre Guyader 2 19 -39 12 9 4 3 28 bfd 144
22 FRA 929 Le Clainche, France, Joubert 17 18 11 -21 15 16 7 41 21 146
23 SWE 4 Patrik Forsgren, Sweden, Niklas Nordblom ocs 21 24 -29 27 1 26 16 17 152,4
24 FRA 901 Boulogne, France, Kervyn 14 20 30 14 (dnf) 15 14 20 27 154
25 FRA 44 Bontemps Gurvan, France, Marfaing Matthieu 13 2 10 11 27 -36 36 29 31 159
26 AUS 619 Chris Caldecoat, Australia, Malcolm Richardson6 27 32 16 -48 14 24 21 23 163
27 FRA 969 Villion, France, Viat 19 7 35 -38 16 7 9 5 bfd 165
28 AUS 2 Taylor Booth, Australia, Jacques Bernier24 5 4 9 -33 5 20 55 44 166
29 AUS 700 Warren Guinea, Australia, Mark Phillips 28 28 16 21 -34 5 29 17 24 168
30 FRA 4 Champanhac Benoit, France, Valer Pierre-Jean 21 17 12 14 7 -26 50 19 30 170
31 AUS 104 Chris Boag, Australia, Doug Fimmell25 -42 22 19 37 13 10 37 14 177
32 GBR 24 Leo Farrow, Great Britain, Robby jon Garcka 9 25 -31 11 3 8 47 46 29 178
33 BEL 50 Thierry Bosser, Belgium, Alain Gramme 19 -32 18 8 5 20 44 59 18 191
34 NED 1004 Peter Vink, Netherlands, Marja van Helden -28 12 15 20 25 28 53 14 26 193
35 GBR 4 David Bartlett, Great Britain, Mark Robinson -45 35 11 41 30 10 21 26 32 206
36 NED 110 John Casey, Netherlands, Roland van Joolen 30 24 33 -36 28 2 35 30 25 207
37 SWE 102 Pontus Johansson, Sweden, Daniel Winberg 6 14 -20 13 20 19 32 38 dnf 209
38 NED 50 Kathelijn de Bruyne, Netherland, Bart van Rijs 12 12 23 35 23 -38 34 39 36 214
39 NED 2 Oscar Zeekant, Netherlands, Wybe Schuitema 11 9 24 6 31 -37 dnf 34 33 215
40 NED 201 Jacques Visser, Netherlands, Thisjs Visser 12 44 -46 19 11 21 18 52 38 215
41 FRA 1308 Normand, France, Lemaitre 22 17 -37 33 22 19 42 25 37 217
42 BEL 1 Demesmaeker Patrick, Belgium, Koopman Alexander 24 42 -44 10 26 21 33 31 34 221
43 GBR 888 Rob Garcka, Great Britain, Joff Garcka 14 22 33 22 7 -37 38 61 28 225
44 ITA 2520 Mark Laruffa, Italy, Daniel Sims 26 -34 13 30 21 27 31 12 bfd 227
45 ITA 400 Ugo Ferrari, Italy, Maurizio Stella (dnf) 9 19 23 8 20 37 53 bfd 236
46 FRA 840 Baeckler, France, Martin 18 10 25 33 -38 30 46 42 41 245
47 GBR 876 Grant Piggott, Great Britain, Andy Prince 41 -45 14 12 13 24 51 23 bfd 245
48 AUS 662 Michael Guinea, Australia, Adam Beattie43 18 -45 28 13 28 19 33 bfd 249
49 FRA 125 Pulve, France, Sangiardi 16 15 9 (dsq) 40 18 dsq dsq 19 251
50 GBR 120 Tim Neal, Great Britain, Bob Fry 23 13 21 28 14 -49 40 dnf 46 252
51 NED 59 Thomas Groen, Netherlands, Elwin Gastelaars 34 26 18 24 (dsq) 15 57 47 35 256
52 BEL 44 Yannick Lev?vbre, Belgium, Matthieu Janssens 13 16 17 18 -40 36 58 62 39 259
53 ESP 854 Fernando Lamadrid, Spain, Kiki Patron 10 38 9 42 -45 25 45 49 43 261
54 BEL 30 Lefevre Joel, Belgium, Lemaire Jacques 7 (bfd) 10 25 17 33 49 56 bfd 264
55 FRA 22 Le Chapelier Emmanuel, France, Viart Jocelyn 35 29 13 -36 25 12 61 48 42 265
56 NED 72 Gerhard van Geest, Netherlands, Sander De Boer 29 21 26 -34 28 31 56 35 40 266
57 ESP 7 Bernardo Benitez Cabrera, Spain, Miguel Perez Quintana 9 32 5 -43 41 16 48 51 bfd 269
58 GBR 2062 Toby Orpin, Great Britain, Lewis Crawford 16 22 (ocs) 5 19 bfd 43 44 bfd 283
59 FRA 177 Vivient, France, Le Bayon -39 26 26 15 33 10 41 RDG*** RDG*** 285
60 GBR 47 Jon Worthington, Great Britain, Oli Egan -33 33 23 18 32 17 52 43 bfd 285
61 ITA 46 Luca Bertani, Italy, Mattia Marcassoli 27 20 21 -32 18 25 55 54 dnf 287
62 FRA 819 Courbon, France, Morin 23 -33 27 26 23 6 59 60 bfd 291
63 NED 917 Gerard Loos, Netherlands, Pieter van Ruitenburg 36 14 -45 22 18 38 54 50 dnf 299
64 FRA 2544 Frederique Pfeiffer, France, Dettling -37 23 29 37 24 18 60 58 bfd 316
65 ITA 1031 Poggetti Pietro, Italy, Meoli Alessandro 42 37 16 25 10 -47 bfd 57 dnf 321
66 GER 146 Andreas John, Germany, Sonke Kuhl 30 24 38 27 14 -40 dnf dnf dnf 334