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The Formula 18 class, abbreviated F18, is a non-foiling, restricted development, formula-design sport
The overall objective of the class is to offer popular, safe, exciting and fair racing in 18-foot catamarans.
The F18 class is a "box rule" class, which means that any boat that adheres to the limited set of general design specifications may participate in all F18 races. This has led to a score of homebuilders and professional builders to design their own F18 boats and race them in this class. However, it is the mainstream production F18 designs that have dominated the top of the class. The presence of multiple boat builders and sailmakers in the class stimulates innovation and helps to limit costs to sailors.
The F18 box rule allows limited development, striking a balance between the class remaining close to the front edge of multihull design and preserving capital invested in the fleet. Since its introduction, the F18 has seen a steady evolution in both hull and sail shapes, which has led to remarkably improved performance in terms of both handling and speed. The latest innovation adoption was the introduction of the mainsail "decksweeper" at the 2017 Worlds. Crewed by experienced teams F18s can reach speeds of over 13 knots upwind and more than 20 knots downwind.
The relatively high boat weight facilitates robust construction and limits the benefits from fragile advanced construction techniques, keeping costs down and increasing longevity. It also supports adding interchangeable parts to the platform, for example for use of the platform as a foiling catamaran outside F18 racing. Moreover, the relatively high boat weight reduces the sensitivity of performance to crew weight.
The F18 class also uses an equalizing system, with crew extra weights, to offer competitive racing for a larger crew weight range.
The Formula 18 was created in 1994 by Olivier Bovyn and Pierre-Charles Barraud to introduce first across the line / elapsed time (versus handicap / corrected time) competition to the sport catamaran sailing community at an affordable cost. The concept became popular very quickly and due to its fast growth, the F18 attained ISAF Recognised Class status already in 1996, within 18 months after its inception.
Mainly a Europe-based class at the beginning, class membership eventually spread to Australia and the Americas and the F18 class currently has full racing circuits in many places around the globe. Several thousand boats have been sold over the years. The F18 attracts both female and male as well as mixed crews and it is particularly popular among teams with combined crew weights of approximately 140-170 kg.
Its design and popularity has led the F18 to be the boat of choice for long-distance raid events such as the Stockholm Archipelago Raid, the Costarmoricaine, and the Worrell 1000.
The boats are equipped with double trapezes and a
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, AUS 888 - EXPLODER SCORPION
, GRE 7 - REDBULL
, ARG 11 - OH!
World Sailing F18 microsite
International F18 webpage
US F18 webpage
UK F18 webpage
Dutch F18 webpage
Australian F18 webpage
German F18 webpage
Italian F18 webpage
Canadian F18 webpage
Norwegian F18 webpage
French F18 webpage
Finnish F18 webpage
Swedish F18 webpage
San Francisco Bay Area F18 webpage
catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...
class. It was started in the early 1990s and quickly grew getting class recognition by World Sailing
World Sailing (WS) is the world governing body for the sport of sailing recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
History
The creation of the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) beg ...
, with large racing fleets all over the globe.
Design goals
The overall objective of the class is to offer popular, safe, exciting and fair racing in 18-foot catamarans.
The F18 class is a "box rule" class, which means that any boat that adheres to the limited set of general design specifications may participate in all F18 races. This has led to a score of homebuilders and professional builders to design their own F18 boats and race them in this class. However, it is the mainstream production F18 designs that have dominated the top of the class. The presence of multiple boat builders and sailmakers in the class stimulates innovation and helps to limit costs to sailors.
The F18 box rule allows limited development, striking a balance between the class remaining close to the front edge of multihull design and preserving capital invested in the fleet. Since its introduction, the F18 has seen a steady evolution in both hull and sail shapes, which has led to remarkably improved performance in terms of both handling and speed. The latest innovation adoption was the introduction of the mainsail "decksweeper" at the 2017 Worlds. Crewed by experienced teams F18s can reach speeds of over 13 knots upwind and more than 20 knots downwind.
The relatively high boat weight facilitates robust construction and limits the benefits from fragile advanced construction techniques, keeping costs down and increasing longevity. It also supports adding interchangeable parts to the platform, for example for use of the platform as a foiling catamaran outside F18 racing. Moreover, the relatively high boat weight reduces the sensitivity of performance to crew weight.
The F18 class also uses an equalizing system, with crew extra weights, to offer competitive racing for a larger crew weight range.
Class development
The Formula 18 was created in 1994 by Olivier Bovyn and Pierre-Charles Barraud to introduce first across the line / elapsed time (versus handicap / corrected time) competition to the sport catamaran sailing community at an affordable cost. The concept became popular very quickly and due to its fast growth, the F18 attained ISAF Recognised Class status already in 1996, within 18 months after its inception.
Mainly a Europe-based class at the beginning, class membership eventually spread to Australia and the Americas and the F18 class currently has full racing circuits in many places around the globe. Several thousand boats have been sold over the years. The F18 attracts both female and male as well as mixed crews and it is particularly popular among teams with combined crew weights of approximately 140-170 kg.
Its design and popularity has led the F18 to be the boat of choice for long-distance raid events such as the Stockholm Archipelago Raid, the Costarmoricaine, and the Worrell 1000.
The boats are equipped with double trapezes and a gennaker
A gennaker is a sail that was developed around 1990. Used when sailing downwind, it is a cross between a genoa and a spinnaker. It is not symmetric like a true spinnaker but is asymmetric like a genoa, but the gennaker is not attached to the for ...
, and as a result, they require a skilled and physically fit crew to be competitive. However, many crews also use this catamaran for purely recreational sailing.
Over time the class has seen many talented sailors who also made their appearances in Olympic sailing classes
The Olympic sailing classes have been used in the sport of Sailing/Yachting during the Olympic Summer Games since 1896. Since then, 46 different classes have been used.
History
Over a period of more than 112 years, in a sport that uses complex tec ...
, the America’s Cup, Jules Verne Trophy
The Jules Verne Trophy is a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions on the size of the crew provided the vessel has registered with the organization and paid an entry fee. A vessel holding th ...
and Volvo Ocean Race
The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...
, including Carolijn Brouwer
Carolijn Mariëlle Brouwer (born 25 July 1973, in Leiden) is a sailor from the Netherlands, who represented this country for the first time at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Brouwer as helmsman of the Dutch with Alexandra Verbeek as crew ...
, Glenn Ashby
Glenn Thomas Ashby (born 1 September 1977) is an Australian sailor from Strathfieldsaye, a suburb of Bendigo, Victoria. He is a multiple multihull world champion. He has been part of Team New Zealand as the wing trimmer for the 2013 America's ...
, Darren Bundock
Darren Bundock (born 21 March 1971) is an Australian sailor from Gosford, New South Wales. He won a silver medal in the Tornado class at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Bundock and current crewmate Glenn Ashby are the 2007 world champions i ...
, Jimmy Spithill
James Spithill (born 28 June 1979) is an Australian yachtsman.
In 2010, as skipper and helmsman for BMW Oracle Racing, Spithill won the America's Cup. He defended the cup twice, both times against Emirates Team New Zealand, first successfully ...
, Mitch Booth and Franck Cammas.
The Formula 18 class is governed by the International Formula 18 Class Association and is recognized as a World Sailing Multihull Class.
The early success of the F18 class during the 1990s inspired the founding of the Formula 16
The Formula 16 (F16) sport catamaran is an ISAF recognised 5 m long beach catamaran with an asymmetric spinnaker setup.
It is actively sailed in two modes: doublehanded with a jib (''2-up''), and singlehanded without a jib (''1-up'').
Its c ...
class. In addition, a number of Formula 18 designs have gone on to have competitive one-design racing including the Hobie Tiger
The Hobie Tiger or Hobie Tiger 18, is a French catamaran sailboat that was designed by Hobie Cat Europe as a Formula 18 racer and first built in 1995.
The boat is an International Sailing Federation recognized international class.
Production ...
, Hobie Wildcat
The Hobie Wildcat is a Formula 18 developed by Hobie Cat Europe as a one-design within the Formula 18 rules. The class was recognised by the International Sailing Federation in November 2010. It is designed to replace the Hobie Tiger as a more ...
and Nacra Infusion
The Nacra F18 Infusion was announced in 2006 and launched in January 2007 as a One-design racing, One Design catamaran conforming to the Formula 18 class rules. It quickly developed into a class in its own right.
The principle designer was Mo ...
.
Events
World Championships
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Yeppoon
Yeppoon is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Livingstone, Queensland, Australia. Yeppoon is renowned for its beaches, tropical climate, and the islands out on the bay. Located from the city of Rockhampton, Yeppoon is the seat of the ...
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Nigrán
Nigrán is a municipality of Galicia, Spain in Pontevedra Province, within the metropolitan area of Vigo
Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of S ...
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Knokke
Knokke () is a town in the municipality of Knokke-Heist, which is located in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. The town itself has 15,708 inhabitants (2007), while the municipality of Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants (2009).
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Erquy
Erquy (; ; Gallo: ''Erqi'') is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France.
Erquy is located in a cove of the Penthièvre coast bordered by cape Erquy on one side and a volcanic rock formation called ''pointe ...
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, - , 2011
Balatonfüred
Balatonfüred (german: Bad Plattensee, sk, Blatenské Teplice) is a resort town in Veszprém county, in Hungary, with a population of 13,000, situated on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. It is considered to be the capital of the Northern lake ...
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, - , 2012
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
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Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
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, - , 2016
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
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Vallensbæk
Vallensbæk is a seaside western suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is part of the Greater Copenhagen Area. It forms its own municipality, Vallensbæk Municipality, which is one of the smallest Danish municipalities. It borders Køge Bay, and the ...
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Sarasota
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...
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, - , 2019
, AUS 888 - EXPLODER SCORPION
, GRE 7 - REDBULL
, ARG 11 - OH!
External links
World Sailing F18 microsite
International F18 webpage
US F18 webpage
UK F18 webpage
Dutch F18 webpage
Australian F18 webpage
German F18 webpage
Italian F18 webpage
Canadian F18 webpage
Norwegian F18 webpage
French F18 webpage
Finnish F18 webpage
Swedish F18 webpage
San Francisco Bay Area F18 webpage
References
{{Sailing dinghies and skiffs Classes of World Sailing Catamarans