Andrea Cucchi

Andrea Cucchi ‘Personally I love formula windsurfing. Formula was big at the time I was at the top of the worlds rankings. Still now even if I’m not sailing everyday on the Formula board, it’s just amazing how everything comes back in few minutes. Feeling the same motivation and challenge as those times, where all the pros were on Formula Boards battling each meter upwind. The feeling of how the board planes over the water is great. This feeling will keep this discipline alive! Could be that the come back is around the corner. In some countries it never died, but in others it had slowed down due to the slalom hype. We believe in it, we love it and we will push for it full time. ‘

Before starting the development of the Formula sails, we felt we needed some targets for 2013.

After having won the Master World Championship in Denmark in 2011, 2012 was a bit slower in results for the Formula international scene. Our riders had clashes with other events, there was more focus on slalom events and so on. We still won some national titles, as the Italian Championship title of Malte Reuscher, but now it was time to get back on it again at full focus.

So we sat down with our Black Team riders to make a plan for the development schedule of our Formula sails. We knew that having Alberto Menegatti and Maciek Rutkowski in the team, guys who were born with the Formula boards could have brought us great results at the next international world events, so… there was nothing to wait for but to start focusing getting them the best.

We took out all the protos we had done starting from those where Andrea had won the world title in Denmark, all the different curves masts we had asked from our supplier, spent few days in the loft looking at all the combination, working on the batten gradings and took each corner of the sail under examination. We started doing the first testing already in the middle of the summer on a slow motion pace, and by September once the slalom sails were approved from the team and could be registered for the PWA deadline, we emptied the vans from the small gear and made space for the 1m boards.

Sailing out from Lake Garda with Alberto and Andrea, the testing was a dream. Took little time to get all the tuning and setting to test, both with the same feedback on all the combination they tested.

Read more here. 

Bridlington is a venue that has offered good racing conditions and probably one the warmest welcomes on the circuit with a very accommodating county council so many thanks to them.

Day one of the event looked as though we may get a race in as the fleet took to the water in 9-11 knots. However, the wind sadly deserted us which may have been for the best as conditions were not great as both the wind speed and direction were constantly changing.

Chris Bond

The evening talk was of strong winds for Sunday and who was going to cope best in the onshore conditions that threatened large shore dump and wavy conditions. We were therefore shocked to wake up to a mirror flat state sea first thing. The forecast was still good so this meant that everything had to be rigged. The wind kicked in, sure enough, but was only blowing 9-12 knots in the morning meaning no shore dump and great flat racing conditions. Dolphin Dave Coles was back from his European exploits with a new sponsor…..Mr Icke who had lent him a load of kit whilst recovering from his broken shoulder. Back on a trusty Severne, Dave took both the morning races by some distance. I managed 2^nd in both fending off Tim Gibson in the first and a flying Adrian Wallis in the second. Poor Tim suffered a broken outhaul in race two leaving him frustrated and losing ground overall on Dave.

In the afternoon the wind started to increase but not as much as feared. 14-18 knots was announced but the sea state had certainly become rougher producing very challenging conditions. Two races were completed in the afternoon and results were rather different. Both races were very closely fought between Tim Gibson, myself and Dolphin all trading places during the battles. Race three was just won by myself with Dolphin only half a board length behind. This left us with an interesting last race with the event being on offer to myself or Dolphin depending on who could win, assuming Tim was not to come into better form. Again the race went down to the wire, and again it was myself that came through just ahead of Dave and Tim for all to witness close to shore. Epic racing and a second consecutive win for Bond! Our next race is the season biggy – the British Open at Weymouth so hope to see you all there.

By Chris Bond

Results

1^st Chris Bond (Point 7, Robin Hood Watersports)

2^nd Dave Coles (The kit of Icke, North Sails, Starboard)

3^rd Tim Gibson (North Sails, Gaastra, Boardwise, K-66)

1^st National – Adrian Wallis (Gaastra, Starboard)

1^st Youth – James Battye (Point 7, Robin Hood Watersports)

Find our more about the UKWA competition at http://ukwindsurfing.com

Check out the vid below.

Everyone has heard of Slalom Racing, Wave sailing and Freestyle; we’ve seen the photos, watched the video footage and know the stars. But who knows much about the Formula windsurfing scene? The aim of this article is to explain what Formula windsurfing is all about (including the race scene), to banish some of the myths and explain the benefits to promote this little spoken about part of our sport.

Chris Bond in action

For those of you who have absolutely no idea about what I’m talking about, Formula windsurfing involves HUGE kit. Boards are around 230cm in length and roughly 1m wide with 70cm fins. Rigs go up 12.5m and often only as small as 9m – at this moment in time you may already be put off but read on and find out why it’s not a barmy option.

At this stage I’m going to introduce myself – They call me Bond…….Chris Bond and I’ve been windsurfing for 26 years. Up until six years ago I had spent much of my time as an instructor abroad. I only used small kit and was convinced that you’d never catch me on a sail bigger than a 6m, let alone on a board that resembles a barn door! However, on my return to this country I seemed to spend a lot of my time sat on the beach praying for more wind.

Formula Windsurfing Racing in Leba

So the options were: remain sat on the beach and get fat, take up kite surfing or get bigger windsurfing kit. I took the latter, have not looked back since and finished 3^rd in the UK series last year.

Chris Bond

So what’s the big deal?

First of all let’s banish the myths about Formula and also racing Formula, which I’ll come to later on:

1. It’s slow and boring and involves lots of pumping – WRONG. Boards can get close to 30knots and racing only takes place in planing winds, so no real need to pump.
2. It’s ridiculously expensive – WRONG. Whilst brand new equipment is pretty pricey (isn’t it all??) there is a large second hand market that can get you on the water without breaking the bank. You will only need one board and some people only have the one sail.
3. You have to have an amazing high ability in order to do it, especially compete – WRONG AGAIN. To sail Formula is pretty straight forward and falling off a 1m wide board is pretty tough. Racing just takes a little practice and there is an entry level course laid out at all events for newcomers.

OK, so that’s banished the myths so let me now set out my stall to convince you that sailing Formula is overwhelmed with huge benefits…

Williams dominated from the start, winning five out of seven races, showing his speed on formula is on par with slalom. Arnon Dagan os Israel finished in second, with Australian Steve Allen in third. As Allen is not European, third spot for this was taken by RS:X racer Casper Bouman.

Arnon Dagan, Ross Williams and Casper Bouman © Choppy Water GmbH 2012, Stevie Bootz

The locals, Gabriel Browne (BRA 50) , Victor Melo (BRA 2497), Fabio Melo (BRA 74) and Mathias Pinheiro (BRA 5) had been training hard during the week’s before the event.

The event took place at the Marina Park Hotel where many Formula events have taken place before, including the Formula worlds in 2007.

The event was held over 4 days, with the new, ISAF approved RS:One class holding their race on the 19th.

In the Formula South Americans, Gabriel used his superior speed and local knowledge to sail his way to victory with ease and take his first South American championship by such a margin that he did not even have to compete in the last 3 races on the final day.

Casper fought hard on the last day and finished in second followed closely by Paulo and Victor Melo. These three sailors were extremely close on points and it all came down to the last race to decide between 2nd, 3rd and 4th position.

Aldo Maia was the 1st youth racer over the finishing line, and Monica Veras took 1st place in the womans division.

Special thanks to the organizers and the race committee for putting up a great event.

For event website: www.windbrasil.com/formula/formula-fortaleza2011

Photo credit: Courtesy Windbrasil

2011 UK Formula Champion Tim Gibson, by Alastair Campbell, UKWA

North Sails rider Tim Gibson has claimed the UK Formula Windsurfing title after another closely fought season. The National Cup Series began with a clean win over last year’s champion, Dave Coles, at the 2012 Olympic venue in Portland Harbour. Another couple of events, Minnis Bay in 30-knot winds and not so windy Swansea Bay, saw Tim’s lead over Dave consolidated. A trip up t’North to Bridlington followed for event 4 and saw Dave Coles claw back a point.

Venue 5 brought unusually changeable conditions at Christchurch. The wind on day 1 varied from 12 to 26 knots as the squalls came and went, leaving racers with difficult choices to make over sail size. Tim opted to rig big which led to a tactical retirement from race 2 in order to change down in time for race 3. This would have worked a treat, except that most of the fleet had to bin race 3 after sailing the wrong course! The losers on this occasion included Tim but not Dave! This left Tim with a lot of ground to make up and with only 2 more races over the weekend, the opportunity to recover the situation didn’t present itself. Tim’s seemingly safe 3-point lead in the series was cut down to 1 point, leaving everything to play for with 1 event to go.

The forecast for the finale, back at Portland, looked to be barely racing conditions. This was the chance that light wind specialist Dave Coles was waiting for. However, the North gods were watching and the wind struggled to hit 7 knots all weekend, so no racing! Tim breathed a sigh of relief … UK Formula Champ at last.

For full results, event reports, free advice, and kit for sale, visit www.ukwindsurfing.com

Starboard Formula 167 Wide

With the ISAF issuing its list of approved boards for the 2012/2013 Formula Windsurfing seasons, one board stands out with a remarkable design. The “Starboard Formula 167 Wide” features a 90cm wide tail, making it the widest Formula racer ever in the world of course racing. A closer inspection of that tail also reveals ergonomic heel recessions for comfortable downwind runs and multi-layered, oversized cutaways helping up- and downwind characteristics. Starboard tells us this board is mainly designed to make the best of out light-wind conditions or for medium to heavyweight riders. But they also offer an alternative for high-wind course racing, which is the more standard Formula 167. Best suited to medium and light weight riders, this board features the same heel recessions of its cousin, but the oversized cutaways are slightly adapted to accommodate its different tail width: a still very respectable 84cm.

Remi Vila, head of racing R&D:

“Because the ISAF only registers new Formula boards every two years, these Formula boards will be the ones to beat for the next two years. Directly influenced by our racing program and refined by some of the best Formula racers in the game, the new Starboard Formula boards have a whole range of innovations.”

More at www.star-board.com

World Formula Champs action

Six race wins, four seconds and two thirds netted Antoine Albeau a 22 point lead at the end of the 2011 Puerto Rico Formula Windsurfing Championships and he retains the title of men’s Formula Windsurfing Champion.

Final Results

Arnon Dagan, taking 3 bullets from 4 starts on the last day finally showed us the dominating speed he had whilst we were testing the week before the event. Arnon dragged back 2nd overall after today (his best result in a FW World Championships) knocking out the super consistent Gabriel Browne, who had a couple of 4th’s and a 7th on the final day to keep on the podium in 3rd overall.

Men's winners

Women’s Fleet

Marion Lepert, USA-143, was first lady in 9 of the races and took top spot ahead of Morane Demont, FRA-59, pushing her hard with six race wins – so just three points in it. Ana Sofia Cardoso from Brazil took third place.

Women's winners

The organisers have done a great job here in Puerto Rico, definitely put on a great event and the conditions during the week were very conducive of great racing. Particular thanks to the locals who took that extra step to help out a lot of us sailors with all sorts of non-racing related requests we had too!

And to round off proceedings, a fabulous prizegiving ceremony in Old San Juan.

Go to www.formulawindsurfing.org for results, reports, photo galleries and much more – or the official event website at www.puertoricoformulawindsurfing.com

A big thank you to the main sponsors of the event – Municipio de San Juan, Ruerto Rico Tourism, Department of Recreation and Sports, and Corona . . .

Event sponsors

. . . and thanks to some other sponsors – Ciclon Energy Drinks, JC Modeling, Hosteria del Mar, Kitesurf PR, Sambazon, Liquid Surf & Sail, and the WindsurfingTour.

DAY BY DAY RACE ROUND-UP

“This could be the closest fought world championships since the start of FW. Previous champions are determined to regain the crown from Antoine and all but one of the top 10 ranked sailors are here so the pressure is on! ”

Race 1 kicked off on the scheduled start of 2pm, the wind was around 22-25 knots with a viscous chop/swell running through the course over the various reefs. It picked up to around 27 knots for the second race dropping off a TINY bit for race three but still up to 25 knots in the gusts. The start line was port biased resulting in sickening crashes at each start – good for the spectators, if not for the competitors! After three races on day one, Antoine Albeau topped the leaderboard with two bullets and a third, Jesper Vesterstrom was second and Arnon Dagan, who took the second race, was third. However, it was anybody’s competition at this stage and once discards came into play the scoreboard could look very different – Paolo dos Reis came second in two of the races but was currently carrying a 12th for the first race.

Day two – at the 11.30am start time it was obvious it was going to be another windy day with more port starters, more crashes, a shortened course compared to yesterday with a starboard rounding top mark. During race 2 half way through the first lap a big dark rain cloud that had been looming over the course finally unleashed and pelted everyone with stinging rain, killing the visibility on the course and the wind dropped down to around 12-14 knots. By the afternoon’s third race the sun was back out and the wind was back up, everyone had figured out the reefs and the best way around the course so the racing was starting to get pretty tough. Big Brasilian Paulo Dos Reis took his first race win. And so the day ended with Antoine firmly established at the top after 7 races with Paolo dos Reis in second and Arnon Dagan in third.

No racing on day three because of the poor weather conditions. First start was delayed until 1.30 by which time there was a little wind building but also ominous storm clouds on the horizon fronted by a big squall. Time out for the competitors and an interesting AGM that evening.

Four races on day four and Antoine Albeau ended firmly in place at the top with a 16 point lead over his nearest rival, young Brazilian Gabriel Browne, who shot up into second place nudging Paolo dos Reis and Arnon Dagan into third and fourth respectively. Whilst the early forecast wasn’t particularly good, the 11.30am start brought lighter winds around 12-16 knots, and bright sun. A very good day for some – Young Gabriel Brown took the first bullet, Micah Buzianis took the bullet in race 9 – as the wind gradually built to around 18 knots creating a real spectacle from the beach with fast tactical racing, wipeouts and crashes…

…not such a good day for others – On the down side, Dennis Little had to be taken to hospital for a knee injury – on the lighter side: “I don’t really want to blame Arnon for taking the last of the milk this morning so I had to eat toast instead of the awesome Honey Oat Crunch cereal we bought, but something REALLY cursed me today; I safely managed to get all my 3 discards in one day. Blarrrghhhhh!!!” Sean O’Brien

4 races scheduled for the Final Day in winds around 10-12 knots for the first race but building up to 18 knots by the end of the day. Taking 3 bullets from 4 starts today Arnon Dagan finally showed us the dominating speed he had whilst we were testing the week before the event. Arnon dragged back 2nd overall after today (his best result in a FW World Championships) and knocking out the super consistent Gabriel Browne, who had a couple of 4th’s and a 7th today to keep on the podium in 3rd overall. Gonzalo, Steve and Jesper also had a solid day today, making up 5th, 6th and 7th overall with big man Paulo Dos Reis finishing ahead of them in 4th.

UK Formula flying

A new website about Formula Windsurfing in the UK, and for formula windsurfers in the UK, is now online. The site is the result of a collaboration between Keith Atkinson and Ceri Williams, both longterm supporters of the class and its racing format.

Ceri Williams, who is chairman of the International Formula Windsurfing Class, commented: “there has been a need, for some time now, for a dedicated website to promote formula racing, and formula racers, here in the UK. We hope this is the beginning of a reversal of fortunes for the class here in the UK; wherever there is a dedicated national body the sport of formula racing is steadily growing - for example in Australia, Northern Europe and USA.”

Keith added:” we need the input from the UK’s formula riders - our initiative was to set up a site for riders, by riders. If you have any stories, pictures, event reports, videos or anything else related to Formula Windsurfing in the UK, please send us the details through the website.”

www.formulawindsurfing.co.uk

Not just another tropical island…. No it is definitely not. We can all agree that a week here is definitely not enough. It was a first major event for windsurfing here but definitely not the last. Everybody wants to come again not only for racing conditions but also for other attractions that the island has to offer.

Video by Patrik Pollak

“Sean O’Brien won the Australian Title for the 5th time in a row, Wilhelm Schurmann came in first overall. 2nd was Mathias Pinheiro (Starboard as well), 3rd Sean O’Brien (Starboard), 4th Brett Morris (Starboard).”

Jesper in action

Jesper Vesterstrøm DEN-111 enters the international NorthSails team with immediate effect.

The multiple Danish Formula and Slalom Champion as well as PWA rider on his change from Severne to NorthSails: “I’ve been windsurfing for 24 years and this is the first time on NorthSails ever in my windsurfing career. I’m therefore very excited to start the season on new Warp F2011. Top quality, nice design and great performance are some of the things I really like about the NorthSails products. It really looks like that a lot of R&D have been put into the development of all the different parts. Looking at the performance of the NorthSails in 2010 in both Formula and Slalom I don’t think there was much doubt in how the sails where performing. I was ready for a change, tried the sails and was immediately convinced.

“Personally I think these are the best sails I ever had. Rigging the sails is so easy, no worries about getting cams on, an easy downhaul and the back end system on the North booms is actually very smart. No need to untie knots anymore for the outhaul system. The performance on the water is great and I felt straight away how light the sails were in my hands. The rotation and handling in manouvers is just another dimension compared to what else I am used to.“

Raoul Joa, NorthSails Line Manager: “We are happy to have another great rider in our team now. Jesper is not only a very professional sportsmen, but also highly serious in testing, shootings and giving us direct feedback, so we think he is a great asset for us and apart from that really behind our brand! Welcome to our team, Jesper!”

Jesper Vesterstrøm

BIO/INFORMATION:

Name: Jesper Vesterstrøm

Sail Number: DEN-111

Birthday: 25-10-76

Country: Denmark

Favourite discipline: Slalom & Formula

Sponsors: NorthSails, Starboard, Ford, ION

My Goals: Formula World Champion

My slogan: Living the dream

Website: www.vesterstrom.com

BEST RESULTS:

4th Formula World Ranking 09

Danish Formula Champion 09

Danish Slalom Champion 09

Nordic Champion 09

Danish Formula Champion 08

Danish Slalom Champion 08

Nordic Champion 08

Formula Experience takes off!

Formula Experience is set to become a One-Design class from January 2012 on. As one of the fastest growing windsurfing class due to its simplicity, high performance and low entry cost, this one-manufacturer regulation will add to the popularity and longevity of the class.

Previously, Formula Experience was the domain of Starboard’s Formula Experience and Bic’s Techno Formula with any rig that had seven battens and three cambers. Masts were 75% carbon and booms made of aluminum to keep costs to a minimum.

With the new regulations, the Formula Experience class will only allow the Starboard Formula Experience 160 in combination with a Severne OverDrive sail. This equipment is built to comply with the Formula Experience class rules, set to make the manufacturing process of producing equipment cheaper. These cost reductions are passed on directly to the customers to make racing more accessible.

Made from an ASA construction, the board is very durable and will remain competitive. Allowed rig sizes will be 7.5, 8.5, 9.7 and 11 meters. Rigged with a Severne BLUE Line mast and a Severne ALU Race boom, Formula Experience is about fast and thrilling racing without one development advantage over another. Riders may also choose between the Drake R13 Race NR or the R19 Race NR, both advanced course racing fins.

For more details, look up the webpages below:

http://www.star-board.com/AutumnWinter2011/products/board_formula_experience.php

http://www.severneracing.com/overdrive.php

http://www.drake-windsurfing.com/

Starboard Formula Experience 160