Charles Froeb of San Francisco Yacht Club and Matthieu Marfaing Are 2023 F18 North American Champions
Is it ever too late to announce Bay Area sailing champions? Way back at the end of September, we received news that San Francisco Yacht Club F18 racer Charles Froeb and crew Matthieu Marfaing had won the F18 North American Championships in Burlington, Ontario. The beach-cat world was practically invented in California with Hobie Alter’s Hobie 14 and 16, and small catamaran racing remains popular with a smaller but very dedicated group of catamaran sailors.
As Charles told us, “I wish there were more F18s active on the Bay. We’ve got a few, but not enough to get 10 at regattas, as we did 10 years ago.” The good news for West Coast F18 sailors is that the North American Championships regatta is coming to Richmond in 2024. So West Coast F18 sailors will be able to challenge the 2023 winning team in their home waters on San Francisco Bay.
This year’s racing on Lake Ontario featured 43 competitors, with 23 from Canada, 18 from the USA and two from Chile. The regatta consisted of 15 races over four days, with Froeb and Marfaing in second place behind the Chilean team going into the fourth and final day of racing. A dominating last day with finishes of 1-1-2-2 put them back in first for the top podium finish. The Chilean team of Pablo Gallyas and Isidora Urrutia ended up in second place, and they were also awarded first in the mixed teams.
The F18 is a competitive fleet, with boats coming from all over the Americas. Last year’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Ravi Parent earned his Rolex by finishing first in the 2022 F18 Worlds, as well as winning the A-Class Catamaran Worlds. Ravi Parent was also the 2021 F18 North American champion with crew Nick Lovisa.
Charles is looking forward to seeing Ravi competing on the Bay at the Richmond Yacht Club from September 25-28, 2024. If you’re looking to race locally in a strong fleet of high-performance catamarans in 2024, this sounds like a good event to join.
We feel it’s better late than never to recognize these local champions and are happy to see the F18 NA’s in the 2024 YRA Calendar, coming out with our January issue on December 29.
You can see the full results here.