MauiSails was admirably represented in this year’s Formula World Championships with seven men (eighty total) and one woman (seventeen total) in the lineup. Young Gabriel Brown (BRA 50) and Dennis Littel (NED 13) ended up in ninth and twelfth, respectively, both with several top five finishes and Dennis holding second place overall for awhile.


In the Women’s fleet there was a classic battle to the last race between MauiSails’ Marta Hlavaty (POL111) and Allison Shreve (AUS 911). This was the exciting drama of the whole event. Marta related, „For five days I was leading, but after the next to last race I lost my first place and Allison was one point ahead of me. When I saw the forecast in the morning I started to get used to the idea that I lost the World title in Formula. I was praying for the wind all morning. And it came nearly the same like last year in Portugal. In last five minutes before the time limit flag goes up, the race started....


‘What a chance...!!!’ was the first thing which came to my mind, ‘Now don’t get stressed and just do your best, you have nothing to lose.’ It was quite light wind I was confident how to sail. For the whole race I was fighting with Agnieszka Pietrasik, caught her up on the last downwind and passed on the very last gybe. Winning the last race pushed me to first. I came to the finishing line so exhausted but happy like I can’t describe. I finished equal points with Allison. It was a close rivalry exactly like last year, and this made it more interesting and a more exciting event.

I enjoyed it so much!!! The event was well organized with perfect wind conditions, different each day. I'm very happy and looking forward to racing next year.


Gabriel had this to say, „We had twelve amazing races in conditions from light to storm winds up to thirty knots, and from sunny to rainy days. I had my best result ever in a FW Worlds event and finished ninth. I'm happy with my result because the level was very high, everybody was sailing good, and the conditions were hard. Most of the races had shifty wind and lots of people on the starting line. I was using mostly my TR5 12.0 and sometimes the 11.0 and 10.0. I'm happy for Marta too. She was fighting hard for the championship, won the last race, and got the world title.

Dennis added, „We were all happy with the way the organizers established this major event. They did a fantastic job! Santa Pola, thanks! In 2007 for the Europeans there was only very light wind conditions... Well, after this World Championship I can say that Santa Pola is not only light wind! One day we had races in over thirty knots!


My races went with big ups and big downs and I finished twelfth, outside of the goal I planned up front. During racing you also need a bit of luck and this was unfortunately not on my side. During a protest I got a DSQ instead of a well earned third place. We were starting in full fleet, which put more pressure on the starts. If you parked at the start you'd see everyone take off and then have to wait until you finally got some wind again. There's no chance to get back again. But luckily I also showed good speed and angle with the TR-5 12.0, which put me in the leading position a couple of times, and I battled around the course with the top names alongside. Those are the races I keep in mind for the future competitions, and take a lesson from the ones that went wrong!”