F18 Scorpion
The Scorpion F18 was born in Catsailingnews under the F18 Open Project, launched by Martín Vanzulli on April 2012. Later in 2015 Exploder decided to support the initiative and we invested to make the idea a reality.
After routing the plug and getting the molds done, the first hull sets were built in our own yard located in Poland. Among the first batch a Scorpion F18 was built for Mischa Heemskerk to participate in the 2015 Worlds held in Denmark. The new platform was sailed for the first time by Mischa & Francesco Bianchi hours before the regatta.
The Scorpion showed some promising performance out of the box and after the Worlds Francesco told us : “The Scorpion will become a World Champion design in the future” …
And he was right.
2017 F18 Worlds
In 2017 we prepared another Scorpion F18 platform for Mischa Heemskerk & Stephan Dekker. On a a blasting performance by the Dutch crew the Exploder Scorpion F18 grabbed its first World Title. The platform was equipped with Mischa’s own designed & built Decksweeper mainsail. The Exploder ScorpionnF18 and Mischa’s DS mainsail set a milestone in the F18 Class and defined the beginning of a new Era in the Formula F18. Mischa & Stephan literally swept the fleet with total domination.
In same regatta we also had Mitch & Ruben Booth and Danny Paschalidis & Kostas Trigonis sailing the Scorpion for the first time finishing 4th & 5th overall respectively.
2018 F18 Worlds
The 2018 season began in July with the Costa Brava Europeans. Danny & Kostas clinched the Euro Crown with flare preparing themselves towards the Sarasota Worlds to be held later that year. By the time all the top riders and most of the fleet were racing with DeckSweeper mainsails.
At Sarasota Paschalidis & Trigonis delivered superior performance and they obtained the 2018 F18 World Title, racing the Exploder Scorpion , the sails / Decksweeper mainsail was provided by Marton Balazs.
2019 F18 Worlds
In 2019 Martín, who designed the Scorpion F18, invited Darren Bundock to join the F18 Class once more. Bundy found the time in his Calendar to race, and he confirmed he could attend.
Exploder decided to support Darren with a brand new Scorpion F18 platform, as we do for him in the A-Class, to compete along youth Aussie Connor Nicholas, sails were handed by 1D.
The 2019 Worlds were held at Costa Brava, Spain. Spectacular venue and great racing. A tight fight between Danny Paschalidis & Kostas Trigonis and Bundock & Connor Nicholas. The Australian team prevailed in the end, the World title was defined only after the last race.
The 3rd place went to Argentines Cruz Gonzalez Smith & Mariano Heuser and 4th to Mitch & Ruben Booth, both teams also sailing a Scorpion F18. At Costa Brava 8 out of the top 12 teams were sailing the Exploder Scorpion.
The Exploder Scorpion F18 has grabbed 3 consecutive World Titles (2017, 2018, 2019) with three different crews.
All the effort and investment we had made by Exploder yard Team since 2015 was worth and along the D3 A-Cat, our yard has won by now the Constructor Championsips in both Classes , the F18 & A-Class.