The Orange Power Aussie A Class Nationals are being held at Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club, Queensland with racing from Monday 3rd January. Daily results available from the club website: http://www.lcsc.org.au/mam/
Seven time World champion Glenn Ashby is facing a tough week fending off defending champ and runner up in the last two world titles Steve Brewin
Top Queensland sailors Brad Collett and four times Aussie champion Brian Hooper are in the hunt as is Darren Bundock who is taking part in his first A regatta.
Others out to make their mark include Mitch Booth, Olympic medalist Andrew Landenberger, James Spithill and nine other America's Cup sailors.
Conditions are perfect despite recent massive rainfall which has lifted the lake, and caused the worst ongoing flooding in living memory in other areas of Queensland.
A number of volunteers are working to ensure there are quality images, videos and reports to keep you updated daily.
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Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: Qb2]
#226137 01/01/1101:55 PM01/01/1101:55 PM
This morning is registration, midday briefing and then the invitation race. Race 1 & 2 are being held tomorrow. Conditionsa are exected to be excellent 10-15 knots of wind although more rain is on the way. Tuesday is predicted for 15-20 knots so the action should be fast ad furious.
I will get some photos of the club, set up area and competitors this morning and try to get links here before the day is out.
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: Qb2]
#226153 01/02/1103:34 AM01/02/1103:34 AM
73 A sailors registered today with just two still to arrive.
I asked a few competitors who they thought would fill the top five spots and the order went roughly Ashby, Brewin, Bundock, Collett and Landenberger.
One sailor said Darren Bundock has spent the past five weeks training. The guy said in the first week He was ahead of Bundy but by the second Darren was well out in front.
So its all on for young and old from tomorrow.
I grabbed a few images before my old digital camera played up but did get a shot of Team NZ's Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby and UK tornado olympian Will Howden
The racer breakup is 16 from NSW, 24-Qld,21-Victoria, 8-NT,1 each from West Australia, FRA, (Phillipe Presti) and GBR (Will Howden) and 3-NZ-(Murray Philpott,Stu Bettany and Dean Barker).
Eight Northern Territory competitors signed up. Most found their way through the floodwaters. Chris Battenberg and John Gibson went the long way round, driving from Darwin to Melbourne to collect a new cat and then drove back north to Queensland. Competitors ages range from 17 to 72.
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: Qb2]
#226174 01/03/1106:18 AM01/03/1106:18 AM
Glenn Ashby won race one today but went overboard in the second and spent some minutes with the mast in the water before he got it upright again and was able to take off after the leading bunch. He will need a new tiller for tomorrows races The left hand side of the windward leg was favoured and where the top guns went.
first dozen places race 1 1 A1 G Ashby 1.0 2 4 S Brewin 2.0 3 888 D Bundock 3.0 4 308 A Landenberger 4.0 5 10 B Collett 5.0 6 N8 D Barker 6.0 7 G8 W Howden 7.0 8 902 S Anderson 8.0 9 900 W Mercer 9.0 10 865 S Scott 10.0 11 889 G Parker 11.0 12 898 C Cairns 12.0
race 2 1 308 A Landenberger 1.0 2 888 D Bundock 2.0 3 10 B Collett 3.0 4 N8 D Barker 4.0 5 902 S Anderson 5.0 6 G8 W Howden 6.0 7 889 G Parker 7.0 8 A1 G Ashby 8.0 9 898 C Cairns 9.0 10 20 C Batenburg 10.0 11 900 W Mercer 11.0 12 957 D Loutit 12.0
Glenn Ashby won race one today but went overboard in the second and spent some minutes with the mast in the water before he got it upright again and was able to take off after the leading bunch. He will need a new tiller for tomorrows races The left hand side of the windward leg was favoured and where the top guns went.
first dozen places race 1 1 A1 G Ashby 1.0 2 4 S Brewin 2.0 3 888 D Bundock 3.0 4 308 A Landenberger 4.0 5 10 B Collett 5.0 6 N8 D Barker 6.0 7 G8 W Howden 7.0 8 902 S Anderson 8.0 9 900 W Mercer 9.0 10 865 S Scott 10.0 11 889 G Parker 11.0 12 898 C Cairns 12.0
race 2 1 308 A Landenberger 1.0 2 888 D Bundock 2.0 3 10 B Collett 3.0 4 N8 D Barker 4.0 5 902 S Anderson 5.0 6 G8 W Howden 6.0 7 889 G Parker 7.0 8 A1 G Ashby 8.0 9 898 C Cairns 9.0 10 20 C Batenburg 10.0 11 900 W Mercer 11.0 12 957 D Loutit 12.0
Looks like Glenn is giving another masterclass. It would have been interesting to see him on his old boat. A similar display with it would have brought the DNA bandwagon to a holt and based on his performance to date may well have been on the cards.
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: ]
#226272 01/04/1104:06 PM01/04/1104:06 PM
thats probably the A being chartered by Mitch Booth as Glenn brought five boats to the nationals. latest media report :
Day 2 Australian A Class Championships.
Once again Lake Cootharaba turned on ideal sailing conditions, with a 12 to 15 knot south east breeze. The breeze was well established even at todays 11:00 am start time.
The day belonged to Glenn Ashby who won both races.Steve Brewin and Dean Barker also had a very consistent , finishing 2nd ,and 3rd respectively in each race. Andrew Landenberger had a 5th and a 4th, whilst Darren Bundock had a 4th and a 5th. These five competitors seemed to have established a mortgage on the top five positions.
The first race was underway after one general recall. Dean Barker showed excellent speed upwind, and rounded the top mark with handy lead from Ashby and Brewin. Barker who seems to have quickly mastered the skills of driving these boats upwind, could not withstand the downwind speed of Steve Brewin, who rounded the leeward in first place. Brewins lead however was shotlived. He found that he was soonon the wrong side of a shift, which well exploited by Ashby and Barker, who both slipped back into 1st and 2nd positions respectively . Ashby was never headed thereafter, but later in the race, Brewin passed Barker and bagged second place, with Barker finishing 3rd.
Ashby had the second race of the day claimed soon after the start. With a brilliantly timed pin end start, he quickly established a good lead and was never headed. Brewin finished 2nd, Barker 3rd, Landenberger 4th ,and Bundock 5th.
After 4 races, Ashby is considered that fastest overall around the race track. Brewin is the clear downwind specialist, and on todays performance Dean Barker was judged to have the best upwind speed. At this stage Ashby has the overall lead. There are 5 more races planned over the next four days. Will Team New Zealand's skipper Dean Barker find a bit more speed downwind, and start beating Ashby and Brewin?
Report by Bob Griffits.
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: Qb2]
#226282 01/05/1103:26 AM01/05/1103:26 AM
Glenn Ashby is relentessly tightening his grip on yet another major A Class event. After six races, Glenn has a solid overall lead, having won 5 of the 6 races, whilst capsizing when leading in other remaining race. A formidable record.
Today he added another two bullets . Analysis shows that whilst he may not always be first to the top mark, he has the ability to make his way to the front somewhere during the course of a race, with the skills to assume the lead either on a downwind or an upwind leg. His boathandling skills are a joy to watch both in grace and efficiency, sail trim is superb, he has obvious ability to steer the boat.
Sailing conditions today were again ideal, with the weather gods one again smiling on the fleet, and providing winds in range of 10 to 14 knots.
The first race of the day was underway in the shadow of another black flag , in a 10 knot breeze from the east, a little lighter than conditions experienced on the first 2 days. Dean Barker once again put on a command performance on the first windward leg to round the top mark in first place. The downwind whizz Steve Brewin assumed the lead on the first downwind leg, but Ashby exploited a shift on the 2nd upwind leg to pass both, to assume the lead.
By the time of the last downwind mark rounding, Ashby and Brewin were together. However, on the next windward leg,Ashby worked out to establish a 100 metre lead at the rounding of the last upwind mark.Downwind Brewin was faster, closing to within 4 boat lengths of Ashby by the finish. 3rd place went to Australia's 2008 Tornado Olympic silver medalist Darren Bundock, 4th to Team New Zealand's Dean Barker, 5th to British Olympian Will Howden, and 6th place to Australia's Olympic bronze medallist, Scott Anderson.
By the time of the start of the second race, the wind had strengthened to 13 to 14 knots, and had shifted to the northeast. The Queensland sea breeze had made its way across the sand hills and had arrived on the lake. Steve Brewin who is currently in second place overall in this regatta , with a score card that includes four 2nd places, did not enjoy good boatsspeed upwind due to a broken cunningham eye system, and rounded the first winward mark somewhere in the mid 20's. The upwind ace this race was Andrew Landenberger, rounding the windward mark ahead of Dean Barker, Ashby then Scott Anderson. By the first leeward mark it was Barker leading Landenberg, ahead of Ashby.
Positions amongst the leading boths went through a number of changes of permutations during the remainder of the race, but the seemingly inevitable happened with Ashby once again assuming the lead.
The other performance of this race of note was that of Scott Anderson. Scott sailed very well upwind in the race, and moved into 3rd place up the last windward leg. Scott's performance in this race and over the regatta has been remarkable,He has been sailing one of the older boats with straight rather than curved centreboards. He has always rounded the first winward mark somewhere in the top ten, but he has been unable to hold onto the most recent designed boats fitted with the curved centreboards. The curved centrboards are clearly faster downwind in the conditions experienced so far in this regatta.
The final positions for this race were Ashby 1st, Landenberger 2nd, Anderson 3rd, Barker 4th, Bundock 5th, with Brewin largely overcoming his upwind speed difficulties with excellent downwind speed.
Three races remain in this regatta. Ashby is looking solid for first place, and I think that we can pencil in Brewin.
Tomorrows forecast is for moderate winds, the return of the rain, and thunderstorms late in the day. Report by Bob Griffits.
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: Qb2]
#226308 01/05/1106:30 PM01/05/1106:30 PM
I didn't realise until yesterday that Simon McKeon (currently 14th) has been nominated for the prestigeous 2011 Australian of the Year. Simon has a CV longer than my arm (investment banker, Chairman of CSIRO- Australia's leading government scientific research organisation, skipper of world speed recorder holder Yellow Pages, successful Little America's Cup skipper, and general good guy). I'd say he has a good chance of achieving this accolade.
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: Phile]
#226312 01/05/1110:02 PM01/05/1110:02 PM
I concur. Please explain a bit more on the benefits of this technique.
Is it the typical 'gain speed high and once you get apparant wind going, drive down' type thing? Or is this something unique to uni-rigs in moderate breeze?
Jay
Re: Australian A Class Nationals 1-7 January 2011
[Re: waterbug_wpb]
#226340 01/06/1111:41 AM01/06/1111:41 AM
see sailing anarchy for a good discussion that covers the trap'ing down wind to some extent along with other info. Many pictures are available on picasa from the thread.