It looked as though Australia’s 2002 World Champion Steve Brewin had won race one of the 2009 A-Cat World Championships at Belmont today. However Brewin was OCS by three seconds.

The race was closely contested in a five to seven knot nor’easter. Brewin was first around the top mark, with Ashby back in tenth place.

But it was Spain’s Manuel Calavia who claimed first place. Glenn Ashby, Matthias Dietz (GER), Dave Brewer and James Spithill were among the top finishers at the second top mark.

Calavia was the first ranked European behind Glenn Ashby and Scott Anderson in the 2007 European Championships and was placed second behind Steve Brewin in the 2008 Europeans.

'I was the third boat up from the pin. I went left, found clean air and was good after that,' Calavia said.

Ashby, who came second, described his approach to the challenging conditions. 'The secret was to go hard left until your nose bled or you almost bricked, and then come away,' he said.

The light conditions were difficult; the 94 boat fleet had trouble coming in on port tack, but found it easier on starboard tack.

Spithill, who was fourth across the line and third in the race after the OCS of Brewin, explained he was pleased with his recovery.

'I was deep in the 40’s on the first beat but I kept chipping away and got a couple of good shifts and worked my way back up into the fleet,' he said.



by Gemma Noon