2007 A-CLASS CATAMARAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
The USA Brings its Best to the Home Field

With a record setting 100 boats pre-registered, the 2007 A-Class World Championship sponsored by Ronstan, FSE Robline, Corum, and West Marine is now only weeks away. The regatta will take place at The Islander resort hotel in Islamorada, FL. The Islander has been hosting the US A-Class for its last two midwinter race weeks and was the unanimous choice by the US class as the best venue to host this world championship. The race site is a 9 square mile area of the Atlantic ocean protected by an offshore reef. Sailors will enjoy clear aqua water and hopefully warm and consistent easterly winds of 8-15 knots.

The international contingent includes Glenn Ashby from Australia who will be racing to defend his 2006 title. Glenn is a multiple world champion in the class and is regarded as the best A-Class sailor ever. In addition, Glenn is regarded as a favorite to medal in the 2008 Tornado Olympic event in Qingdao, China with his teammate Darren Bundock. In addition to Ashby, other top international sailors racing will include past world champions Scott Anderson and Nils Bunkenberg, Olympic medalists Andrew Landenberger and Goran Marstrom, New Zealand champion Murray Philpott, top Dutch sailors Sjoerd Hoekstra, Pieterjan Dwarshuis, and Piet Saarberg, Alinghi designer Mike Drummond (New Zealand), and top Swiss sailors Dieter Melcher and Luc De Bois.

The USA will have all of its top A-Class sailors challenging the international contingent. At the top of the list is three time North American champion Lars Guck who has been dominating US A-Class sailing for the last two years. In the last two North American championships, Lars has won every race. Right beside Lars will be 1997 and 2005 A-Class World Champion Pete Melvin. Pete’s speed and consistency make him a favorite for a podium finish especially given the size of this fleet. Other top US sailors that are certainly contenders to finish in the top ten include Phil Kinder, Olympic medalists Pease and Jay Glaser, 505, I-14, and 18’ Skiff World Champion Howie Hamlin, Olympic medalist Charlie Ogeltree, and Ben Hall who may be racing with a radical solid wing sail (still testing and evaluating).

Many sailors are watching this regatta closely as several new platforms are making their debuts. These include the next evolution of the Marstrom which now has hulls that are canted and has a revised volume distribution for better performance in waves and chop, the Nikita which is an evolution of the original Flyer, a Peter Cogan design that is an evolution of the proven Bimare XJ, and the radical LR2 designed and built by Ian and John Lindhal. These new designs will be joined by the proven Flyer Mk I and Mk II, the Bimare XJ, and the Melvin A2/A3. Except for the potential appearance of the Hall solid wing rig, most sailors will likely be using carbon masts from Hall, Fiberfoam, Saarberg, or Marstrom and square top sails from Ashby, Glaser, Ullman, and Landenberger. While clearly a development class, advancements in A-Class performance have for the last 10 years been subtle never immediately making obsolete the current designs and allowing active sailors to pass on older but still competitive equipment to new sailors. This trend has been very good for class growth.

Stay tuned to www.acatworlds.com to get all the latest news and results when the racing begins in mid-November.

Bob Hodges
US A-CLASS President
Bobh79@bellsouth.net
A-Class USA 230

I don't think so!

http://acatamaran.blogspot.com/2007/09/new-class-from-roake-and-lindahl.html

Are the dates Nov. 9-16, with the Blue Water Clasic (warm up race) just a couple days prior? I sure would like to get down there and have a look at that wing!

Sounds like it is going to be a blast. Arrive down there on the 7th. Going to be good to sail against more than 1 A-cat at a time.

One of the European container for the worlds is underway. As you see there is not much space left.

Regards Hans

The tune-up regatta is Thurs/Fri - 8th and 9th. measurement and practice Sat/Sun, and the Worlds start on Mon the 12th, running through Friday the 16th.

-Mike

Just posted this on YachtsandYachting.

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3463&PN=1&TPN=1

Huh?

Let me try again -

http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...umber=119328&page=0&vc=1

The title to the event should read

2007 Ronstan A-Class Worlds

Bob

in yr preview you forgot to mention that also Mitch Booth is going to attend the 2007 Worlds.
Strangely he is registered as Spanish with sail no NED 11 (???).
Is he the REAL Mitch Booth, who, among countless other trophies, was also the 1994 A class champion?

Mitch has also a Dutch passport and he is member od the DACA ( Ducth A Class Catamaran Association) so he can go with the Dutch number . It is good to have a good sailor like him attending in the Worlds, he is a good opponent of Glenn.

Bob

I found another mistake in yr preview.
Nils Bunkenburg is no more listed among the approved entrants.
This lets only four A class World Champions attending the event:
Glenn Ashby (4 times WC), Pete Melvin (2 times WC), Scott Anderson (once WC) and Mitch Booth (once WC).
It would be interesting to know which "materials" these WCs and the Olympic medalists listed are going to use.
It is widely known that:
Glenn and Scott will sail a Geltek Flyer MK2/Fiberfoam medium mast/Ashby main;
Andrew Landenberger will sail a Aicher & Egner Flyer MK2/Fiberfoam medium mast/Landenberger main;
Goran Marstrom will sail the new Marstrom M5/Marstrom mast/ Landenberger (???) main;
Pete Melvin will sail a NACRA A3/Hall mast/Glaser sail;
Charlie Ogletree will sail a BIMARE/VMI XJ/ ??? Mast/ Ullman sail.
BUT what about Mitch Booth?
I bet that his main will be an Ullman Italy but I have no idea about the boat/mast he will choose.
He won the 1994 World Championship with a custom made boat!

I have set up a yahoo group for A-Cat enthusiasts with a data section for people to record their platform, mast, sail selectons on. I hope that the group will get some use, but I am just now getting the link spread around. It is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-CatWorld/. It is open for anyone to jion, to participate and to add new information too. I found after I joined the A-Class that not all of the sites were up to date, nor did they contain the information needed to sort out what to own and sail. this site is pretty comprehensive with links to boats, sailmakers, suppliers and so-on. Hopefully others will join and participate in adding new and current information to the site. thanks.

Will Charlies sail be a Ullman Italy or one that he cuts?

As far as I know the bulk of the developmental work with regard to multihulls' sails is carried out by the Italian loft.

F.Echavarry and M.Booth together with C.Ogletree are the team responsible to testsail the new Tornado cuts.

Likewise UllmanGZ has its own testers for the other main catamaran classes.

Subsequently these designs are made available to all the other Ullman lofts and "replicated" locally.

However I suppose that Charlie is working also on his his own ideas so that I cannot give you a definitive answer

See: http://www.ullmangz.it/ENG/NewsDettaglio.asp?ID=38

Much to my surprise the list of the approved entrants to the A-class WC is changing every day.

After reading the attached posting

QUOTE
Re: New A-class with a radical bow shape
Boat #1 will also be at the worlds, but sailed by Randy Smyth with the sail # USA 1000. In conjunction with Randy we are working on a new type of mainsail that has never have seen before and the hope is that it's really fast. Time will tell.
UNQUOTE

I checked the WC website to find out that not only another Olympic medalist such as Randy Smyth is going to attend the Worlds, but also Cam Lewis, US best racer of maxi-multihulls, Matt Struble (DN World Champion, three times winner of the Alter Cup, etc.) and Robert Daniel, who just failed with Hunter Stunzi to be the US representative at Quingdao in the Tornado class.
Bob,
it seems that you have to rewrite yr article

I had to pull out of the regatta for personal reasons and I believe that Randy got my spot. A few of the international spots also opened with sailors dropping out of the competition for their own reasons as well. So you are correct, that the list is changing daily. It should be interesting with Randy, Cam and some of the others showing up. So you have some time tested sailors going up against some of the A-Class diehards.