2010 A Class Worlds

Three heats have now been run in the 2010 A Class Worlds being held in Cesanatico Italy. The class limit of 100 boats are participating from 17 countries. Wind has been very light so far with only up to about 6 knots. Despite a wide array of boat designs and changes such as curved boards both symmetrical and assymetical, canting rigs and flatter keeled boats, the usual suspects seem to be at the front. Glenn Ashby leads by a point from Stevie Brewin with five Australians in the top ten. It's early days yet but most thought the light wind would favour Europeans and US sailors as they are generally more used to those conditions.

The event website is here http://www.congregavelisti.it/anno%202010/Worlds%202010.html

Cheers
AUS9

Link fixed:

A Class Worlds

I can't believe how hard it is to find out more information about the Event now it has started. It's like getting blood out of a stone.
This is the A' Classes showcase, flag ship event and yet you wouldn't know it. The people who are responsible for the Class and in particular marketing are missing a great opportunity to promote the virtues of the A'Class and Catamaran racing in general.
By comparison my local Club is hosting a Schools and Club (under 16's) Championships this weekend with approx 100 pre-entries. As part of the race management team in the Regatta Class we will be providing live Tweets from the Committee boat, and relaying commentary back to the shore. Therefore parents, relatives world wide etc will and can be kept right up to date with all on the water activities and provisional results:
twitter
I'm a member of a small Club stuck in the South West corner of the UK. Why the A'Class association haven't the foresight to encompass this non high tec, technology is beyond me.
I think it's time to stop bumping my gums and carry on searching for more info.

Agree - there is a little more info on the multihull section of a certain other forum but the formal stuff coming out of the event is minimal. I've been trying to get personal emails from mates there but they're a bit busy. Anything I get I'll post.

Cheers
AUS9

Can someone tell the webmaster to change that first image? Its disrespectful to let a country flag touch the floor/ground/dirt

Whatever. Sorry, but this is just a piece of textile.

Now I'm going to get flamed to death because I don't share the US cultural attachment to the Flag.

Its ok, its an Aussie flag...


btw Robi, how else is he suppose to raise that thing? Stand on a ladder?

You simply tuck the tail under your arm and then raise it, just like you would your brand new Jib!

Unless you like stepping all over your brand new jib...

And thanks for the link to the picts. That's why I hate racing in light air! It is sooo much harder than big wind. I hope they get more wind before this thing is over.

Yeah OK it's a military tradition in AUS too. I'll tell him when he gets home - he crews on my big boat sometimes!

BTW there's a 5 minute youtube video out now and 18 minute on facebook - bit dodgy though - from a mobile phone.
http://catsailingnews.blogspot.com/search/label/A-Class

Cheers
AUS9

I hope you don't let him raise your new jib or rig up your spinny!

I'm glad that it's not just me that got edgy about that flag picture. It does my head in when I see a slob handling a national flag!

There is no special knack to hoisting without dragging it in the dirt, it just takes a little EFFORT and respect!

Aussie flag etiquette mirrors US flag etiquette, which was derived from British flag etiquette:
Australian Flag Etiquette

As a symbol of a nation, flags should be treated with respect.

I guess he was never in the Boy Scouts? (or the Aussie equivelent)

No - we're not very military oriented here. Most people would be completely unaware of flag protocol. It's no big deal for us. We're more concerned about trying to win the cricket and maybe the swimming in the Olympics - and the A Class and F18 Worlds of course. I only know about the flag stuff because an acquaintance served in Iraq.

I'm more p***ed off that he wasn't wearing the shirt I gave him from the last Queensland A Class Titles.

Cheers
AUS9

good lord is it sour in here this morning!?

(did nobody notice the bit about the canting rigs?)

Well we did blow the kite up last time we sailed - but I reckon that was the skipper leaving it up sailing shy in 20+ knots.
Took me 2 days to sew it back up again!

I understand Landy is using one and I Know Brad Collett is using one. Landy sails with us a bit but he didn't use canting the last time which was Easter - so I don't know what system he is using. I've sailed with Brad a number of times using the canted rig. It's a simple system with a block system and cleat in each sidestay. I don't think he was any faster in the light stuff but medium breeze uphill it looked better - but then I can never get close enough to really know in that breeze!

I thought a canting rig would only be any help when you are flying a hull? ie. useless in light air?

I'd love to see how they rigged it up if anyone there can get a photo.

Four races down and the best we've got online is the official placings and a short video.

This is not professional or even half hearted event promotion.


What is the sense of having a race website if it is not updated daily, never mind after each race, with descriptive race commentary and up close and personal video!

Lucky it is not being used as a bar mat for the skips.

I'm sure they would welcome your assistance if next year you would like to fly over and cover the event. Fact is the people running the event are racing in it.

Just so you don't think no one was reading your post.

HOW DARE YOU!!!!! I sentence you to "a flaming death"

Three races held yesterday in next to no wind and a forecast of 5 knots for the last two races today. I'm starting to feel a little better about missing the cut by one to attend from AUS. A good result for us so far with the top 3 and 5 in the top ten. Jack Benson has been the real find sailing a Flyer I - who needs canting rigs, curved boards, fat hulls etc!!!! We'll claim him as a Queenslander now too as he's going to university in Townsville having done most of his sailing in Darwin.
Hope there's a bit more wind for the next Worlds in Denmark

Cheers
AUS9

I note young Jack is registered under Darwin Sailing Club, therefore I would still consider him a Territorian, not Queenslander. Besides, you have Kevin07 back in residence now.

Never mind - he'll be back here for the nationals at Christmas and we'll indoctrinate him with a few Bundys (that's local rum for all the Seppos)

Yeah - why replace Kevin07 with Julia - born in Wales

"I'm sure they would welcome your assistance if next year you would like to fly over and cover the event. Fact is the people running the event are racing in it."

If I could cover my costs I would love to promote A class events around the world.

Surely that's a contradiction and is probably the cause of the PR failure.
You can't really run and race in the event!
But you've got to feel for them, it doesn't appear to be the most pleasant of Championships out on the race course.
Mind you that Guy who had a 96th in one of the first races had a 4th yesterday! I bet he had a headache this morning

Just spoke with Ben Hall. One race sailed to finish the series with 8 races. Glenn Ashby won on the water with Steve Brewin in 3rd so Glenn and Steve finish 1-2 overall. I'd have to believe Jack Benson hung on for third overall as he had a decent point cushion over 4th. Final results should be posted in a couple of hours.

For the US, Randy Smyth finished 9th overall which is fantastic considering he was using a charter boat. Randy has been working hard this winter and spring and he has shown exceptional speed in light air which this regatta served up well for him. We should all be very proud of his finish.

The Aussies will be drinking a lot of beer tonight!

Next major North American A-Class event is the North American Championship at North Cape Yacht Club in mid-September. We are hoping to top our 42 boat fleet size last year and Sailing Anarchy is planning another On the Water Anarchy coverage for this event. All the guns of the US class should be in attendance.

Bob Hodges
USACA

Congratulations to the AUS team - 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 out of the top ten. Spectacular result especially with the very light wind - conditions rarely found in AUS.
Hopefully Denmark for the next event will be better and I'm sure Florida after that will be good.

Cheers
AUS9

Congratulations to Glen, Steve and the entire Australian effort. It was also great to see Randy come in the top 10. As far as promotion and coverage of these events go, some of the issue is definately those who are racing are promoting and reporting on the event. At the end of a days racing, the last thing a racer really wants to do is to sit down, write a race report and then get it circulating through different media and online sailing sites. What worked great during the 2007 Ronstan A-cat Worlds was that you had people who were not racing pushing the coverage of the event. One of the key individuals was Brian Hawbolt who was on the RC boat along with many other on site individuals who assisted in gathering information.. He would write up the daily race synopsis pass it on to another person who gathered more information from the racers on the water and then the race report would be written. It was then sent to an individual who sent it out daily to every sailing site that could be found. Those reports ended up being published worldwide on sites from SA to Sail World, The Daily Sail and many more. This worked because it did not require those who were racing to stop to take the time to get the information together and distributed. There were of course some glitches, such as hearsay and personal opinions published that should not have been, but overall the coverage was better then what has happened since that event. Maybe prior to the next major event, that process can be looked at, changed to get more and better race reports and modified to better support and promote the class.