A-Class NAC begins this weekend

A lot of thanks to North Cape Yacht Club on the western end of Lake Erie (just north of Toledo, OH) for putting together what we are hoping will be a fantastic North American Championship event. With 36 boats pre-registered and rumours of 6-7 other non-registered participants, we are hoping to equal or exceed our record number of competitors we had at Fort Walton Beach Yacht Club last year. The main "guns" of our class will be there and I expect a battle for the podium spots primarily between Lars Guck, Pete Melvin, and Matt Struble. Lars and Pete are expected to be sailing their tried and proven A3's with Hall/Glaser rigs and straight non-canted daggerboards but one of them could surprise us with a change in their boat or rig. Matt will be sailing a Glaser powered EVO HT with curved daggerboards. Potential spoilers for the top three that will also be battling for the remainder of the top 10 spots will most likely be Randy Smyth, Ben Hall, Paul Allen, Oliver Moore, Bob Curry, Chad Atkins, Andrew Gaynor, Woody Cope, Craig Yandow, and Bob Hodges. This championship also awards the top master sailor (50-59) and top grand master (60 and over), both categories have keen inter-rivalries.

Measurement and registration gets started on Saturday afternoon and will continue until Monday morning. A couple of practice races are planned for Monday afternoon. PRO Matt Bounds is planning to run 3-4 races a day Tuesday through Friday. We'll be sending update reports to this forum to keep our fans up to speed on the action.

Sail Fast, Sail Light

Bob Hodges
US A-Class Catamaran Association
USA 230

How are things going?

http://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=355
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http://yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=355

What is an EVO?

OK, one race. What's the real deal, any wind? Is there a blog somewhere?

Mike

A-class built by Joe Leonard in Missouri, USA, I believe. Nice rides.

EVO website

The wind was light and variable today. It did not go according to the forecasts. It was warmer and sunnier than forecast so a thermal induced seabreeze fought off the gradient wind and caused a tug of war in the race area. After trying to race in the morning, the boats were sent to shore. A couple hours later another attempt got the one race in with a light but relatively steady (acceptably variable) wind and then a second race was started. The boats got about 1 or 2 hundred yards off the line and sailed right into the wind convergence zone and the race was abandoned and the boats sent in. On the way in the forecasted westerly finally showed up but didn't last that long so it was a good call to go in. A light easterly is forecast tomorrow with mostly sunny skies so it should only be reinforced with any thermal activity. We shall see.

Thanks, Mike.
Please, keep us updated if you will.

Designed by Peter Cogan, that's Peter and Ben Hall sailing on the website pictures.

Ben had one, he's moved on to his new autoclaved one piece hull, which I believe Peter helped design.

Bill

...so no blog, then?

Great report Mike, please keep them coming!

Mike

OK, 8 races have now been scored. Struble (especially) and Guck are walking away. Somebody needs to amp up the bullet shot rule.

Any more stories?

Mike

Sorry about no report yesterday - the time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana! Yesterday the wind was from the east mostly moderate. At this end of Lake Erie that means lumpy water. We got five races in thinking that today might be blown and/or stormed out.

The weather today was breezy out of the southwest which made it even lumpier than yesterday. The highest wind report I heard in the race area was a 22 knot gust. The SIs give a race wind range of 4 - 22 knots and that is sustained over a 15 minute period so it soon became apparent that we would not get blown out. In fact the wind went down to about 12 knots at the start of the second race but ended up about 16 knots at the end. We towed in two boats that were dismasted - one due to a broken main beam. There were several others that came in for breakdowns and some that came in due to personal decisions. There were thunderstorms rolling in so we got off the lake in time for everyone get to shore and to secure their boats.

We are going to start at 10 A.M. tomorrow, an hour earlier than normal, at the request of the competitors. The forecast right now is for light air tomorrow 10 - 5 or less.

Sailing Anarchy was represented there today so they might have some news.

I forgot to mention that this notice was in the registration package: Thursday at 6:30 there will be a boat building seminar featuring Class builders John Lindahl, Lars Guck, and Joe Leonard; Ben Hall of Hall Spars; and Jan Geugeon of West Systems.

This was an excellent use of time!!! It was VERY informative. The free exchange of information in the A Class is admirable and a real service to the entire sport.

Thanks for the updates Mike. In the builders seminar, did they talk much about curved daggers and solid wing sails? Just wondering if that's the future direction for beach cats, and their opinions on those.

No, it was mostly about hull building with just a bit about foils. Nothing about rigs except that it was much easier and better to buy masts and beams than to make them. Specifically I was told that the beam "tubes" are much more than just tubes and Jan Gougeon said that it was very involved to do good carbon beams. That must be why they are so pricey...

Today's race update: Just one race in today due to the wind going away just as the first race was finishing. Good thing the class decided to start an hour earlier today or there would have been no race at all. The lake was mildly bouncy at the start with a northwesterly peaking around 12 knots and slowly dieing during the race with the water getting correspondingly smoother. After the first finishers it started clocking and was very light for the last finishers. The boats were sent in and the wind died completely so the decision to end the regatta became an easy one to make. The west coast guys had to pack up the container and awards were going to be at 2 P.M. There were also competitors from the east coast, Florida, and other faraway places who were eyeing getting a jump on the long trip home so attendance at the banguet dinner at 6:30 might be lower than originally expected. The class has to be happy with such a good and geographically diverse turnout. There was at least one race each day and a decent mix of conditions to help determine a champion and make a successful regatta.

Cool, thanks for the reports Mike!

Mike