A-Class North Americans 2016 @Newport: September 12-15th
Photo: Walter Cooper . The 2015 North Americans will be remembered as a Classic event and a milestone for the Class on the racing action between Matt Strubble & Bruce Mahoney and the media coverage, specially Nick Bowers shortfilm: catsailingnews.com/2015/05/a-class-north-americans-2015-crown-for.html .
This year the locals are heading to Newport Rhode Island securing another excellent venue for the growing NA fleet.
Below report for incoming 2016 NAs sent by Bill Vining
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The US Aclass continues to grow and thrive.
Having come off a very successful winter season, which saw 57 boats race in 6 events in Florida, the US Aclass is looking forward to the North American Championship in Newport RI, Sept 12-15th at Sail Newport. With four months to go, their are already 25 competitors registered.
www.acatnorthamericans.com/
Prior to the Newport North American Championships, the class will participate in Foiling Week at
Sail Newport. Foiling week promises to bring all the latest and most exciting foiling boats together for one design racing, distance racing, speed contests, technique forums and training. Moths, GC32’s, Wazps, C Class, Aclass and foiling kites are among the classes that are expected to attend.
Foiling Week at Newport R.I
The second event of Foiling Week™ in 2016 takes place in Newport, Rhode Island, USA from September 8th to 11th. …
Other exciting news is that the US Aclass now has 127 active sailors, which according to class treasurer and long time Aclass sailor, Ben Hall, is the highest number since the class began. Active fleets and racing can be found in Bristol, RI; Lake Hopatcong, NJ; Annapolis/VA Beach; Lake Lanier, GA; Lake Hartwell, GA; Lake Keowee, SC; Houston, Orlando, Tampa, St Louis and San Diego/SoCal.
Many classic boats are being converted to foilers and many foilers are being upgraded to the latest foils. Bob Hodges is near completion on adding Z05 Exploder foils to his Exploder. Larry Woods did the same modification and both moved their boards 100mm forward for more stable flight. Olympic medalist and catamaran sailing legend Randy Smythe has sent his Bimare VRI to Hall Composites in RI to install Exploder Z10’s in his Bimare VR1. Scott Stevenson is adding foils to his Flyer, Bill Vining has Jz’s in his EVO2 and Dustin Romney is getting ready to cut into his Marstrom and add foils. Woody Cope and Rush Bird in Fl are modifying their OH Rodgers platforms with new foils, and the San Diego Aclass guys are reported to be adding new foils to their boats.
Demand for new boats is strong. DNA, Exploder, Shuerer and Bimare all have new foiling models for sale. Emmanuel Cerf reports that the demand for new Exploders is strong in Europe and AUS and he can only get a limited number of new boats per shipment due to the high demand. He has 4 boats due into the US this summer and 2 are currently spoken for from US Sailors. Mike Krantz recently sold his race proven Classic Flyer in record time to a new class member, Richard Stevens.
Class president Bailey White reports a large uptick in the number of non-Aclass owners who are requesting access to the Aclass google email list. The current google list is 151 Aclass owners and non-owners interested in the current Aclass chatter. Bailey says that there is a lot of interest in classic boats as a way to get into the class, and since the US has shown that adding foiling boards isn’t hard, these boats can foil with new boards and rudders once the sailor is ready to fly.
To see whats available check here:
https://www.usaca.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=7&Itemid=20
We look forward to seeing you in Newport.
Bill Vining / www.usaca.info
