A-Class Arg: Weekend Lake Sailing & Racing
Sailing Photos: Karina Feijoo , more at her FB page. Sunset pics: Club Regtatas Chascomus- Now that many of us will also sail & race again A-Class we wanted to have some good sessions in a place without little or huge chop, thus we travelled to Chascomús Lake this weekend to search for the perfect A-Class venue.
On Saturday we had a great day racing in 20knots with all the crews pushing hard. 20knots on the Rio de la Plata is tough, but here it was rather easy to handle for us. I went for a conservative foil rake on the A14 / JZ, enough to maintain bow up , foiling came with pure speed. The Dnas (F1 & 15) didn´t foiled all the way down neither, but we all had some adrenaline downwinds.
It was super fun and quite physical.
Racing Downwinds in the F18 for the helm are rather ‘relaxed’ as you are inside no trap, with the crew doing all the hard work. In the A-Class you leave the comfortable couch position to go out trapezing and work even more.
It is a demanding ride, but plenty of fun. From the 3 races I managed to pass an F1 in one , I was going downwind with better angle, after I passed him with a foiling gust, the F1 crew went for it full throttle pushing to the limit, I was in control on a better vmg until my crossbar unhooked from the tiller pin meters from the finish line…. lost by a boat lenght! Great fight to the finish line.
The A14/JZ/Landy DS was competitive in that wind range, more hours and better boat preparation and I you can aim for more.
The F1s were rockets, as the Dna 2015, Saubidet took a bullet also and his downwinds were impressive super stable and fast, the Dna 15 was as competitive.
Older boats like the A14 or Dna 2013 (all here have Z boards upgrades) are excellent platforms and in the right hands might challenge new boats incertain coinditions. But is clear newer designs have an edge and they are even easier to foil.
In the As you can still have a guys passing you in 8knots like Mischa & Ashby did in Punta Ala, but either way you have a working floating machine that goes forward and its plenty of fun not only for racing, an aspect I’ve been pointing out on the As, which are also great recreational or freeriding cats.
Back at Chascomus: On Sunday we had an excellent early session, and wind came down for one of the races to a flat downwind, with some gusts. It was a Punta Ala situation where races were won on the ability for Mehl to foil in 7knots gusts to eat the course at once.
Second race increasing wind with some great downwinds in super flat waters with same results.
Finals were: Mehl (F1), Saubidet (DNA 15) , Rodger (F1) , Bonomi (F1) , Armesto (DNA 15), Myself (A14), Berberian (Dna 2013), Santos (A15)
After last race we went for some free sailing in just perfect conditions that can be seen in video I shot above.
In the end some of the best A-Cat sailing we’ve done. Ride above is one of the lasts before going in as we had to prepare trailers to return to BA. But it was to keep sailing till 7-8pm
We had a great weekend and we’ll return in February for a Long Distance around the Lake.
