A-Cat North Americans 2017 @San Diego YC: Mischa Heemskerk 1st

Left: Mahoney, Mischa & Craig Yandow, 1st Classic division. Sent by US Class Assoc. Check below our comments on site report by Ben Hall. Sailing pictures from today pending.  Misha & Craig Yandow videos by San Diego Yacht Club.

Only Looking at the past days photos you can tell the venue was simple perfection for foiling. And if Ben Hall affirms the same, so be it! This was a good regatta for the A-Class after Sopot.

On performance two sailors told me Matt didn’t put much hours on the D3 if any before the event, so he had some sort of handicap. I give he had less hours than Bruce & Mischa, but Struble won the 2015 NAs with same lack of hours on an A15 equipped vs J/Z vs Bruce  Mahoney on a DNA 2015 with F1 same foils.
Thus I think this time you cannot assign the lack of bullets to the few hours on the D3, as for me Matt is simply pure raw talent.

So in this regatta Bruce and Mischa simply sailed better and the F1s responded well on the San Diego YC flat waters course vs Struble’ D3 with latest winning Z22 foils from Sopot.
From what we experience here in BA, Dna Zs are super fast but bit unstable in hard chop, you can push a bit more in harsh conditions with A15/A14 platforms.

Sopot had truly complicated course with waves, and also flat days, in the overall the Exploder top guys did much better  than Mischa, but here in San Diego, the D3/Z22 combo didn’t won by itself, not even with the 2015/2016 North Ams Champ on board.

Just a detail to have in mind. It will interesting to keep seeing both platforms performance aside what we already saw from Brewin and the Exploder Team at Sopot vs Mischa.
On equipment deatils Mahoney & Heemskerk also sailed with Mischa’s new pinhead main, which seemed to work really well.

In the Classic Division, Craig Yandow won , followed by Rush Bird and Ken Marshack. This additional trophy was and continues to be a great asset for the Class. The US Class Assoc has been delivering sub division awards for years, now the International Assoc is using it offically too.

A-Class 2017 North Americans Final day report by Ben Hall:
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Bruce Mahoney is crowned 2017 North American Champion & Mischa Heemskerk is overall regatta winner and Open Champion

Matt Struble is runner up to Bruce.
The last two races today were sailed in 13-17 KTS and challenged the sailors compared to the light to moderate breezes earlier in the regatta.

Mischa won the final two races in convincing fashion with blistering speed upwind. He foiled upwind looking to other sailors like he was on a table top one foot off the water.
Bruce followed with two seconds and Matt with two thirds.

In the Classics Craig Yandow showed some great speed to pass Rush Bird for the overall win. Ken Marshack won the final race when he finally returned to his old form….said he just pulled a ton harder on the downhaul and just took off.

This will probably go down as one of the best NA’s the class has had in many years. It was simply awesome as I reported day after day….perfect weather, great variety of wind conditions, great race management, and picture perfect venue. Thanks to go out to San Diego YC, the race management, the volunteers and the California State Parks.

As I write this the boats are being packed up and the awards party at the nearby Loews Hotel will start at 5 pm.
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Top ten below , full results at sdyc.org/assets/results/results17/a-cat-na-res.htm