A-Class Worlds 2018 @Hervey Bay: Day 2
All images Team New Zealand (first pic), Paula Kopylowicz / Exploder and Gordon Upton Photography. More pics here & here respectively. Click images for orig size & slideshow.
Three bullets for Glenn Ashby… But I have the progression (and some pics too) confirming Glenn does not dominates from A to Z each race, he always close in first place but not always leading to windmark for ie. Check 6th pic above for instance. Something similar I saw live at Punta Ala 2015.
Either way Glenn continues to be untouchable and this time an entire Army of top notch riders are there at Hervey Bay to challenge his reign, including Peter Burling & Blair Tuke.
Mischa Heemskerk had a good progression today with 4,3,2 for a second overall followed by Blair Tuke (2,4,5). Excellent performance by Stephen Brayshaw in 4th followed by Darren Bundock and Steve Brewin.
On devels, not much extreme changes but lots of refinement, specially on the rudder rake systems which are helping an earlier upwind flight for the top guys. Review pics above , a defacto third category is now in place in the A-Class: Cat A is full foiling, Cat B is foiling down and Cat C is floating Classics.
2018 Sailor of the Year Carolijn Brouwer is racing in the Open Division, and great to see youth sailor girl Tayla Rietman (009 bow in pics above), she also competes Nacra 17. Racing A-Class will form her big time for the future to follow Carolijn’s path of success.
Check Classic report by Ben Hall below, more info by Gordon Upton at IACA’s official web: www.a-cat.org.
Day 1 Classics report sent by Ben “The Admiral” Hall
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“Sunday was the first scheduled day of racing. It was blowing pretty hard when they send us out. The Classics were to sail on the outer course four mile s downwind from the launching area. As we got closer to the committee boat the wind built quickly to 22-28 knots….welcome to Australia. The race officer made the right decision and called the racing off for the day…then we had had to sail upwind 4 miles back to the beach….phew.
Today they moved up the starting time to 10am. Again the Classics were on the far course. At start time the wind was around 13-18 kts. Lots of holes and big shifts did not slow down Landy as he simply sailed away from the pack. Scotty followed in second and then Alberto Farnesi in his slippery Marstrom. Krantz, Webbon and Hall were 14,15 and 17.
The wind built in the second race and again the result of the top three was the same. This time it was Webbon, Hall and Krantz in 6,8 and 16. Getting better… Again big shifts and huge puffs made the racing very interesting.
The third race had about the same breeze at race two. Landy won again (kinda like Glenn). Alberto was second and Scotty was third. Webbon, Hall, and Krantz finished 4, 5 and 11…so moving up some more.
Overall Bob Webbon is 7th, I am 8th and Mike K is 12th. Tomorrow looks like a bit lighter…thankfully…three races in big breeze then a 4 mile beat to get home…the hot tub felt real good !
The IACA meeting is tonight and Bruce Mahoney and I will stand in for Bailey. Should be a short meeting as there are no proposals to vote on. Tomorrow is the Classic meeting…can pretty much guarantee there will be some hot discussions.
Gordon Upton is doing the report on the Foilers…but all as I heard was how smooth and fast Glenn is…he never ceases to amaze. Mischa had a good day as did Blair Tuke. Lots more racing to go”.
Cheers
The Admiral
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Top ten Open , Full results here
| Pos | Sail No | Bow | Skipper | Nett | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | AUS 111 | 111 | Glenn Ashby | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | NED 007 | 43 | Mischa Heemskerk | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | NZL 777 | 105 | Blair Tuke | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 4 | AUS 25 | 25 | Stephen Brayshaw | 14 | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| 5 | AUS 88 | 15 | Darren Bundock | 16.5 | 7 | 5.5 RGb | 4 |
| 6 | AUS 4 | 1 | Steven Brewin | 18 | 8 | 2 | 8 |
| 7 | NZL 7 | 106 | Peter Burling | 19 | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 8 | AUS 89 | 17 | James Clark | 23 | 6 | 5 | 12 |
| 9 | NZL 270 | 103 | Dave Shaw | 26 | 11 | 9 | 6 |
| 10 | USA 311 | 119 | Bruce Mahoney | 31 | 13 | 11 | 7 |
| 11 | ESP 97 | 37 | Lago Lopez Marra | 33 | 9 | 14 | 10 |
Top ten Classics , Full results here
| Pos | Sail No | Bow | Skipper | Nett | R! | R2 | R3 |
| 1 | AUS 308 | 71 | Andrew Landenberger | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | AUS 31 | 65 | Scott Anderson | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | SWE 59 | 49 | Alberto Farnesi | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | AUS 49 | 77 | Matt Johnson | 18 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| 5 | AUS 954 | 81 | Paul Neeskens | 23 | 4 | 5 | 14 |
| 6 | AUS 967 | 86 | Graeme Parker | 24 | 6 | 9 | 9 |
| 7 | USA 165 | 100 | Bob Webbon | 25 | 15 | 6 | 4 |
| 8 | USA 99 | 99 | Ben Hall | 30 | 17 | 8 | 5 |
| 9 | AUS 85 | 96 | Lachlan Gibson | 33 | 5 | 15 | 13 |
| 10 | AUS 960 | 85 | Neil Caldwell | 33 | 20 | 7 | 6 |
