A-Cat Worlds 2018 Open & Classics: Ashby & Landenberger, Champs

 

Photos: Gordon Upton Photography. Later more info and pics when available along Ben Hall’s report.

A-Class Worlds 2018, Hervey Bays, QLD, Australia. Final Day :  Ashby crowned again as World Champ, a usual view already but always backed up but lots of training, development and boat preparation, is not like he goes out and win jus like that, Glenn might be one of the most focused guys out there, which sets a great example for the rest. Forget about being a Pro, while at the regatta site he spent more time than many preparing his A.

No changes in the top three from Tuesday. Bundy couldn’t get to the podium as the one attacking hard was Peter Burling, the Kiwi started finding the pace today with 1,2 & 2 which was not even good for a third overall.
His partner Blair Tuke prevailed over Burling once more on the A-Cats as done at the 2014 Worlds.
Tuke got 13,2 & 2 and with the double discard he defended his podium spot.

Ahsby had a normal day at the office, 3,1 &1 . Six bullets out of nine races, not a total wipe out but total domination once more.  Mischa started with a 2nd but later got behind the Kiwis for a 5th & a 6th. Still good event for him, new foils on his F1x and surely more time on the new foils will bring more speed.

But same can be said on the Exploder riders using Z23 foils like Ahsby, Tuke & Burling. Z23 were used only for the Worlds, and the top guys all used last year Z22 mainfoils. Which were the ones also used by Bundock & Brewin for the Worlds too.

DNA is using now T rudders and symmetrical (vertical plane of the blade has been moved quite inwards)  , after many of pushing L ones with past success. Even the F1x launch featured L rudders some months ago. But now they have decided to return to their first flights origins (which were done on their own small winglet blades, and later on the Exploder first T rudders).

DNA dominated till 2016 with the original and breakthrough DNA Z foils and L rudders.
Now is the Exploder time to dominate and 9 out of the top ten were sailing D3s.

Exploder domination era started with a long devel work to catch DNA by Jakub Kopylowicz, Jacek Noetzel, Tymek Bendyk, Kuba Surowiec, Gonzalo Redondo along Brewin & Bundock work in Australia towards the 2017 Worlds at Sopot which ended on the breakthrough Z22 main foil design.

Both DNA & Exploder camps are pushing each other dirving the Class forward, and Glenn has won on both platforms.

The  good thing on the Exploder foils devels is that every new foil can be fit to current D3 dagger case. So we have entered a refinement stage for the moment.

For Jakub second year in row grabbing F18 & A-Cat Worlds for Exploder. Add the Classic Division Title by Landy.

– Sails:  Ahsby, Tuke & Burling on North Ahsby DS. Mischa with his own Mischa Sails pinhead DS. All using booms setup. Bundock & Brewin on boomless Brewin sails.

One of the standouts of the event was Iago Lopez Marra, the young Spanish sailor finished 8th overall on his first Worlds. Iago trained a lot back home, had a good performance on the French Nats and he went through to an intense sail devel to make 1D DS to perform. Bright future for him.

On platform as noted above, all top ten sailing Exploder D3 but Mischa Heemskerk on DNA F1x.

Classics division: Landy scored eight bullets out of nine races. Landy decided to stop foiling as he was suffering knee injuries and didn’t want to risk any more.
Great reward for an historic and key member of the A-Class, as we have reported many times, Landy’s small winglets set the path for the flight realm in this Class.

He also was many times close to the title, like at Florida 2012  along dominating Europeans that same year.
Really happy for him, great guy & sail builder. I have learnt a lot from him over the years on his advice and comments, on sailing, equipment and how to run Classes as he did when holding Chair position in the IACA in the most hard times a President can have, which is managing floating cats going foiling. Landy did a great job for the transition to current status quo with two divisions sailing in the same Regatta.

Landy is sailing a special Exploder D3 floating/classic version with C boards and of course his super proven Landenberger DS.

Below, Prize ceremony video from Glenn Ashby & Andrew Landenberger by Struan Wallace:

Below Emirates Team New Zealand own report sent by their media guys:
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ASHBY ACES A-CLASS CATAMARAN WORLD CHAMPS FOR THE 10th TIME
Emirates Team New Zealand’s Glenn Ashby has won his 10th A-Class Catamaran World Championship in Hervey Bay, Queensland today comfortably taking out the event by 9 points over second placed Dutchman Mischa Heemskerk (18 points)

Emirates Team New Zealand team mates Blair Tuke (24 points) and Peter Burling (26 points) pushed hard sailing consistently at the front of the fleet, along with Ashby, finishing 3rd and 4th respectively overall in the event with at least a dozen Olympians in the fleet.

After a two day delay in racing due to excessive winds for the foiling A-Class boats Ashby’s consistency continued with a 3rd & 1st in the first two races on the final day, ensuring he had the World title in the bag once again before sailing the last race of the day. Which, in typical fashion, Ashby won with Burling and Tuke close behind crossing the line in 2nd and 3rd.

Ashby, who dominated the fleet due to a combination of experience, boat setup, pace and boat handling skills, won the Worlds with 6 bullets out of 9 races.

The three Emirates Team New Zealand sailors have been training and testing their boats in McRae, Victoria, Glenn’s hometown during November, prior to the move north to Queensland for the Worlds.

The A-Class Catamarans are an attractive class for the world-beating trio from Emirates Team New Zealand. It is a development class of boat, where innovation and design continue to drive the standard and lessons of what makes a foiling boat fast, all of which will relate to the development of the new foiling AC75 America’s Cup boats.

A point of difference between Emirates Team New Zealand sailors and a lot of the fleet was the different rake angle they set between windward and leeward rudders.

“We are mimicking what we used to do with the AC50 catamarans in Bermuda” explains Glenn Ashby. “To put more grip on the windward hull (less rake rudder angle) to increase the righting moment and therefore allow the power of the rig to be harnessed to drive the boat faster. On the tack and gybe, we pull the controls exactly the opposite to help the manoeuvre happen faster.”

Last week Ashby notched up his 11th Australian National Championship as a warm-up regatta to the world’s where he won 6 of the 7 races sailed.

“Of course I’m very happy about winning both the Australian Nationals and the Worlds again. It is obviously an event and a class of boat that is very special to me.” continued Ashby.
“What has been really impressive is to see how Pete and Blair have been handling these boats so intuitively after basically four years not sailing them.
I think this month has been fundamental for us to get back into high-performance development boats on a competitive nature but more importantly, collectively as a team moving forward to developing our first AC75 boat and onwards to 2021.”
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