mr Acat230,
Do you read your own comments ?
Ashby only beat US sailor Lars Guck by 2 points at the 2007 A-Class WC.
So Ashby won the A-cat worlds, but comes in 3rd with Bundy at the helm in Eurocat 2009 which is not even a F18 championship race.
Matt Struble sailed a brief Tornado campaign and in his first year of sailing finished 13th out of 70 boats at the Tornado European Championship.
So the answer is in. Even back in the day when Matt was full-on campaigning on the Tornado, he was outside the top 10 in the EU Tornado fleet. No disrespect to Matt, but it does show that a certain difference in competitiveness is to be found between US and EU racing fleets. Now try a 150+ F18 fleet where basically the who-is-who of Tornado sailing are participating in as well. There is a good change then that he'll will be outside the top 20.
Oh and Matt is also a two time DN Iceboat World Champion
I rest my case.
The A-Class WC is on par competition wise with the F-18 WC.
That is something else then the earlier claim made by Bvinning that there is "no contest, A-cat". Hinting the US A-cat class was superior in skill. Or the other poster who suggested that (and I quote) "second-tier" guys like Tony Arends, Ben Hall, Peter Cogan and Tracy Oliver are still one level up from the guys in the Tybee-500.
I was of course responding to those posts.
I'm convinced reality is just a tad different.
Fact is, of course, that the Tybee-500 attracts a different set of sailors and it is only just attracting some of bigger names of EU/F18 sailing. The real difference between this years Tybee and the US national A-cat fleet is the depth of talent. Here the Tybee is still lacking. But then again the Tybee is an out-of-the-ordinary event rather then a national fleet. Apples and Oranges.
WOuter
