The A Class Worlds start on 2 January 2009 at Belmont 16ft Skiff Club Lake Macquarie NSW Australia. The preliminary regatta of the Australian Titles starts on 28 December 2008. So far 94 entires have been received from 13 countries. The usual A Class luminaries will be there as well as a few Olympic class jumpers and an AC skipper. Surprisingly no Seppos (A term of endearment) have nominated for the event. It's a shame after the strong numbers at the last Worlds in Florida and the emergence of US sailors as a force in A sailing. Maybe the GFC is biting harder than we think!
The event website is here http://www.a-catworlds2009.org.au/
I'll try and make some posts during the event as I'll be sailing myself.

Cheers
John Dowling
AUS9

The lead up regatta is now finished with the top 5 being Glenn Ashby, Steve Brewin, Andrew Landenberger, James Spithill and Brad Collett. It was pretty hectic with 83 boats on the water with three heavy races and two lighter. Can't wait for the Worlds now though. They begin in earnest on Sunday 4th.
Full details of the event so far are on the website listed above. I am next to the sailor who got the lightning in the boat park he was standing 6 feet from me and I didn't get any shock while he fell like a stone. Very scary stuff - but he has been fully checked out and is fine now.

Cheers
John Dowling
AUS9

Thanks for the posts, John - sounds like the regatta is shaping up nicely despite the summer storms.

Go the Olympic sailor in 8th place who normally sails a Laser.

And the America's cup sailor in 4th.

Boy these guy's could sail anything fast.

Any interesting equipment developments this year?

no US sailors?

There are several interesting story lines, and I'm certainly interested in how things play out:

*No US sailors despite significant talent including former world champions
*Several elite sailors from the non-catamaran ranks
*Parallel vs canted vs banana boards
*Glued vs non-glued
*More hull designs than ever: flyer II, A3, the tool, boyer, bimare V1, balance, nikita, marstrom, scheurer; yet unclear if any recent US designs will be present (like the Evo or LR2); BUT, anything new like wide/planing sterns, chines or trip turbulators?
*Sail shape innovations--wider tops still, new batten configurations, any boomless?
*Rig innovations--whippier or stiffer, tapered or same ol' stuff?
*New techniques--Is there a new breakthrough like "wild thing"?
*New talent--is there a new "Ashby"; will the non-cat sailors threaten?

Piet Saarberg will be sailing with the EVO A-Cat design.

There's two story lines here, one about the competition.
- Can anybody beat Ashby - probably not, Guck's not going, so he'll sweep. Spithill's more of a multi guy now, F18, Dogzilla and Acats all under this belt. It will be interesting to see how the two Aussie Olympic guys do, non-Acat guys, one Laser sailor and one 49er sailor. Two new non Acat sailors isnt really all that ground breaking, unless of course if they win. Its good to see that the Acat class is attracting new blood.

Its more disappointing rather than interesting that the US didnt show up. Winning without beating Guck, Melvin, Kinder, Hall, is a rather hollow victory. If you add up all the world and national titles that the US has in Acat sailing, you'd have a nice long list and lots of those guys are still racing. So in my opinion, this world championship will always have that as an asterick.

The other story is the curved boards.

- Do the curved boards really give that much of an advantage? - The answer is probably yes, in the right downwind wind range and how do you take adavantage of that?

The rest of your list really isnt that interesting (sorry)
And why is glued vs no glued interesting? Are you waiting for the glue to fail?

Shapes,
The more radical hull shapes, the LR2 and to a less extent the the Dk17 wont be there. I dont see anything that radical from the tool, balance, nikita or schuerer, they all look pretty similar, more of a refinement that than dramatic new ideas.

Boomless? Doubtful.

Rigs are getting stiffer with the squaretops, nothing new there. I doubt you'll see a whippy mast. The last big innovation came from Ben Hall with his wing mast and thats not going (disappointing). He also tried a super light weight mast in Florida last year, but he broke it. I doubt you'll see that again.

Any new techniques? The only new technique that would be interesting or innovative is if the curved boards allow you to plane downwind and go mild instead of wild.

Bill

"Its more disappointing rather than interesting that the US didnt show up. Winning without beating Guck, Melvin, Kinder, Hall, is a rather hollow victory. If you add up all the world and national titles that the US has in Acat sailing, you'd have a nice long list and lots of those guys are still racing. So in my opinion, this world championship will always have that as an asterick. "

Rubish

You need to get yourself a blazer and get on some ISAF committees, then you can start administering the 'world championship' franchise and take it off classes that you don't think are worthy.

There are always guys that don't show up to any race, no-one has the right to assume that they are better than anyone else without competing.

You gotta be in it to win it.

You should appologise to all the a-class sailors for demeaning their championships!

You are right, they didnt show. No disrespect intended to the guys that did show.

Piet Saarberg is sailing a Tool. The EVO is sitting on the beach unrigged. He didn't have time to get it finished. I don't think it will hold him back - it doesn't look to be anything too different to the other top designs. With most of them it isn't the design that makes the speed - it's how you handle the boat and where you place yourself on the course and in the fleet.
Gotta go now to get on the water - it's blowing the dogs of the chains.

Cheers
John Dowling
AUS9

Racing has been abandoned for the day after an attempt was made to start. Wind was around 24kts. schedule has been amended for a 9.30am start tomorrow to try and get 4 races done.
BTW it is dissappointing that no USA sailors were able to come but I think it is a stretch to claim that it will impact on the quality of the fleet. There are a large number of quality international sailors and many very fast locals. Ashby won't have it all his own way. THe history of World A class champions is Australia 17, Italy 3, Germany 2 and USA 2. I'm sure the USA A sailors will take a deep breath after the GFC and head off the the next Worlds in Italy 2010.

Cheers
John Dowling
AUS9

Hi John,
I know that things can get busy at a Worlds but if you get time try to give us desktop sailors some quick reports! It's always interesting to get reports from both the sailors and organisers.

/håkan

Looks like typical choppy lake conditions.

Anyone interestd in checking out the wind for that area over the next few days just click the link-
seabreeze.com.au

Talking A cat inovation. Not to hijack this thread but the first of the A cat US winter circuit starts Monday week. While we won’t see as much innovation as we did for the US worlds we will see a small snippet of what is going on outside the US. The Swedes are coming with their curved boards, Randy Smyth is said to have refined his boomless mainsail so that will be interesting. We may get to see the new chinned hull from Racer X. I also know a bunch of us will have our new 09 Ashby sails as well as the most recent Glaser and Landenberger rigs will be on the water.

So if Larry and Dogzilla arent allowed to compete in the AC, is it a real championship?
I see both of you guys points, but I have to say if Nigel didnt show up to our EMSA series, and I won it, would I really be the best sailor around our area?
If Ashby didnt show for this one, I bet you would feel the same way about whoever won, and we all would.

But, you have to race to win, Damn, who's side am I on?

Maybe, maybe not...but you would have won the event. Winning any worlds is a huge accomplishment...and I don't care who you are who is not.

Enough chat...