2015 A Class Worlds at Punta Ala - Overall
by Gordon Upton 12 Sep 2015 13:13 BST
5-12 September 2015
Few people who witnessed the way that Glenn Ashby won his 9th title at the 2015 A-Class World Championships in Punta Ala the last week, could not fail to be impressed by this stocky 38 year old Aussie. He is the undisputed King of the A-class cat and arguably the World's best small cat sailor. No wonder all those behind him were left shaking their heads in disbelief. People were beginning to wonder if he was even a member of the same species! In the end he demolished the opposition with a combination of the same tactical and technical skill he displays as skipper of the ETNZ AC45 team. They really never stood a chance when up against this modest, charismatic and hugely popular Aussie.
His closest rival was the Flying Dutchman Mischa Heemskerk. He had worked tirelessly with the Holland Composites team and on his DNA cat to develop the new deck sweeper sail design. He looked awesomely fast in the qualifying races, winning races by tens of minutes on some occasions. Ashby, on the other hand, in qualifying, and although winning some races by similar 12 min margins, just looked very efficient rather than excessively fast.
And therein lies the truth. Looking fast is not necessarily the same as being fast. Mischa is a very physical sailor. A big 92+ kg guy who pumps the sheets and moves about to really try to work every ounce of power from his boat and rig. The 77kg Ashby by contrast is smooth and subtle. Not noticeably moving much up and down the hull side when foiling and playing the sheet. And the A-Cat seems to like that more. This, together with slightly better tactical awareness and the experience of dealing with high level pressure – keeping the monkey in the box, as they say, proved the winning formula.
In the end Mischa simply could not match the man, but absolutely gave it his all and nobody couldn't say he really tried.
The last day's races where light wind affairs. The Southern Germans were rubbing their hands with glee as they seldom get a chance to play their game at such big events. 'Little Dr Georg' Ruetter (GER 2), his polar opposite in terms of height, the seemingly 18ft tall Matthias Dietz (GER 3), and elfin Katrin Brunner (GER 15) were all at the front of the fleet in 6-7 kt shifting winds.
The right of the course proved the place to be as slightly more pressure was on that side. Rounding the top mark first was George with Ashby (AUS 1) in about 4th place. Mischa (NED 7) was well down the in about 20th after getting stuck in dirty air and being unable to get away in the light winds. After the top spreader though, Ashby just managed to break out of the bubble of dirty air and in Moth style, pop up onto the foils for some 200m before gybing back across the fleet, who were in low drag mode sailing deep. Mischa then tried the same, but he seemed to be concentrating on trying to foil and get speed rather than VGM, when maybe he should have dropped to low drag mode. As a result he finished in a lowly 46th place and ended his slim chance of his 2nd World title.
The light conditions mixed the group up a little, with some of the top names dropping down the fleet, with 13 of the top 30 scoring their poorest results.
At the finish, Glenn Ashby foiled triumphantly across the line for his championship win, a mere 19 years after his first. 8 mins later Dr Georg, led Matthias followed by another lightweight, the Pole Marcin Badzio (POL 11) was 4th and Katrin in 5th.
The final race was similar in nature to the first, but this time Mischa learned his lesson and managed a 4th, behind Matthias who won, Stevie Brewin (AUS 4) in 2nd and Manuel Calavria (ESP 11) in 3rd. Dr Georg somehow slipped to 20th in that one. Glenn Ashby did not finish.
So in all it was a fascinating Championship. Every wind condition from 6 to 20 kts to test all the competitors. Big choppy seas to flat water, but always sunny and the water was lovely, if a little too much salt for my taste.
For me, the top two apart, Maunel Calavria was the master of consistency, never dropping below 7th, other than his discard race when he managed a 23rd somehow. And that cheeky Aussie chappie and former World Champ Stevie Brewin was a good 4th just ahead of another Aussie, Nacra 17 Olympic hopeful, Jason Waterhouse in 5th.
Our brave lads in Team GBR were lead by a superb 15th for Sam Newton (GBR 6), who would have finished 13th if he had been bothered to sign off in race 3 and was fined 10 points – lessons learned Sam. Chris Field (GBR 7) was 16th, Phil Neal (GBR 55) 74th in Gold Fleet. Silver fleet was Struan Wallace (GBR 15) 42nd, Richard Bartholomew (GBR 8) 58th and Robin Foster-Taylor (GBR 43) 69th.
Well done all. Many thanks go to the Puntala Camping Resort in Tuscany for a superb event.
Next year it is in Medemblik in the Netherlands in June and promises to be another good one. Then 2017 in Sopot, Poland, 2018 Hervey Bay, Australia, then in 2019 Weymout! Get training folks!
www.aclassworlds2015.it