Weymouth ? Weymouth !

Only a handful of Classic-A-Cat sailors have found their way to the South of England, the place where Olympic-sailors fought for the medals in 2012. This was quite disappointing for the guys on the starting line of the UK- and Worldchampionships. But the warmly reception, the perfect organization on land, top-professional race committee on the water and fair winds and weather conditions compensated them more than expected. With 18 races (6 UK-CS and 12 W-CS) held in the bay and the harbour of Weymouth, it was an amazing event. Aeolos presented winds between 5 and 22 kn: so sailors preferring the light stuff as these loving the stronger breezes have received their chances to show their skills.

A-Cat Classic? A-Cat-Racing!

When I arrived with my original-G6 from 2013, I was a little astonished about the foils and rudders of quite a lot of boats in the fleet. Some have downsized their G7 to floating or upgraded the boats with longer rudders, larger winglets, longer and adjustable foils. This was not rising my confidence leaving the harbor for the first races! But in 5-12 kn breeze my boatspeed was perfect compared to all these upgraded machines. Less drag in the water with the standard rudders and C-boards gave an advantage in lighter breeze and my confidence in my boat was back again! An Exploder, a Marstroem and a Scheurer were taking the first three places of the UK-Championships.

After this warm-up the races at the Worlds started again with lighter winds picking up every day, up to 20kn by the end. So competition was on and the races really close. Often 5 or more boats were fighting for the best positions at the first topmark and the same scenario again at the gate. Not just speed, but tactics and strategy made the difference. After two or three rounds the first 10 boats were very often just separated by a few seconds giving the race-committee on the finish-line a hard time to get the correct classification. Every little error was one too much and could compromise your ambitions to the podium finishing 6th or 11th.

In the races with more breeze I couldn’t repeat my performance. As an engineer I have immediately found the reasons (excuses) in the measurable physical parameters: "rudders to short, winglets to small and foils not curved enough" – clear cut!

This logical conclusion, in combination with an English beer, helped at least to sleep better! In the daybreak and back in the real world, I had to reflect that there must be something more for a podium as longer foils: eventually there are some soft factors like "more traininghours", "less weak starts", "choosing the better side of the course", "no flubbed jibes", "no incautious jellyfish on the way to the first mark" I don’t want to extend the list. So the conclusion is very simple: you need a fast boat, but the sailing skills were decisive to win this World Championships! To be honest, the best sailors were on the podium.

So let’s develop the classic fleet in the initiated way and stop moaning about the number of foiling lengths or larger winglets – it’s nonsense and will not bring the Class one step forward. To rumors like "avoid trapezing on downwind", I can just answer: buy a Dinghy! – All the Classic-A-Cat-sailors I met in Weymouth are racing to go for their limits, the speed, the competition, the power and the adrenalin, just without risking one’s neck. The actual boats provide all these fantastic sensations – proven in this two events.

The technical discussions have to take in account, that nobody wants a second foiling class, but to ensure the development to stay a dynamic fleet, where A-Cat sailors can live there passion for speed and innovation. This is the crucial argument to attract the guys from the foiling-A’s to come back one day.

So in my personal opinion the technical committee should just prove the parameters around the foils, winglets and rudders to prevent foiling – foiling in a sense of stable flying, which is quite impossible with the actual C-boards. At least it would be hard to explain why designers are spending thousands of hours and dollars to develop the foils from Z1 to Z99 – if it would be possible with the C’s!?

Resumé

Some boats were faster in the light winds and some were faster in the stronger breeze. That’s it. It was just fantastic, fair and breathtaking racing with our fantastic A’s. Finally all competitors had a big smile on their faces! In spite of all the rumors heard in previous discussions about the classic rules.

Hope to see you all in Florida, trapezing downwind and having fantastic races (without counting boatlenghts).

Cheers
Bruno SUI 56