Glenn Ashby claims Europeans

All star cast turn out for the A-Class championship in Bordeaux

Glenn Ashby, the current A Class World Champion and ETNZ AC72 wing-trimmer, comprehensively beat a world class field at the A Class Catamaran European Championship last week at Cercle Voile Bordeaux, in variable and challenging conditions, with eight bullets from the 10 races held.

106 A Cats entered and the fleet was split into two sections, A and B fleets, sailing on two courses. After the first two days racing, the top half of each fleet was combined and formed into Gold and Silver fleets. The first two days saw shifty, light winds but with a few decent puffs that allowed downwind trapezing and foiling. But the lighter conditions suited the German Southern lake sailors very well, with good positions being achieved by George Rutter and Matthias Dietz getting among the Australian hotshots.

The Wednesday races were in near perfect ‘A’ Cat conditions though. However the shifty stuff was back later for the last few races of the week.

With a fleet containing other such world class sailors such as Aussies Steve Brewin, Scott Anderson, Jason Waterhouse, Andrew Landenberger and Kiwi ETNZ skipper Dean Barker, together with European ‘A’ Class luminaries Pieter Jan Dwarshuis and Jacek Doetzel.

Britain's own champion Chris Field, plus Sam Newton, Bob Fletcher and Struan Wallace held their own very well, even with Chris being black flagged in race one. Sam excelled in the light conditions on his C board DNA. Bob turned in some solid results and Struan managed a 1st in the silver fleet in race 7.

However, even Glenn Ashby does make mistakes. I personally watched him mistakenly identify an orange weather buoy as the upwind spreader mark after the top mark was moved during the race and lead several other boats around it before Jacek, who had properly read the sailing instructions that said no spreader if the top mark was moved during the race, simply rounded the top mark and headed straight for the bottom mark, instantly gaining seven places. Mind you, Ashby was still back in front by the time he reached the top mark again on the next lap- ‘Formidable!’ was the comment from the RIB driver.

Ashby was on the Dutch-built DNA, fitted with the newly developed stepped J foils, which looked like Stuka's wings, and with the latest Polish-built Exploder T tipped winglet rudders. This combo seemed to suit him the best. His fellow countryman Steve Brewin however, was sailing the new kid on the block, the Exploder, in an out of the box configuration. The DNA, the Exploder and the Swiss Schuerer G6s and G7s boats all battled it out, and in the hands of Swiss Sandro Caviezel who had fitted his own designed J foils to his Schuerer, finished 4th and thus is the top European sailor.

Testing their skills to the full, the new J board equipped foilable boats managed to foil downwind in the higher winds. The races sailed in the 8 -10 kt+ range saw the competent foilers going faster and deeper downwind than ever before, leaving the rest of the fleet trailing behind, but many struggled against the C and straight board equipped boats in the lighter wind races. This was the first time that full foiling ‘A’ class catamarans have been seen racing in anger on the European stage and they didn’t disappoint.

This was a great championship. The venue threw up most conditions imaginable other than tides, sometimes all in the same race. The skills of the sailors were tested to the full and the ones who could adapt and be versatile in all conditions came out on top.

Consistent foiling is a real skill and requires much time and effort to get your particular setup correct and matched to your sailing style and many have yet to perfect this. However, as A Class Catamarans have only been foiling within the class rules properly for less than 12 months, the development so far is remarkable and is definitely set to continue with the same vigour.