Our Congratualions for Glenn Ashby who sailed a superb series by not only going fast but by sailing smart as well. He must be happy with his new Maxx sails as Dean and Scott were using these too.
Stevie runner-up again. His downwind sailing capabilities are a mighty weapon. Most remarkable was his top 6 finish after being in the twenties at the first mark.
The battle for third was as tight as expected with only 2 points between number 3 and 5.
Darren dit a great job in his first A-classChampionship, I hope to see him return.
Landy had a solid series and came very close to the podium.
So three sailmakers in the top 5. Such competition can't be bad for us, the consumers.
Dean made a huge impression with his upwind speed and his steep learning curve. Being a podium candidate after jyst two weeks training with Glenn, shows his raw talent for cats and his polished professionalism. The other AC syndicates have reason to worry about the mighty Barker-Ashby combo, once they will get the beast up to speed....
Scott did hang in but could never threaten the top 5. What a pity he didn't use James Spitthil's DNA.
Will Howden same points as Scott and a great debut for this British sailor.
The dominance of the DNA in the top 5 is hardly surprising as the best guys normally have the best stuff too. The real dominance of the DNA is shown by the lesser gods who dominated the top 20. (2/3 DNA's).
We see alse a convergence in mast and rig philosophy. No longer a trend but alreay mainstream is the soft fore-aft stiff sideways mast. Stevie and Glenn use the Maxx clothe with horizontal panels and Landy sticks to the radial cut sails, though makng Maxx sails too. Upwind Andrew was quite competitive.
I expect to see more refinements in the downwind sailing this season. Powering up and trapezing is fun, but might lead to unfavourble angles especially midfleet. You can power up the DNA sooner than any other A-class but going deeper might still a good option in some conditions/circumstances.
The Aussies see that the curved boards are fast downwind as the curvies scored 9 out of 10. What was less noticable is that the curvies are quicker upwind too, something of which we are more aware due to Bob's dominance upwind in Europe the last two seasons and now matched by the DNA sailors.
The Australian A-class association did a wonderful club as did the organizing club. Special thanks to MatthewJohnson for his enormous amounts of pics (280 a day!), to Mia for her great shots and to Ronstan for spronsoring the topdogs.
We will meet most of the topdogs at the Worlds in Danmark, where the Europeans try to break the Aussie dominance experienced last year in Cesenatico. It will be a hard but fair battle with both the European contenders and the Aussie defenders on DNA's.
CU in Arhus
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