Luc Du Bois wins New Zealand Nationals. Loic second in Maubuisson

 Luc on Deans boat

The podium in France with Loic second, Jean Louis first and Gilles Escarret third

Lots of A-cat racing at Easter; New Zealand, France adn Italy.

For a report form France see: http://www.acatsailing.blogspot.com/ (use google translate)

No report from Ne Zealand yet

 I just returned from Cesenatico, where we had some marvelous sailing days before the event, only the windgods left us with little wind during the Event which was won by Theo di Batista on his Bim V1r, Sjoerd Hoekstra second and Georg Reutter third, Francesco Marcolini fourth and Bob Baier fifth.

We did see some new boats enter the the scene, the vision of Saarberg and the Carbon Lab A-cat sailed by Vincenzo Sorrentiono who finished in the top 10 as well.

In the light winds the light guys did best, only when the wind picked up a little bit we saw the heavier guys in front too. Of the80 plus kghuys only Bob was consistent. Sjoerd sailed a remarkable series with some very sharp and brilliant tactical sailing, but Theo managed three wins in six races. Georg was clearly the fastest guy on the water with his Nikita and OXO sail. Sjoerd used a brand new Aramid Maxx Brewin (looks very powerful) and Bob was using an Ashby 21. Both Theo and Franceso used Bimare sails and masts.

The light winds were a boat equalizer again as seen before in the last Worlds. Great starting and going for undisturbed air where the key success factors.

PJ and I used the new ARC mast . We were quite happing with it, though it does not show in the results. Especially PJ was very fast downwind once the wind picked up a little bit. I was slightly faster upwind but only in the breeze (slightly overweighted for the light stuff)

Return of the Jesus bulb and other news

Twenty years ago when we still had those lovely reaches in our triangles some Aussies used 'what they called Jesus bulbs (from the Oh, Jesus in a cartwheel).

Now with the trapezing downwind we can use some support for our front leg, as you will not always use the footstrap on the back. As Contender and skiff sailors may tell you, it is the support of the front leg which improves balance and which prevents ' the walking on the side before the capsize' effect.

I have not tried it myself  yet as we had no wind in Muiderzand last Sunday.

Friday I will make our first mast with PJ. We will it make stiffer sideways than the prototype mast and overall bend  will be quite even with the deepest point of the curve somewhat higher than on the non tapered Fiberfoam and Saarberg masts. We will test the mast April 16 and 17 in Muiderzand and take it with us to the Vele di Pasqua in Cesenatico at Easter. If we are satisfied both with the performance and its strength we will make it available to new DNA buyers after that event.

Congratulations to Brad Collet for winning the NSW nationals on his Scheurer with 5 DNA's in the top 6.

We agree with Brad that a boat with a smaller transom is easier to sail in over 22 knots of breeze. We optimized the DNA for medium conditions and are quite happy with its square flat transom. Chris Field showed us last year in the Dutch nationals how to sail a DNA in 24 knots of breeze, so no worry about the performance in those conditions. Manolo told us that over 20 knots of breeze he stops trapezing downind and that he prefers to sail it more traditional in those circumstances. Trapezing is fast downwind if you can sail in straight lines and does not have to steer around waves too much or if you  have to adjust too much for the big gusts.

If you can keep the boat on its boards it is fast, if a big gust blows you off your boards you have to steer up quite agressively. Making such  drastic moves is easier hiking out than in the trapeze (see Chris action pics in the gallery).