Worlds review

We had a good championship which was very well organized by the Danes. The livetracking and live video coverage is something we defintely need for next championships. Both for the competitors and the spectators (on stage & online).

It was a difficult spot with big windshifts.

The good guys did handle the shifts better even after a bad start. Stevie and Jack often rounded the mark around place 20.

Scott did handle the start better than the other top 10 guys and was often in front at the first mark.

Stevie used his amazing speed downwind to come back and once he was in front he was unstoppable.

The first days he struggled a bit with his rig as he used a slightly softer mast then he used to sail with. Once he sorted that out he became again the favourite he was on beforehand.

Jack and Stevie did well with their Saarberg/Brewin rigs which had slightly fuller bottoms ocmpared to their Cesenatico rig.

Everyone is using the soft foreaft mast now, but some including myself went a bit too far in that direction  and were compalining a bit. Brad and Landy did exceptionally well downwind in the light to medium, when they were trapzeing while others couldn't.

Scott's rig looked beautiful; slightly fuller in the top than most and gettting a relative flat bottom if he needed one while going upwind.

Next year we will even see more people who have sorted out their rigs and match good upwind sails with full downwind sails.

Downwind Jack, Manolo, Stevie, Scott, Landy and Brad were the guys with the best boatspeed. They have good rigs and special downwind skills.

Mischa was the only one who trapezed downwind in the 20 knot plus winds and he got the topspeed of the week; 23 knots (see tracking data).

Team DNA

Steve Brewin, AUS World Champion

 Jack Benson, AUS, third & Junior World Champion

Manolo Calavia, ESP, 6th, best European Sailor

 Stephen Brayshaw, AUS, 8th

Mike Drummond, NZL, 9th, Master World Champion 

 Mischa Heemskerk, NED, 12th, best Dutch and best Rookie

 PJ, NED, 15th

Roeland Wentholt, NED, 16th

Eugenio Calabria, ITA, 19th, best Italian

All pics by KristofferWest for Sailing Aarhus, 

The World Champions

DNA sailors Jack Benson and Stevie Brewin finished 3rd and 1st At the Ronstan A class Worlds 2011 in Denmark. Jack is junior World Champion too. 

Steve Brewin World Champion!

Stevie made the almost impossible today by scoring a first  and a second today. Congratulations to Stevie, gerat comeback in this series and his second World Championship after winning in Casteldelfels in 2001.

Scott Anderson did a fourth in the morning and had to retire in the second ace after a capsize downwind.

Jack did win the  last race and is third overall.

Mischa did great today and scored two thirds on his blue DNA.

It's DNA's forst World title after just missing it last year.

The DNA's did win 5 races out of nine and won races both in the light stuff and the tough stuff.

23 DNA's were present. 5 in the top 10 (Stevie, Jack, Stephen, Manolo, and Mike Drummond.

In today's GPS figures the DNA's with the new ARC mast showed excellent speed, Roeland, Arno , PJ , Mike and Mischa are using this  mast. The low drag of this mast leads to high speeds combined with good height.

Nexy year we weill go to both Lake Garda and Florida. CU all there.

Aussies dominating the fleet, Scott Anderson leading

Today we had a race with light wind in the morning won by Scott and a medium breeze race in the early afternoon won by Jack Benson on a DNA and Stephen Brayshaw second on a DNA too. Mischa Heemskerk is improving every race. He scored a 5 and 6 today. (see his facebook page)

As predicted it is not a boatdesign championship, Scott with good speed up and downwind leads by mastering the shifts the best. Stevie is making a good comeback and is second on the ranking list now. Andrew dropped to third and Jack is doing great with a fourth place.

We have three boatdesigns and and three different sailbrands in the top three.

The Nikita (Scott) did win three races, The DNA 2 (Stevie and Jack) and the Scheurer G6 1.

In the top 10 we see  5 DNA's now. In the stronger breeze more and more DNA's are in the top 10 as Calabria, PJ, Mischa, Stepehen Brayshaw and Roeland Wentholt are going quite fast both upwind and downwind.

In the more fickle circumstances the Nikita does it it very well, but we see that Manolo Calavia, Jack and Stevie score top three positions in those circumstances too.

Downwind Brad Collet and Andrew Landenberger show superb trapezing style even  in just 10 knots by going as deep but much faster. Andrew with a very full Pentex Maxx sail and Brad with a full Ashby sail.

The organisation of the worlds does a great job in promoting the event by having livetracking, pictures and videos on the internet.

See: http://2011ronstanacatworlds.sailing-aarhus.dk and the reports on http://catsailingnews.blogspot.com/

Worlds preview, sailors are getting ready

The event's logo with the sponsors

The ramp this morning

 Mayfly's adjustable L- foil rudder

Adjustable daggerboardslider in Mayfly

Sailors are getting ready for the start of the worlds. Measurement process is in full progress. Based on the traing the last couple of days we already see some aces up too speed.

Top favourite is Steven Brewin, who sincerely regrets that Glenn Ashby will be absent this year. Stevie wanted his revanche after finishing second behing Glenn last year in Cesenatico.

Stevie uses a DNA, Saarberg mast and Brewin sail. His contestants are Manolo Calavia (DNA, Fiberfoam Ashby), Jack benson (DNA, Saarberg , Brewin), Scott Anderson & Bob Baier (Nikita, FF, Ashby), Sjoerd Hoekstra & Chris Field (Vision, Saarberg, Brewin),  Andrew Landenberger (Scheuer special, FF, Landenberger) & Brad Collet (Scheuer special, FF, Ashby), Matt Struble & Lars Guck (Evo, Hall spars, Glaser).

F18 ace Mischa Heemskerk will take part on a DNA, who might be very competitive in medium and strong breezes.

Most interesting boat is The Mayfly of Martin Fischer sailed by him and Chris Cairns. The boat with its L- shaped rudders looks very fast downwind, but it remains to be seen if the extra drag makes it competitive over the whole race course and in different circumstances.

In training we saw big windshifts, lots of  small windlanes and big lulls in the bay where we will be having our races. The sailor who handles that best will win here, so boatspeed differences will not be that deciscive. Watch for remarkable race results of Scott, Sjoerd and Landy, all former Tornado campaigners.

The Aussies are the big favorites once again but we hope to see at least one European on the podium.

PJ, myself, Roeland, Mischa and Mike Drummond are using our new double tapered ARC mast. The mast suits both the the Ashby and Brewin sails. The Dutch are showing remarkable speed upwind, but their lack of hours on the water diminishes any hope to be close to the podium. 

More reports tomorrow

Charterboats for sale

We have four new charter boats for sale after the worlds. Shipping to Australia is possible. The Aussiecontainer has place for 4 other boats. If you are interested please call or mail me:

arno@racingcats.com 

+31647605986