The last news recieved is that Andrew Landenberger will be the new IACA president because Stefano Sirri was retiring as president.
A special IACA meeting was made to get this job change done before the AGM on coming Wednesday.
Stephano has been thanked for his work and congratulation to Landy as new president and good to see he is willing pick up this work.
The fleet will be also not split up in to seperate fleets , the reason is that there are high winds expected and to give everybody the most fair change in the regatta the choice was made. The RC said if we can start 100 boats we also can start 105 or 110 boats and they expect because of the high wind prediction that the fleet will be with less boats.
More follows, so stay tuned.
Practice race A-cat Worlds 2012
We did not get in contact with Piet,Chris or the others but hope this to do today , so for he moment a copy of an article from the event website.
The initial plan, given the tremendous size of the 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship, was to split the fleet into four divisions and have each division race each other in a round robin group stage, with the top half of each group moving on to the championship round on day four and the bottom half racing in the silver division. It was an idea borrowed from the F18, a class that Principal Race Officer Billy Richnow of The Great Texas Race fame is very familiar with. However with the forecast for the event looking aggressive and high winds expected to bring fleet numbers down somewhat, regatta organizers have decided to go back to the traditional fleet racing format.
“Well if the breeze does what it is expected to do the numbers should come down to a more manageable level” said Regatta Chairman Ben Hall, “and the idea is that if we can run a 100 boat regatta we should be able to run a 105 or 110 boat regatta.” The forecast for the event is winds of 15 knots or more all week with Tuesday looking particularly nasty, and the idea that this could compromise the quality of the qualifying races ultimately turned the race committee against the idea. “The number one goal is to have a good regatta” said Hall, “and the last thing we want is people feeling like they got short changed on the qualifying races.
The event practice race went off on Monday afternoon following the conclusion of measurement and registration, with Australia’s Jack Benson winning the first beat and holding off Steve Brewin and Mischa Heemskerk to get the gun. However there were also some significant casualties. American Mark Skeels’ mast broke after his spreader bracket ripped out, Australia’s Nathan Outteridge didn’t make it to the race course thanks to a rudder and dagger board blowing up on the way out, and Great Britain’s Chris Field also lost his rudder when he ran over a turtle on the first beat. When asked if he had killed the offending reptile the unapologetic Field replied “I hope so.”
Whether the conditions will effect the outcome of the regatta is unclear since, though the A-Cat fleet does get spaced out when the breeze comes up, it is hard to say that the conditions actually work in any one competitors favor. “As in any other class you see guys around the top in heavy air that wouldn’t normally be there, just like you see guys at the front in light stuff who wouldn’t be there if it were breezy” said Regatta Co-Chair Ben Moon. “But in general the fast guys are fast regardless of what the wind does.” There are sailors in the fleet with a history of good results in difficult conditions. The current World Champion Steve Brewin took home first place in 2011 by catching Scott Anderson on the final day in extremely aggressive conditions. But if the practice race is any indication the gaps will be bigger and mistakes will be magnified, but the top sailors will be around the top no matter what the weather does. Only now the variable of the qualifying races has been removed.
When we do know more we will update here and at the site http://www.catamaranparts.nl in the news section.
We have attached a forcast for the wind the coming week, it is going to be a windy event.
the Catamaranparts team
The initial plan, given the tremendous size of the 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship, was to split the fleet into four divisions and have each division race each other in a round robin group stage, with the top half of each group moving on to the championship round on day four and the bottom half racing in the silver division. It was an idea borrowed from the F18, a class that Principal Race Officer Billy Richnow of The Great Texas Race fame is very familiar with. However with the forecast for the event looking aggressive and high winds expected to bring fleet numbers down somewhat, regatta organizers have decided to go back to the traditional fleet racing format.
“Well if the breeze does what it is expected to do the numbers should come down to a more manageable level” said Regatta Chairman Ben Hall, “and the idea is that if we can run a 100 boat regatta we should be able to run a 105 or 110 boat regatta.” The forecast for the event is winds of 15 knots or more all week with Tuesday looking particularly nasty, and the idea that this could compromise the quality of the qualifying races ultimately turned the race committee against the idea. “The number one goal is to have a good regatta” said Hall, “and the last thing we want is people feeling like they got short changed on the qualifying races.
The event practice race went off on Monday afternoon following the conclusion of measurement and registration, with Australia’s Jack Benson winning the first beat and holding off Steve Brewin and Mischa Heemskerk to get the gun. However there were also some significant casualties. American Mark Skeels’ mast broke after his spreader bracket ripped out, Australia’s Nathan Outteridge didn’t make it to the race course thanks to a rudder and dagger board blowing up on the way out, and Great Britain’s Chris Field also lost his rudder when he ran over a turtle on the first beat. When asked if he had killed the offending reptile the unapologetic Field replied “I hope so.”
Whether the conditions will effect the outcome of the regatta is unclear since, though the A-Cat fleet does get spaced out when the breeze comes up, it is hard to say that the conditions actually work in any one competitors favor. “As in any other class you see guys around the top in heavy air that wouldn’t normally be there, just like you see guys at the front in light stuff who wouldn’t be there if it were breezy” said Regatta Co-Chair Ben Moon. “But in general the fast guys are fast regardless of what the wind does.” There are sailors in the fleet with a history of good results in difficult conditions. The current World Champion Steve Brewin took home first place in 2011 by catching Scott Anderson on the final day in extremely aggressive conditions. But if the practice race is any indication the gaps will be bigger and mistakes will be magnified, but the top sailors will be around the top no matter what the weather does. Only now the variable of the qualifying races has been removed.
When we do know more we will update here and at the site http://www.catamaranparts.nl in the news section.
the Catamaranparts team
F16 Dutch Nationals 2012
On 15-16 September the first real Open Dutch Nationals F16 has been sailed at Hellecat under almost perfect sailing conditions. We had from Belgium 5 boats . With 2 Raptors , 1 Viper, 6 Falcons and 2 Nacra’s on the startline the mix of the boats was good. On Saturday the briefing was at 11.00 and after some confusion the first signal was given at 12.15. The wind was around 11-13 knots with gusts to 15-16 knots. The level of the class has been increased and that was visible around the course.
DAY 1
Erwin Kerstens and Jaap Straakenbroek did sail on the Raptor for the first time ever and showed the potential of the boat. They did win all 4 races on Saturday and specially race 3 was remarkable . A major shift brought them on 6th place at the first mark and the leaders far away. During the race they manage to sail thru the fleet and did win race 3 finally. An outstanding performance.
Results after day 1
1. Erwin and Jaap 1,1,1,1 4 points
2. Gill and Kathleen 2,2,6,3 13 points
3. Arnout and Gilles 3,3,3,6 15 points
DAY 2
On Sunday the wind was increased to a 15-16 knots with gusts reaching 20 knots. At around 11.00 the firstsignal was given and again the increased level was showed on the water.
The planned 3 races where sailed and with some issues for a few teams no big problems happend. Erwin and Jaap showed that they want the title and sailed the Raptor to an almost perfect serie.
In race 2 they hit the anker line of the bring away mark which was drifting away after loosing its anker and this costed them the lead that race and they finished second.
The result of day 2 was
1. Erwin and Jaap 1,2,1 4 points
2. Gill and Kathleen 2,1,2 5 points
3. Cees and Gert-Jan 4,4,6 14 points
3. Geert and Raymond 7,3,4 14 poins
Final score
After 2 days of perfect sailing and good support from all voluenteers from catclub Hellecat the new Dutch champions are.
Erwin Kerstens and Jaap Straakenbroek on the Raptor.
1st Raptor Erwin Kerstens Jaap Straakenbroek 1 1 1 1 1 (2) 1 8 6
2nd Falcon Gill de Bruijne Kathleen Vandenbulcke 2 2 (6) 3 2 1 2 18 12
3rd Falcon Arnout Victor Tas Glees 3 3 3 6 3(12 DNF) 3 33 21
4th Viper Cees van Asselt Gert-Jan van den Eijden 5 (8) 2 4 4 4 6 33 25
5th Falcon Anton Coppens Eily Olyslager 6 6 7 2 (8) 7 5 41 33
6th Falcon Geert Ruesink Raymond van der Haas 7 5 (9) 7 7 3 4 42 33
7th Nacra Teuntje van Es Tina Vercouteren 4 4 8 (12 DNS) 5 5 8 46 34
8th Nacra Sanne Wielenga Samantha.Kruijf 8 (9) 4 5 6 6 9 47 38
9th Falcon Alec Baque Denise Hillebrand 9 7 5 8 9 (12 DNF) 7 57 45
10th Falcon Mathieu Serroels Thomas Frank 10 10 (11) 9 10 9 11 70 59
11th Raptor Hans Klok (12 DNS) 11 10 10 11 8 10 72 60
The Catamaranparts team congratulate Erwin and Jaap with this outstanding performance.
Report from Chris Field about the 2012 Dutch Nationals
2012
Dutch National Championships
From
the 24th to 26th August Hellecat sailing club in
Hellevoetsluis, Holland hosted the 2012 Dutch National Championships.
As I
was using the same kit as the Europeans (Vision platform, Hammer Sail and
Saarberg Mast) I was confident with my speed for this event so the focus, as
usual, was to sail a clean and consistent series.
The
intention was for 10 races to be sailed however in the end only 6 races were
completed, 3 on Friday and 3 on Saturday. The conditions on the Sunday were to
extreme to venture out onto the race course.
Day
1
The
planned start was 12:00 however racing only got under way around 2pm due to a
flat calm start to the day. Three races were completed with the wind ranging
between 6 to 10 knots. The direction of the breeze was coming directly over the
dam which meant it was a very tricky course to sail on with varying shifts and
pressure all over the race course.
In
race 1 I reached the first mark in 1st place with a good start and
picking the correct way up the course. It paid to tack more often than is usual
in the A-Cat up the beat to keep in the pressure. On the downwind it was best
to take a conservative approach and sail the boat flat to minimise risk. This
being said Sjoerd Hoekstra did well to find some extra pressure downwind on the
1st lap to get into the lead which he maintained to the finish where
I came in second and Jaap Straakenbroek 3rd.
The
second race I again lead to the 1st mark and indeed all the way
round until 300m to the finish where, again, Sjoerd found a knot or two more
breeze and sailed hull up to the finish with me coming in second. I was a
little disappointed in this however, as consistency was the goal I was sticking
to the overall plan.
Race
3 saw a lot of confusion! With the breeze decreasing we were sent around the
course for 3 laps where as the previous races had only been 2 lappers. A lot of
sailors missed this and went for the finish on lap 2! I was one of those
sailors and when I realised I found myself on 7th spot. On the final
lap I hit a hard left shift upwind dragging me up to 4th and by the
finish I had passed another 2 boats ending up 2nd again! Jaap sailed
a superb race getting 1st by more than 10 minutes and with my main
rival Sjoerd scoring a 6th I was leading after day 1.
Day
2
The
complete opposite to Friday! After a night in my tent worrying whether I would
be blown away in the night I got to the club with a good breeze blowing. It was
a stable breeze however due to the surroundings there were definite lines of
breeze over the course gusting up to 18 knots, averaging 15.
All
three races this day followed a similar pattern where both Thilo Keller and I
were battling at the front of the race with a fair gap to the 3rd
spot. Thilo showed very good pace upwind in the stronger breeze and I had the
legs on him downwind. This resulted in very close racing between us where Thilo
scored 2x1st place and an OCS. I scored 2 x 2nd place and a 1st.
Once again my game plan held and my consistency was rewarded with the overnight
lead once again, especially as Sjoerd was behind me in all 3 of the races that
day.
As
it turned out Day 3 was cancelled and the overnight standings held which gave
me the Dutch National Championship title for the second time.
As
always I would like to thank Hammer Sails.com, Catamaranparts.nl and The Marine
Travel Company for their support with this event and indeed for a very
successful 2012 season. Now it is time to focus on the final event of the year
which is the World Championships in the middle of October.
Chris
GBR007
2012 Dutch A-cat Nationals
At 24-25-26 August the 2012 Dutch A-cat Nationals have been sailed in light and strong winds over 2 days. The Friday gives us a light wind with shifts all over the place and max 10 to 12 knots.
DAY 1
Sjoerd Hoekstra took the bullets at race 1 and 2 and in race 3 a 6th with Chris on his Vision 3 times second place , Jaap Straakenbroek did take the bullet in the 3th race, this makes the top of the board after day 1 .
Chris 1st with 6 point , Sjoerd 2nd with 8 points and Jaap Straakenbroek with 8 points 3th.
DAY 2
The Saturday was completely different with strong winds reaching the 20knots easy and gusts above 25 knots. Thilo Keller was on the move with his extreme flat sail and did take 3 time a bullet for that day , unfortunally for him he was OCS in race 2. Chris Field was 3 times 2nd again for this day and Sjoerd on 3.
DAY 3
The Sunday was blown out with wind reaching easy 30+ knots. The final result is.
1. Chris Filed 9 pnts Vision—Saarberg—Hammer
2. Sjoerd Hoekstra 12 pnts Dna—Dna—Brewin
3. Thil Keller 15 pnts Arrow—Fiberfoam—Landenberger
Congratulations to Chris with his title and the next success this year.
The Catamaranparts team
The Vision analysed after the EC at Lake Garda
The Vision
sailed into the top ranks at the EC and the basis for this great result was
analysed which underlined what we hoped to find in the design stage. After the
fine tuning done in the first year of its existence the Vision’s potential was
shown in the German Championship with a 2nd place in light conditions and a 1st
place in the French Nationals with more wind and high waves at La Rochelle
leading up to this event.
The Vision
was having good speed upwind in all conditions and was a treat downwind. It
allows you to have a wider choice of sailing. Of the starting line you can
accelerate in a straight line, you hardly ever have to bear away to pick up
speed and then to start pointing. This gives you an obvious advantage. After
that you can go for speed or height. The balance of the Vision is very good on
the curved boards.
Tacking and
gybing is very easy and quick in all wind conditions. And again the
acceleration out of these manoeuvres gives an extra edge.
The hulls
run clean through the water which is often well visible in the trail you leave
behind. This gives you also the possibility to use a flatter sail trim as the
hull resistance is lower giving you better top speed.
Downwind the platform of the Vision gives you a lot more
choice either to sit and go deep, or trapeze and go fast. You do not have to go
to trapeze early to keep the bows clear. This is due to the non-fashionable bow
which does not have a negative component of force pushing the bow down further
once pushed into a wave leading to a pitch pole. This makes life a lot easier
for the average sailor and helps safety. It is ever so easy to lose your
balance trapezing losing control over steering and being thrown off the boat by
sudden direction changes. This has happened to the very top sailors recently.
We know the
platform is very stiff, the stiffest we have measured by a factor 2 or more.
This is very well visible in a number of photos taken at the latest EC.
Together with the foils we have developed this attributes to a fingertip fine
steering, without a trace of spinout. This cuts out sudden steering reactions.
The Vision goes where you steer it.
The
Saarberg mast was developed to a new bending characteristic which gave the need
to develop the sail as well. Here especially Chris Field gets all credit as his
expertise and quick feed back to what was the feel and experience in boat
speed. We left the choice of sail completely with him. He and Micky Todd from
Hammer sails made the combination work. Andrew Landenberger was using the same
sort of mast getting the 1st place.
At the EC
Chris showed the possibilities of the Vision to be quick so even when he had to
pick up places he could have the speed to accomplish this. Getting from the
starting line with minutes lost he accomplished to get back to 17th
through this very competitive field of 95. Impressive.
The Vision
in short:
-Clean
running
-Stiff
platform
-Well
balanced
-Can be
pushed downwind
-Forgiving
-All-round
-Perfect
steering
-Fast
Thanks to
Chris we got the proof of the character we designed into the Vision.
Report from Chris Field about the Europeans 2012 at Arco
A Class European
Championships
From the 22nd
to the 29th June the A Class European Championships were held at
Circolo Vela Arco and the “windy” end of Lake Garda, Italy. In total 96 sailors
qualified for the regatta from all over Europe, Australia and the USA.
I set out from
the UK the Saturday before the event and after 24 hours of driving finally
arrived with 5 days of training before the practice race. I decided on one
training partner before the event, Micky Todd sailing for Spain, and we went
for the standard training programme which we used the last time I raced at
Garda and won the Swiss Championships. Stick to what you know!
Each day we were
on the water from 8.30 to 10.30 to sail in the morning breeze, return to the
boat park to make changes to my boat (The VISION A Class from Catamaranparts) and
have some lunch and then back out from 2pm until the evening to sail in the
more stable afternoon breeze. The conditions leading up to the event were fair
and we both made good progress with our settings and fine tuned the sails which
Micky (Hammer Sails) had made for the event.
On the day of
the practise race a storm front came in and with gusty conditions and lightning
the organising committee decided not to send us out for the day. So with no
practise race to gauge our performance we launched straight in to the planned 2
races the next day.
I had a good
first day. I scored a 3rd and 2nd place leaving me 2nd
overall 1 point behind the lead. With the size of the fleet I was happy with
this and made me realise that starting and consistency over the series would be
the key, and so it was. The second day I
posted a 5th in the first race however, Andrew Landenberger AUS (who was leading) secured his second win of
the series. I was all fired up for the second race of the day and came out of
the start clean. After 50 minutes of racing and with no more than 200m to the
finish I was leading and was sure I would secure my first win of the series
(and indeed my first win ever in a European championships) however, this was
not to be as the wind died completely and the race was abandoned. I was not a
happy man that evening!
The third day we
raced 3 heats and I made up for the previous days bad fortune posting my first
win in race 1 which I lead from start to finish. The final 2 races that day I
managed to secure two top 5 results also extending my lead from the pack
however, Landy kept his consistency and extended his lead over me by 7 points
and Brad Collett also closed the gap to me sitting 3rd by 1 extra
point.
Day 4 dawned and
the top 4 spots were close. I had a lot of work to do on Landy and also keep an
eye on Brad Collett. In the 7th Race I scored my worst result, just
at the critical point in the series. On the start of race 7 I had the right of
way but was forced to avoid a collision which ended up in me capsizing on the
start line. Needless to say this was the worst place for this to happen (!) and
when I righted the boat I must have been 5 minutes off the lead boat and last
by 500m. I decided to continue with the race (perhaps due to my emotions
running high!) and at the finish I ended up in 17th place. I was
pleased with the recovery however, the chances of me winning the regatta had
decreased substantially. The last race of the day I scored a 3rd
place again and with Landy sailing two 4th positions he won the
championship with a race to spare. I was expecting to see that Brad Collett
very close to me on the results however a collision at the start of the first
race of the day meant he could not compete.
That evening
Brad was awarded average points for the remaining races he could not sail (as
the collision was not his fault) by the jury as his boat was no longer of any
use. On the final day Landy had won the championship and I was expecting to see
Brad on a borrowed boat to have a race off for 3rd spot as I could
finish no lower than this. Brad did not venture out for the final race securing
my second place overall however, I sailed the last race.
My approach for
the regatta was to finish in the top 5 places in each race. With discards I
achieved this however, I must congratulate Landy for sailing more consistently
than I. His series was composed and
professional, well done.
To sum up the
series was one that rewarded consistency and speed. Andrew Landenberger won the
open event however, as he was sailing for Australia I was awarded the European
Championship title and second overall.
I must thank
firstly Catamaranparts.nl. They supplied the VISION design of A-Class and
SAARBERG mast that I used at the event and also helped me for the year leading
up to the event to develop the whole package. The effort on their part has
already shown at the German titles where I came second and also at the French
Nationals that I won. To both Piet and Hans, thank you for all your hard work.
Micky Todd,
owner of HAMMER SAILS, deserves a huge thank you on my part. Micky over the
last year has not only made sails for me and guided the development process,
but in the time I have known him he has been my coach and mentor. Without his
help my European title would have not been secured.
The MarineTravel Company, based in Canterbury I would also like to thank. Without their
support over the past years, the time needed to compete and train would have
not been available to me. Again thank you all for you help.
Chris Field
Event site: http://www.acateuro2012.ch/dp/
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