Big names at the top of the A Class Cat leaderboard

So you want to race A Class cats? Unless you're an America's Cup winner, multiple dinghy world champion, Olympic silver medallist or many-times multihull world champion, you'd better forget a top 10 placing at the Australian Nationals.

After four races at Wangi Wangi on Lake Macquarie in NSW, the cream has certainly risen to the top.

Glenn Ashby has an Olympic silver medal and 14 world multihull titles, including seven A Class Cat world championships. He stumbled a bit in race three yesterday, finishing only second, but has three bullets to lead the fleet on 5 points. His win in the second race on day 1 was by more than 100 metres.

Ashby's 2008 Olympic Tornado silver-medal winning partner, Darren Bundock has 13 world multihull titles to his name and won silver at the Sydney Olympics as well. He sits in second place, with his worst finish being yesterday's 4th placing in race 4.

In third place is the current A Class Cat world champion Steve Brewin, who is the only sailor to beat Ashby at these championships when he got home first in race 3, but was relegated to 6th in race 4.

Then come the "newbies" to A Class Cat racing. Nathan Outteridge sits in 4th place with a scorecard of 2,6,7,3. Less than a month ago he won his second world championship in the 49er at Perth and he's also the current Moth world champion. He's followed by the current America's Cup defending helmsman, Jimmy Spithill whose 10,9,6,4 scorecard shows he is "getting the hang of" this class, as is Tom Slingsby who is 6th - he's the four times Laser world champion, 2010 Etchells world champion and 2010 ISAF International Sailor of the Year. Slingsby sits half a point ahead of another Olympic silver medallist in the Tornado, Andrew Landenberger...

The strong north-easters of the first two days have been replaced by southerlies and cloud weather today, which could change placings. But expect to see the big names remaining in the top 10.

- Roger McMillan