The second day of racing at the PredictWind A-Cat Worlds was keenly anticipated. After all, the original second day had been scrubbed due to a rather brutal forecast, featuring high winds and stormy rains. Hence, Thursday was the day for the Classics and Open fleet to get into action on the 2 fleet courses out on Castor Bay.
To be fair, our title sponsor, PredictWind, did have the wind going up and down all day, and rain showers. The fleets set off from the beach at the now traditional 10:30 for the 11:00 starts. The sailors for the Open course were on area course B, to the south of the Milford Cruising Club sandy beach, and off they sailed to their lovely big cat start boat. There then assembled and under starters orders were got away with little fuss as pushing the line and being OCS means game over for that race.
The fleet quickly split into three elements. A pin end breakaway trio of Kuba Surowiec POL 41, Lamberto Cesari ITA13 and Dave Shaw NZL 270 headed in search of wind they figured was at the sides of the course and sailed lower but faster. A central core who sailed straight on from the line and included Ravi Parent USA76, Emmanuel Dode FRA2 and Adam Beatie AUS 14, all on the Exploder AD3 platform. And a couple who were forced to go right, tacking off after being left in dirty air, these included Darren Bundock AUS 88, who headed for the other side, also hoping to find winds, which in this area did seem to be found at the corners.
Halfway up the beat, yet another bunch of boats, led by Emmanuel break back to the right. All this is clearly seen to the Course B TracTrac feed you can see on https://www.aclassworlds.com/tracking. The top mark is reached first by Adam, chased by Stevie Brewin AUS 4, and Ravi, with Carolijn Brouwer NED 888 having a good upwind first leg, in fourth. They all carry on, over to the left and their chosen gybe points.
This tactical state of affairs, in future events could set to change though. And AUS proposal to make the top course mark into a gate, as used in the SailGP for example, was passed unanimously at the AGM and be implemented at major events for a 2 event trial period, before adoption into the Championship Rules. This will open up the whole right side of the course tactically, and make it a much less formulaic race course.
Bottom gate, Adam arrives in the area first, but Ravi was sailing deeper and Adam is forced to gybe to make the gate. The result is Adam gybes, wanting to go right, so gybes again around the mark. Ravi just gybes the once and chooses the left side and splits. A tactical good move on his part as their boatspeeds are much the same and the uphill starts again. Watching the tracking is really fascinating viewing. You see every twitch, gain, mistake, and clicking on the boat as it moves will show their VMG and speed too, nothing escapes it, nothing can be hidden.
The wind is dropping, and these speedsters have dropped into Lowrider mode uphill. If a well sailed Classic were added in, they’d be eaten alive by them. The course had been shortened and the top gate brought closer downwind. They could still foil downwind though and by the second rounding at the gate, Ravi had stretched his lead, with Bundy doing his usual shadowing, quietly creeping up technique, and following another unfortunate Adam double gybe affair, rounds in second place now. Uphill, the 2022 Open Champ just extends his lead. He is 2 kts faster that most of the rest and sailing smoothly and well. The lad has been putting the hours in after his recent less successful F18 Worlds, and it shows. At the finish, Ravi leads Bundy by a good 30s, and Kuba arrives a similar distance later, with Adam in 4th ahead of Lamberto. Although, Adam wins the fastest boat moment from the TracTrac data, with 23.05 from the recorded data.
Meanwhile over on Course A things went differently for the sailors a couple of miles to the North.
The course was readied, but the PRO was expecting a steady pressure drop as he got the fleet away in 9 kts of breeze. This one was going to live in the dreams of the sailors, but not in a good way. The breeze was already switching off by the time the top mark was reached by the leading pack, and the South German Lake sailors would have wiped the floor with the fleet in this stuff had any been here. At the bottom Micky Todd ESP7 rounded ahead of Jacek Noetzel POL and Jamie Jochhiem AUS 956, next with Andrew Landenberger AUS 308, and Andy Landenberger AUS 300 in pursuit, the rest followed around the bottom gate like cows going for milking. It continued dropping but was still just keeping above that magic 5kt base, so the PRO let it continue. Bottom mark it was still Micky and Jacek, Jamie in touch in third.
Back up again, and down they went, brains close to exploding with tactical what if I did thoughts, where just sitting still like a fly is usually the fastest. But at the finish, it was neck and neck, with Jacek just pipping into first some 30m from the line from Micky, with Jamie next. Then, as if on a switch, the wind just finished. The leaders had crossed, so the race had to continue to its grisly conclusion. Landy, in forth was marooned at the bottom gate mark, taking at least 5 mins to sail the last bit to the line, the rest drifted across in ones and twos as the traumatised sailors did their finishes.
There then occurred a proper weather event. With no wind, we could see the weather forming and moving around the whole bay. And the showers moving ever closer. Auckland was variously covered and uncovered in the horizon as dark clouds moved about. Great for photos, less great for the sailors floating around and getting colder. Then the rain mist surrounded the fleet. A very eery feeling was the result. Those at the 2016 Medamblik Worlds experienced a similar feeling. If you saw the movie Interstellar, and the scene on that water planet, where Mathew McConaughty is surrounded by water with his spaceship. It’s that, but with more A-Cats.
It then rained, the wind backed 90 degrees, blew a bit, stopped a bit, but finally, about 2 hrs later settled, and the Interstellar effects stopped. By now, the Open sailors had been seen going home on the horizon ages ago, but this PRO hung in there. And rightly so, as the winds returned, marks were set and races 4 and 5 of the Classic series got underway, much to the relief of the thoroughly moistened, somewhat chilled competitors. And great racing was the result.
Starting into a nice 9-10kt NNW breeze, both races were got off cleanly. Although in the first one Robin Maeder SUI 007, on his older Scheuer G6 platform, fitted with the latest Classic boards, had to stop suddenly as his mast foot had jumped out from the socket. How it didn’t just collapse is a wonder, but he quickly loosened the forestays, relocated the base, tightened the strings again, and set off in pursuit for the fleet to finish 11th. Landy, Jamie, Baby Landy, Jacek together with Kiwi AC legend Mike Drummond NZL 287 and the rest, all raced off into the chessboard of the course. Jacek got two bullets again by picking the right of the course and Jamie both 2nds, much to his delight, as this is the first big event he’s raced in on his Exploder AD3. Mike was 3rd in the 4th race, with Landy 3rd in the last one of the day.
After great tactical racing, Jacek was emerging as the regatta leader. He is just really fast on his ExploderAD3. His foiling Exploder hull with Classic foil configuration seems to work really well. His new Exploder C boards seem to make him very slippery, and combined with his years of racing skill, he is emerging as the top dog with straight bullets so far.
So much fun with four seasons in one day, but then a quiz night and meal specials in the club, these folk are living their best lives.
Friday promises a little more fruitier winds, so the big lads will get to go well we hope, at least.
Results HERE
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