A-Cat Worlds - Ashby wins ninth world title in Punta Ala

by Sail-World.com on 12 Sep 2015 Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Glenn Ashby has won the A-Class World Championships for the ninth time, today in Punta Ala Italy, winning all of his eight races on the water during the regatta, enough to not have to sail the final race of the championships.

Ashby blotted an otherwise perfect string of eight wins from nine races with a DNF in the final race. He was able to discard that place to record a perfect score for his Net Points.

The fleet was the largest A-Class fleet ever seen at a regatta.

173 entries from 18 countries was never going to be an easy mountain to climb for Ashby despite his track record in the class.

DNA | HOLLAND COMPOSITES present the 2015 A-Cat Worlds from Holland Composites BV on Vimeo.

“I had a few days back in the A-Class a couple of weeks ago at the Dutch nationals. It was the first time I had been back in this class of boat since June last year.” Explained a delighted Ashby.

“It was pretty apparent from that regatta, that there had been a lot of development in the class over that time and that I was going to have to pick up my game a lot in the short time I had to prepare for this world’s”

Ashby’s main threat for the title was from another past champion Mischa Heemskerk from the Netherlands, and for the first couple of days in Punta Ala, it was a game of who would crack first.

With the fleet split into two, both sailors were comfortable winners in the first three races, before Heemskerk dropped a place in the fourth race getting a second.

Ashby on the other hand continued to break the tape in each race even after the fleets were shuffled into the Gold and Silver fleets- unbeaten in 8 races straight.

“Obviously I am really happy with the win. The A-Class is one of my favorite boats to sail, and to be honest I wasn’t too certain going into this regatta because the bar has risen so much, but its been a really great week here in Italy. Now I’m looking forward to getting back to New Zealand and rejoining the team in Auckland and pressing on with our America’s Cup development.”

In the big picture of Emirates Team New Zealand Ashby’s win really caps off what has been a highly successful and encouraging month for the Emirates Team New Zealand sailing team.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke winning the Olympic test event in the 49er- their 20th consecutive regatta win, winning the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event in Gothenburg and now Glenn Ashby winning the A-Class World Championships again, adding a 16th World Championship title to his impressive record.