Int A-Class - Australia's Brewin wins third world title in Poland

by Int A-class Worlds media and Simon Nelson on 5 Sep 2017 Steven Brewin from Australia is the new World Champion for Int A-class catamaran.

Tymoteusz Bendyk from Poland is on second place and the third place belongs to current Champion of Poland – Jakub Surowiec. New Zealand's Dave Shaw finished fourth overall.

There were 125 sailors from 18 countries who took part in the competition and during the five days there were eight races.

The competitors who rounded out the top ten overall included Jacek Noetzel (Poland, UKS Navigo) on fifth, Maciej ?arnowski (Poland, UKS Navigo) on seventh, Bruce Mahoney (USA)- eight place, Mischa Heemskerk (Holland) World Champion A-class 2016 – on ninth place and Manuel Calavia (Spain) – on tenth place.

Steven Brewin just after the first races left all the competitors behind: 'Certainly tunning the boat for the light wind helped in my good results. I spent quite a lot of time on that when arrived to Sopot, as at the beginning I wasn’t that fast.” – said Steven Brewin.

'This regatta was difficult, if you did one mistake, it could determine your win or lose. On the first day there were my conditions so my result gave me a big confidence boost. But the second day I found quite difficult as I hadn’t done any waves practicing here. So on that day I struggled. But in general I was taking right decisions, sailed conservative enough and I used my nerves into my favour, in my best way to focus and concentrate. This is big part of the success”

On the catsailingnews.com website Simon Nelson writes: That Stevie Brewin dominated the 2017 A Class Worlds is now well known. Brewin has sailed A’s for many years and is now a three time World Champion, a feat only bettered by Glenn Ashby. While Australia has always been a stronghold for the class, Brewin has managed to reach this position of dominance despite having little race time and few events in which to test himself against the main contenders. So how has he managed to produce such a performance?

While his sail making business leads people to believe he is a professional sailor, Brewin earns his living as a builder, working a full week on site. His sail making is done in the early mornings, late evenings and weekends, meaning his sailing is limited to weekends, so he certainly didn’t gain his edge by sailing more than his competitors, some of who spent weeks and months at the Worlds venue training close to full time.

Brewin principally trains from his house on the shores of Lake Macquarie, about an hour north of Sydney, where he and his training partners can leave the boats rigged. His primary group of training partners is headed by Darren Bundock, 2 times Olympic silver medallist and ex America’s Cup sailor. The 2 of them have pushed each other hard and the results of that were obvious to all when they both won their first 2 heats at the worlds by some distance. 2 others have been regulars in the group, Mark “Johno” Johnson, one of Brewin’s closest friends who has been sailing A’s for many years (plus Simon Nelson who sent this report, a former skiff sailor from the UK who has also played an informal role as a coach to the group, occasionally taking to a rib to get photos and otherwise help with training. Simon also managed to get many rides himself along the group and was able to elevate his own level and even pushing performance around in occassions)

The group also had visits from other local A Class sailors, such as Scott Anderson of Fiberfoam (Olympic Bronze medallist and past A Class World Champion). For the most part, Brewin and Bundock were a step, sometimes waiting for the others to catch up for extended periods, the price paid for the company of friends on what were sometimes long and cold days.

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Its noteworthy that eight of catamarans that qualified in the top ten are Polish Exploders, designed and produced in Tczew by Jakub Kopy?owicz.

In Junior the first place took Jakub Surowiec (Poland), 2nd Jan Heuninck (Spain) and Zac Heuchmer (Australia).

In Classic on the first three positions are: Pontus Johnson (Switzerland), Marek ?ebrowski (Polad, UKS NAVIGO) and Philippe Muyzers (Belgia).

In Master category Darren Bundock (Australia) is on the first place, next is Jacek Noetzel (Poland, UKS Navigo) on second and Andrew Landenberger (Australia) on third.

W Grand Master category the three best competitors are: Abdon Ibanez (Spain), Tom Bojland (Denmark), Stuart Scott (Australia).

In category Great Grand Master – on the three best results belong to: Roeland Wentholt (Holland)- first place, Bob Bayer (Germany) on second and Gustavo Doreste Blanco (Spain) on third.

In women category the best result belongs to Katrin Brunner (Germany), second to Anna ?witajska (Poland, UKS NAVIGO ), third to Ewa Górska (Poland, UKS NAVIGO).

In silver fleet the three best competitors are Tymoteusz Cierzan (Poland, UKS NAVIGO) on first place, Antoine Riet (France) on second and Martin Bach (Niemcy) non third place.

Full results: