A-Cat Worlds Day 1 - Manuel Calavia claims victory in opening race

by Gemma Noon on 5 Jan 2009 It looked as though Australia’s 2001 World Champion Steve Brewin had won race one of the 2009 A-Cat World Championships at Belmont today. However Brewin was OCS by three seconds (there is a protest pending on the OCS).

The race was closely contested in a five to seven knot nor’easter. Brewin was first around the top mark, with Ashby back in tenth place.

But it was Spain’s Manuel Calavia who claimed first place. Glenn Ashby, Matthias Dietz (GER), Dave Brewer and James Spithill were among the top finishers at the second top mark.

Calavia was the first ranked European behind Glenn Ashby and Scott Anderson in the 2007 European Championships and was placed second behind Steve Brewin in the 2008 Europeans.

'I was the third boat up from the pin. I went left, found clean air and was good after that,' Calavia said.

Ashby, who came second, described his approach to the challenging conditions. 'The secret was to go hard left until your nose bled or you almost bricked, and then come away,' he said.

Ashby. 'Very tricky. We were all wanting to go left, so I had to dig my way out, and managed to get back to the left eventually, but probably in the early to mid teens at the top. Had to keep chipping away the whole race. Manuel, the Spanish guy, sailed a great race, and Stevie Brewin also, but unfortunately he was a bit early at the start. '

Spithill, who was fourth across the line and third in the race after the OCS of Brewin, was pleased with his recovery.

'I was deep in the 40’s on the first beat but I kept chipping away and got a couple of good shifts and worked my way back up into the fleet,' he said.

Results of Race 1

Place Sail No. Bow No. Skipper Origin
1 ESP 11 87 Manuel Calavia ESP
2 AUS 1 1 Glenn Ashby VIC
3 AUS 938 53 James Spithill NSW
4 GER 599 72 Matthias Dietz GER
5 AUS 908 10 Dave Brewer VIC
6 AUS 924 18 Ben Deed VIC
7 SUI 202 89 Luc Du Bois SUI
8 DEN 1 64 Thomas Paasch DEN
9 GBR 007 67 Chris Field GBR
10 AUS 822 45 Nathan Outerridge NSW
11 AUS 900 42 Wayne Mercer VIC
12 AUS 24 35 Andrew Landenberger NSW
13 AUS 13 5 Jack Benson NT
14 AUS 889 47 Graeme Parker VIC
15 NZL 1 83 Murray Philpott NZL
16 GER 14 70 Bob Baier GER
17 NZL 245 82 Mike Drummond NZL
18 FRA 7 65 Jean Louis Le Coq FRA
19 AUS 907 40 Dave McKenzie VIC
20 AUS 923 41 Simon McKeon VIC
21 AUS 8 8 Graeme Harbour VIC
22 AUS 902 2 Scott Anderson NSW
23 AUS 321 58 Andrew Williams NSW
23 GBR 33 68 Nigel Lovett GBR
25 ITA64 93 Roberto Casadei ITA
26 GER57 69 Andras John GER
27 AUS 832 52 Tom Slingsby NSW
28 AUS 865 50 Stuart Scott VIC
29 GER 76 76 Helmut Stumhofer GER
30 BRA5 62 Clinio Swan de Freitis BRA
31 GER 56 75 George Reutter GER
32 NED 28 79 Pieter Jan Dwarshuis NED
33 ESP 42 86 Mariano Martinez Pina ESP
34 AUS 10 17 Brad Collett QLD
35 AUS 893 22 Dave Ellis VIC
36 AUS 880 56 Gavin Vize NSW
37 AUS 37 37 Bruce McArthur NSW
38 AUS 936 7 Stephen Brayshaw VIC
39 ITA2 91 Eugenio Calabria ITA
40 ITA946 92 Rosario Cangemi ITA
41 BRA 6 63 Roger Wright BRA
42 AUS 914 36 Dave Loutit VIC
43 SUI 216 88 Sergio Vela SUI
44 NED 1 81 Piet Saarberg NED
44 AUS 101 48 John Richards VIC
46 AUS 831 46 David Parker VIC
47 AUS 19 19 Russell Denholm VIC
48 AUS 922 31 Mark Johnston NSW
49 ITA31 90 Luigi Blancato ITA
50 AUS 912 16 Vic Collett QLD
51 ESP 9 85 Juan Antonio Ladron de Guevara ESP
52 GER 21 73 Marco Goetz GER
53 AUT 1 60 Klaus Schober AUT
53 NZL 233 84 Ken Urquhart NZL
55 AUS 021 24 Ben Geisker NSW
56 AUS 916 54 Andrew Steenhuis VIC
57 AUS 913 29 Brian Hooper QLD
58 AUS 524 15 Roger Coleman NSW
59 NED 3 80 Sjoerd Hoekstra NED
59 IRL 5 66 Yvonne Sheehan IRL
61 AUS 864 23 Matt Firth VIC
62 AUS 9 20 John Dowling QLD
63 AUS 844 30 Richie Howells VIC
64 AUS 828 14 Andrew Chaney QLD
65 BRA3 61 Claudia Swan de Freitis BRA
66 AUS 824 55 Ken Symonds QLD
67 AUS 935 9 Steve Breaden NSW
68 AUS 6 6 Glenn Brown NSW
69 ITA1 94 Guido Longhi ITA
70 AUS 836 28 Zac Breaden NSW
71 GER 95 77 Ekke Von Selzam GER
71 AUS 837 44 Claire Neeskens QLD
71 AUS 934 12 Peter Bradbury QLD
74 GER 79 74 Klaus Raab GER
75 AUS 862 4 David Beeby NT
76 AUS 911 33 Michael Kopp VIC
77 AUS 883 3 Christopher Batenburg NT
78 AUS 5 34 Horst Kopp VIC
79 AUS 839 57 Tom Watson VIC
80 AUS 868 26 Andrew Grant QLD
81 AUS 869 25 John Goldsmith NSW
82 AUS 939 43 Campbell Miller VIC
83 AUS 661 32 Michelle Jones NT
84 AUS 802 49 Konrad Schultz NT
85 AUS 863 39 Russ McDonald QLD
86 AUS 857 38 Lucas McDonald QLD
87 AUS 765 27 Robert Griffits NSW
88 AUS 800 59 Steve Wright VIC
89 AUS 849 21 Pat Drover QLD
90 AUS 788 95 Julian Jenkins NSW
dns NED 8 78 Theo Van Hilton NED
OCS AUS 4 11 Steve Brewin NSW
OCS GER 12 71 Donald Beike GER
OCS AUS 7 51 Hamish Sinclair VIC

http://www.a-catworlds2009.org.au/