Ashby can’t help himself – wins Race 8 A-Cat Worlds

by Rob Kothe on 8 Jan 2009 Glenn Ashby just could not help himself today; he won race seven in the nine race series and claimed the A-Cat World Title for the sixth time. He then lined up again for race eight of the series.

Ashby was close behind Australian America’s Cup skipper James Spithill at the top mark, but did not manage to catch the BMW Oracle mono and multihull sailor as they headed down the run. At the bottom mark Ashby hit the left hand mark and did an efficient 360 penalty turn; he dropped back to fourth place.

But a lap latter the six time World Champion was back in the lead. With his low trapping style he was sailing flatter and climbing inside his rivals.

He crossed the line in an impressive minute and 27 seconds ahead of Andrew Landenberger. Third was the European 2007 and 2008 Champion Manuel Calavia, followed by James Spithill.

In the boat park Ashby was smiling. ‘Being World Champion for the sixth time is unreal. I had a great couple of races. I managed to sail well and so did the other guys. It turned out quite well.

‘It’s been a great regatta and I’ve enjoyed sailing here. The conditions were very nice today in both races and I managed to use that to my advantage,’ he said.

Steve Brewin now has a gap on his rivals for second place overall and today he was blunt about the series

‘Glenn has smashed us again. I’m happy with how I went and hopefully I’ll do better next time, but now there is one more race to decide the podium places.’

Manuel Calavia commented, ‘I’m happy with how I went today. The other guys did well too and the conditions were good for the racing. Tomorrow will be interesting.’

James Spithill is looking forward to the last race, and hopes to sail A-Cats again in the future.

‘The conditions were fresh and shifty. Glenn was great and Manolo (Manuel Calavia) did very well as well. Tomorrow the last race will be interesting because that brings another drop in.

‘I’ll sail in this class again; I’ll have to lose a bit of weight first though, because most of the guys are about ten kilos lighter than me.’

The final race in the 2009 A-Cat World Championship is scheduled for 10.30 am on Friday.

Progressive totals after one drop:

Glenn Ashby 8, Steve Brewin 26, Manuel Calavia 39, James Spithill 44, Andrew Landenberger 44

Race 8 Results:

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

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