Glenn Ashby leads the circus

by Rob Kothe & the Sail-World Team on 7 Feb 2014 When news hit that the 34th America's Cup was to be sailed on 72-foot, wingsail-powered catamarans, the world's sailing attention immediately swung to the high-end multi-hull crowd, as these sailors already knew a lot about making wildly exotic cats sail fast.

And while there are plenty of go-fast cats afloat, A-Class catamarans have long served as a development platform for hot new ideas, so it was no surprise that guys like Glen Ashby, Emirates Team New Zealand's wing sail trimmer, were long-time A-Cat veterans.

We were the official media for the A-Cat Worlds 2010 out of Belmont 16 footers, then we were on the water for the A Cat Australian Nationals on Lake Macquarie. The fleet on both occasions was the America's Cup all-stars and it was just minutes from our Sail-World Lake Macquarie HQ.

Roll forward to 2014 and Glenn Ashby, the seven times A Cat World Champion has persuaded a whole mob to journey to Takapuna NZ, for the 2014 Worlds, conveniently just minutes from Sail-World NZ HQ, so Richard Gladwell is on the water.

Here the world's best A-Cat sailors have gathered for a who's-who of multi-hull bragging rights. Beyond the seven times A Cat World Champion Ashby, Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Ben Hall, Chris Nicholson, Pete Melvin, Mike Drummond, Ray Davies, Nathan Outteridge and Mischa Heemskerk.

Yesterday we checked with AMSA the news that all the crew was airlifted from an undamaged 11 metre yacht in Bass Strait. Nancy Knudsen our cruising editor will no doubt have more to say on this, (stand aside for the blast) but really you have to wonder why people are doing a Melbourne Hobart delivery can’t handle 40 knots.

Habitats were first built in Australia in Catamaran Road, Fountaindale, by Performance Sail craft, (yes guessed it, you they were the first company in the street) who are now these days as the builders of the best Laser dinghies in the world.

Nowadays Steve Fields Hobicat operation is based in Huskisson so Jervis Bay is a natural for the 2014 Hobie 16 World Championships, the Youth and Women’s classes were first out on the race course to start the event which in turn saw the Grandmasters class sail in the afternoon. We have all the latest news.

If you are into golf, you'd better get swinging, Golf Ocean Racing is selling Titlest logo golf balls to finance a Volvo Ocean Race Campaign 2014-15. Hmmm. They might be a little late for the Alicante October 4th start line

News from the Clipper round the world fleet out of Brisbane and the Hardy Cup and lots more..