Lars Gluck (USA) leads Ronstan A-Cat Worlds

by Tom Siders on 15 Nov 2007 A-Cat World Championship - Grass, grass, grass… Recent storms that have rolled through the Florida Keys have washed a lot of shallow water sea grass up on shore and a change of wind carried the grass out into the Atlantic by way of the channels.

Well, guess what? The A-Cats are racing both outside of a channel that cuts between a couple of the Key Islands and the racing area is located smack dab in the middle of the main Atlantic inshore channel that runs the length of the Keys. So what we saw on the course today was a lot of grass drifting downwind through the course.

Oh it’s not as bad as it sounds, we could be sailing off of San Diego where the kelp will stop a boat cold dead in its tracks. But for a fleet that was expecting beautiful tropical sailing in the Florida Keys in the late Fall, the floating grass was frustrating for everyone. But, taken in the gestalt of everything, grass was fair and frustrating for everyone equally.

The Race Committee drove around the racing area trying to find the most grass free zone and settled in for the first race.

Before the start of the second race, the RC sent out a scout boat to try and find a different location to move the course. Unfortunately, the entire area had floating grass in varying thickness – from clear and weed free to floating palm fronds in clumps with entangled weed.

Some competitors had rudder assemblies that enabled them to yank a line to raise one or both to easily clear. Most though had rudders that had to be raised manually and individually which made clearing the grass more problematic.

There were some boats with 'short boards' that could be easily pulled up to clear the weed, and some that had a more difficult time raising daggerboards to clear them. Overall, the grass was equitably challenging to all competitors.

Racing day 2

Racing conditions today were lighter than yesterday. The breeze filled in and held relatively steady out of 020 between 5 and 8 knots. The first race of the day got off in good order with an Individual Recall of 2 boats.

The six-leg course was 1.0nm long for each leg. Glenn Ashby (AUS 1) and Pete Melvin (USA 69) took first and second with Lars Guck (USA 250) close behind in third. The weather mark was shortened to about 0.8nm for the last leg as the breeze lightened a bit.

Race 2 also saw a clean start with 2 OCS boats – one exonerated, on did not (more on this later…). Steady winds kept the course length at 0.85nm for the entire race.

The same three competitors took the top three spots, except this time Lars Guck (USA 250) got the bullet, followed by Glenn Ashby (AUS 1) and Pete Melvin (USA 69).

After 4 races it is apparent that there is a real battle for the top. Lars Guck (USA 250) and Glenn Ashby (AUS 1) are tied at the top with 7 points each.

Pete Melvin (USA 69) is alone in third with 17 points, Luc DuBois (SUI 202) in fourth with 30 points, and Matt Struble (USA 198) and Mitch Booth (NED 250) tied with 32 points each.

Division: Leading A-Cat (98 boats)

1 42/ USA 250 GUCK, LARS 2 1 3 1 7.00pts 1
2 03/ AUS 1 ASHBY, GLENN 1 3 1 2 7.00 2
3 NONE/ USA 69 MELVIN, PETE 10 2 2 3 17.00 3
4 24/ SUE 202 DU BOIS, LUC 13 5 5 7 30.00 4
5 93/ USA 198 STRUBLE, MATT 9 13 6 4 32.00 5
6 09/ NED 250 BOOTH, MITCH 6 4 10 12/RDG 32.00 6
7 76/ USA 269 OGLETREE, CHARLIE 8 15 8 6 37.00 7
8 82/ NZL 232 PHILPOTT, MURRAY 7 4/RDG 14 21 46.00 8
9 57/ AUS 308 LANDENBERGER, ANDREW 12 17 12 8 49.00 9
10 01/ AUS 2 ANDERSON, SCOTTY 5 5/RDG 36 9 55.00 10
11 23/ NZL 234 DRUMMOND, MIKE 17 16 17 10 60.00 11
12 53/ USA 110 KINDER, PHILIP 15 10 11 28 64.00 12
13 14/ ITA 2 CALABRIA, EUGENIO 11 7 18 34 70.00 13
14 22/ USA 257 DANIEL, ROBBIE 21 22 16 13 72.00 14
15 34/ USA 234 GAYNOR, ANDREW 23 41 7 18 89.00 15
16 73/ AUS 918 MOON, BEN 25 18 29 17 89.00 16
17 18/ USA 258 COGAN, PETER 18 37 15 20 90.00 17
18 04/ USA 232 ATKINS, CHAD 14 9 28 41 92.00 18
19 05/ GER 12 BEIKE, DONALD 4 11 27 57 99.00 19
20 65/ SWE 1 MARSTROM, GORAN 22 28 34 16 100.00 20
21 20/ USA 209 COPE, WOODY 24 19 41 22 106.00 21
22 32/ USA 226 ARENDS, TONY 42 40 13 12 107.00 22
23 37/ USA 280 GLASER, PEASE 44 42 4 19 109.00 23
24 26/ USA 244 EDWARDS, BRUCE 19 24 35 32 110.00 24
25 81/ SWE 956 PERSSON, THOMAS 32 25 33 27 117.00 25
26 58/ USA 279 LAUNDERGAN, JEREMY 41 29 25 23 118.00 26
27 83/ NED 1 SAARBERG, PIETER 20 34 20 48 122.00 27
28 51/ NED 3 HOEKSTRA, SJOERD 3 12 66 42 123.00 28
29 46/ USA 203 HAMLIN, HOWARD 37 36 22 29 124.00 29
30 44/ USA 99 HALL, BEN 36 30 51 11 128.00 30
31 47/ AUS 8 HARBOUR, GRAEME 16 20 61 40 137.00 31
32 98/ USA 238 WEBBON, BOB 26 23 72 30 151.00 32
33 06/ USA 134 BELLERMAN, MARK 49 27 39 37 152.00 33
34 72/ AUS 900 MERCER, WAYNE 28 14 55 60 157.00 34
35 07/ USA 231 BIRD, RUSH 33 35 46 44 158.00 35
36 38/ USA 200 GODBEY, JAMES 29 45 30 55 159.00 36
37 28/ USA 10 FARRAR, JONATHAN 48 48 43 25 164.00 37
38 92/ USA 259 SMYTH, RANDY 99/DNC 32 21 14 166.00 38
39 78/ USA 260 OTTENHEIMER, DAVI 39 43 50 36 168.00 39
40 19/ AUS 921 COLE, JAMES 45 38 24 67 174.00 40


There were a couple of twists in racing today that raised some eyebrows.

First was the method being used as a Safety Check as well as a Check-In method for the boats. Each competitor is required to pick up a numbered tag before leaving the beach each morning and are also required to turn the tag back in at the end of each day of racing.

Failure to comply with either checking out in the morning or checking in when returning to shore results in a 20% scoring penalty for the first race sailed each day. Yesterday, everyone complied, but today 5 Competitors discovered that there is a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to this procecedure.

The second controversy involved one boat that was called OCS and then requested Redress on the grounds that the RC was late in raising the Individual Recall Flag. After the hearing, the International Jury decided to award Redress points to the competitor even though he admitted at the hearing that he knew he was over early.

Based on the facts found, this was what the Jury thought was the appropriate outcome. Needless to say, the Fleet is a tad bit upset with this compromise decision. Sea Lawyers who use the rules to gain an advantage in this manner are never looked on with respect in our sport. It’s unfortunate that this occurrence was even brought up. Oh well, it’s all part of the sport and is even more important at this level of competition.