A-Class Catamaran World Championship win to Steve Brewin

by Thomas Capitani on 20 Aug 2011 The Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Champion has now been decided in Aarhus, Denmark. Steve Brewin of Australia after his victory stated in a live interview 'This has been my best win ever! I stood up and delivered.'

After eight successful races in weather conditions ranging from clear blue skies, with four to six knot breezes, to harsh, rainy days with up to 22 knot gusts, the 2011 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship was finally settled today.

The excitement of this last day’s racing was further underlined by the fact that PRO Andreas Kuchler, following today’s first race (the eighth overall), put the AP over H (postponement on shore), sending the sailors back to shore due to the rough conditions. The sailors had to endure nearly one hour of tension, not knowing whether to ready themselves for a ninth race or to get changed and pack their gear.

At 14.00, after having been in dialogue with the meteorological Royal Danish Airforce Base in Karup, PRO Andreas Kuchler decided to fire one shot and pull down the postponement pennant, calling the sailors onto the water for a ninth race.

By 14.45 the wind had dropped to a steady 17 knots and there was some sunshine, so PRO Andreas Kuchler set the starting time to 15.05. As the sailors were still facing relatively rough conditions, though, many stayed on shore, either for fear of damaging their gear or due to their poor overall rankings.

The ninth race was started at 15.10 and was an action-packed drama, with live video streaming commentated on by an energetic Jack Punch (father of Jack Benson), who provided enthusiastic coverage of the hectic battle between the all-Australian leaders, Steve Brewin, Scott Andersson, Jack Benson and Andrew Landsberg. Steve Brewin had to make at least third place to win, but ended the race with a spectacular first place and, hence, the title of 2011 World Champion in front of Scott Anderson (AUS) and Jack Benson (AUS).

'This has been my best win ever! I stood up and delivered,' said Steve Brewin.

The last day of the 2011 Ronstan A-Catamaran World Championship thus ended with the mixture of both drama and action that characterizes the spectacular A-Cat. All that remains is the prize-giving ceremony and barbecue, where many sailors will doubtless linger in the bar, despite their tiredness, consuming plenty of beer and recalling the events of recent days with the well known 'hand sailing' attitude.

A Class Catamaran World Championship website