A Class Cat World Championship at the WPNSA - Day 2
by Gordon Upton 27 Aug 2019 22:39 PDT
18-21 & 24-30 August 2019
Following the traumatic events of Day 1 of the 'A' Cat Worlds at WPNSA, the sailors were keen to at least attempt to recover some of the losses many of them suffered at the hands of the light stuff on Sunday.
Monday started light and windless, bringing concerned glances. The AP was up and the fleets were held ashore. First to sail would be the Classic fleet this time.
Then the AP dropped, and the 'Why are you all still here?' flag went up, so the Classics launched. Sailing out to the start area just off the marina entrance. It was an Easterly wind, 5-6 knots, so nothing exciting. They all stooged about, then were all sent home again! Apparently there was a 180 degree windshift due about lunchtime anyhow. On the shore, it was back to looking at other peoples rudders, or wondering why so and so had all his boat spread about in bits, yet again - you know who you are mate!
About 90 mins later it was Game On again, only this time they sailed right down to the Portland Harbour wall in the East, and that windshift had happened. It was still 6-8 knots though. Proper Classic weather really. All under starters orders, Owen Cox GBR fell foul of the dreaded 'don't stick your bow over the line within the last minute' rule, and not realizing, didn't go around the ends so he was last before he'd even started. The rest got off first time and most of the fleet went left, the usual direction after an 'A' Cat start. Alberto Farnesi SWE59 got the pin end and creped out ahead. But in the middle of the fleet line, former W Champ, Scotty Anderson AUS 31, also pulled ahead from the fleet in the light trapezing wind.
But first around the top mark was Francisco Javier ESP 29 by a good margin. Then the rest of the chasing pack was led by Andy Landenberger AUS 300. However, in the end, there was no keeping a wily old fox down, as Scotty Anderson AUS 31, proved master of the shifty winds in race one But young Andy was not far behind, beating his daddy by some 17 places. Francisco finished a great 3rd.
Race 3 of the classics saw Alberto lead from the pin end onwards as he read the wind on the left of the course perfectly every time. Andrew Landenberger AUS 308, got revenge on his son, just to stop him getting above himself too early, and finished 2ndwith the Swiss Bruno Biedermann SUI 56 in third. As the second race of the classics reached the top, the Open fleet got released from the beach. This is a great way of preventing chaos if one fleet runs into another fleet on the beach. The beachmaster, Mathew Desorgher and his crew did a great job in this respect.
Next on the bill was the Open fleet's race 2. The wind was starting to become 'interesting' by now, with 6-8 knots but with a few higher puffs allowing them to get foiling downwind. The fleet got away cleanly with Bruce Mahoney USA 311, leading the way up. At the top, the leaders tended to split with several sailing higher, in search of pressure over on the left. The others, mindful of what happened the day before, elected to go into deep mode. but, as there were enough puffs coming down the course, the outriders picked up the hoped for breezes out on the far left and they all came foiling back right, down towards the bottom mark in great style. At the finish of the 3 laps, Manuel Calavia ESP 11, got the bullet, with Mischa and Bruce following.
The wind then started to die away, although the race officer started a race, this was canned after the first lap as the 5kt minimum limit had been breached, so all came serenely sailing home again.
The event continues until Friday.