Predictwind A-Cat Worlds: Battle resumes off Milford - Day 1
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 11 Nov 03:53 PST
Darren Bundock (AUS) Day 1 - A-Class Catamaran World Championship - Milford - New Zealand - November 11, 2025 © Gordon Upton /
www.guppypix.com
Several of the world's top catamaran sailors resumed battle on a challenging Day 1 of the Predictwind A-Class Catamaran World Championships.
After two races sailed, former world champion Ravi Parent (USA) is 2pts clear of double Olympic Silver medalist Darren Bundock (AUS) in the Open fleet, which has attracted 22 entries.
Three years ago, Parent won the A-Cat World Championship (Open fleet) and the F18 World & European Championships in the same year, and was awarded the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year for 2022 by US Sailing in recognition of those achievements. He was fourth in the 2024 World Championships, sailed at Punta Ala, Italy.
Since multiple America's Cup winner and ten-time A-Class World Champion Glenn Ashby (AUS) hung up his trapeze harness in 2018, the top placings have been dominated by three sailors - Parent, Bundock and the defending world champion of 2023 and 2024, Jakub Surowiec (POL). The Pole is third overall after two races - tied on points with Adam Beattie (AUS).
Racing was conducted in offshore winds - variable in direction and pressure.
The SW breeze in the race area off Milford Beach gets squirrely by Black Rock, named for the lava flows from the nearby 140,000-year-old volcanic crater Lake Pupuke. Wind flows are often influenced by winds blowing down the streets radiating from the southern end of Milford Beach.
"It was very shifty, up and down pressure from the south-west," Bundock told Sail-World after the racing. " All the good guys were at the front. So there were no real surprises," he added.
"Some got around the top mark and got up on the foils, while everyone else was still coming onto theirs."
"There were massive lines of pressure - and you could easily get hung out to dry there at one side or the other."
"There wasn't that much foiling upwind today, and we got up a few times."
"But on the downwind legs, we were foiling most of the time - except at times when there was a little bit of a lull. And that's why the fleet got spread out so much.
"If you got up and stayed on foils, you're away, and if you got stuck there, you had a massive differential in speed. Some are doing 22kts, and some are doing 3kts."
"It was that sort of day," he added.
Bundock says his boat and setup is the "same as basically what I've been using the last four or five years. Nothing's really changed that much."
"There's been a little bit of development with the boats. I had some steel rudders on for a day or two before the regatta - just testing them out and see how they went. But I went back to what I knew for this regatta."
The steel foils were a significant development in the foiling Moth class, with Mackay Boats doing a lot of work, which some estimated made a difference of a minute in a race.
"They're definitely quick, but I guess the main issue is just trying to get them stiff enough."
"We're struggling a little bit with a high modulus carbon on the two rudder blades, and trying to get some longevity out of them, because they go quite soft, especially when you're doing foiling roundups around the bottom mark. There's a lot of load on them," he explains.
In the Classic fleet, Jacek Noetzel (POL) won both races, giving him a narrow lead over multiple world champion Andrew Landenberger (AUS). Jamie Jochheim (AUS) and America's Cup designer Mike Drummond (NZL) are tied for third place on 7pts. They finished 3rd and 4th in today's racing.
Racing is scheduled for Wednesday; however, the breeze is predicted to freshen early in the morning, after swinging to the east and gusting to 30kts.
For full results of the Open and Classic fleets www.aclassworlds.com/results