day 3 wednesday

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=140 BGCOLOR="#00FFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="387008c0egertu.jpg"> <div> <I><B>   </B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>|   </B></I><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="news"><U><I><B>home</B></I></U></A><I><B> </B></I><I><B>   </B></I>                                                         <B> </B><A HREF="http://pub3.ezboard.com/baclasscatamaranforum" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://pub3.ezboard.com/baclasscatamaran"><U><B>forum</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=340 BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>By Tom Siders </B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>2007 Ronstan A-Cat Worlds</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>14 Nov 07</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>A-Cat World Championship</B></I></div> <bR> <div> The big news today is Pease Glaser. Pease rolled the entire fleet in the one race sailed today. Calling the shifts, finding the pressure, and handling the platform in World Class form, Pease held off Lars Guck to win in light conditions.</div> <bR> <div> This morning the breeze was blowing out of 020 (are we seeing a trend here…?) at around 6-8 knots. Seas were relatively flat with almost no swell and just a bit of easy waves. The Race Committee was on station and prepared to get racing started on time at 1100EST. The fleet had ideas of their own based on the Redress hearing yesterday. 15 seconds before the start, most of the field was OCS (perhaps sending a message) and the RC signaled a Postpone rather than a General Recall. The reason for the AP was that the instruction the RC has is that they are to go to the Black Flag immediately after the first General Recall of the day. Using the AP gives the RC and the fleet another chance to behave. The second attempt to get the race off resulted in the same setup on the line at the start. This time the RC had no choice but to fly the First Substitute and General Recall the fleet. Now the option became the Black Flag. While all this was going on the wind began to fade, dropping into the 5-7 knot range. The fleet realized the consequences of the Black Flag and finally got off the start with an All Clear, more than 40 minutes late for the scheduled First Gun.</div> <bR> <div> The race became more difficult as it went on. The breeze continued to drop throughout the race, dropping into the low 4 knot range toward the end. There was also a slight current running down the shore (generally from the weather mark to leeward). Dropping breeze and a downwind setting current started causing some issues at the Weather Mark. Many boats found that they couldn’t point quite as high as they have been able to when the breeze was up and they were tacking on to the Starboard layline too early. Add the current which was setting the boats in the downwind direction and many boats were hitting the weather mark, with a good number of those snagging the anchor rode. To say it was ugly would be kind. It was unfortunate that only a few of these boats found it necessary to take their One-Turn Penalty after hitting a mark. A relativistic approach to the Racing Rules as guidelines that may be interpreted on the spot by a competitor (“Oh well, I think I’ve lost enough ground freeing my foil that don’t need to do my Turn.”) is one of the attitudes that is contributing to the decline of the sport of Sailing. The loss of the Corinthian approach lowers the level of excellence in the sport. But, I digress. Back to the race… Four legs were sailed while the wind gradually dropped in velocity and began a slow shift to the left. Once the wind moved left to the 010-005 range, it became apparent that the Weather Mark would have to be moved and a course change signaled. As the Weather Markset boat was maneuvering into position, the wind dropped into the 4-5 knot range and moved over to the 005-000 range. The mark was reset and the Course Change was signaled in ample time for the fleet to recognize it. As mentioned earlier, Pease Glaser (USA 280) took the bullet with Lars Guck (USA 250) in a close second. Lars has apparently been working very hard on improving his light air abilities, and it showed today. Third and fourth place went to Pete Melvin (USA 69) and Glenn Ashby (AUS 1).</div> <bR> <div> You can see the complete results at <A HREF="http://www.acatworlds.com/res/worlds/2007_A-Cat_Worlds_Championship.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.acatworlds.com/res/worlds/200"><U>http://www.acatworlds.com/res/worlds/2007_A-Cat_Worlds_Championship.html</U></A> . Since 5 races have been completed, the throwout came into play today.</div> <bR> <div> There are now approximately 500 photos of this event posted at <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N00/ " TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N0"><U><U>http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N00/</U></U></A></FONT><A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N00/ " TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N0"><U> </U></A>. The Markset boat has had the pleasure of having Mel Ashby out on a number of days, both in the tune up races last week as well as racing this week. If you didn’t catch on, Mel is the better half that keeps Glenn sailing so well. Mel is also a pretty fair photographer unless she gets “a bit peckish” and needs a bite to eat. A set of Mel’s pictures are here <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N00/sets/72157603176732324/ " TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N0"><U><U>http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N00/sets/72157603176732324/</U></U></A></FONT><A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N00/sets/72157603176732324/ " TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58897601@N0"><U> </U></A>and you’ll see that she not only has a keen eye for camera work, but also captures the A-Cats extremely well. </div> <bR> <div> With 5 races completed and two days remaining, the plan now to run 2 races each on Thursday and Friday. The weather on Friday is expected to be much cooler and very breezy. When viewed on the whole, this event will have tested the sailors in just about every wind and sea condition available at this beautiful venue in Islamorada, Florida. Competition between Guck, Ashby, and Melvin will continue to be fierce and competitive, but keep an eye on the rest of the top 10 – this will be a true Cat Fight (pun intended…).</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>Story by Rick White , catsailor.com:</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Top Three Postions are Getting Very Close.</B> </div> <bR> <div> It was light air, but some pretty exciting racing for the 5th race of the 2007 A-Cat World Championships. </div> <div> The seas were lightly choppy, the wind light, but quite steady, and best of all, the kelp had disappeared. We pondered where it could have gone overnight – but it was gone. Kelp is normally a problem while sailing in Hawks Channel on the Ocean Side of the Florida Keys. Thanks to the powers to be that today it was not the usual problem. </div> <bR> <div> <B>The Races! Getting started was a problem, however.</B></div> <bR> <div> Something went wrong on the first start and the RC sent boats out to round up the fleet and send them back for another start. Hmmm! Could it be they might have been a millimeter slow in some sort of flag and were in fear of another stupid determination by the International Judges. We just don’t know at this time. But, will report on this when we find out the problem with that first start.</div> <div> The next start had a nice looking line, but the aggressive fleet caused a General Recall. </div> <div> The line was again reset and this time a Black Flag Start was called for. In the case of the Black Flag any boat over the line early after the one-minute signal when the Preparatory Flag is dropped will be disqualified for that race. Pretty stiff penalty.</div> <div> The fleet all behaved themselves quite nicely and there was finally a clean start about a half hour later than the scheduled start should have been.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="45fc82f0.jpg" border=0 width="456" height="303" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>The Class Flag came down and there was finally a clean start </I></div> <bR> <div> Glenn Ashby of Australia did his usual thing and made the first weather mark round in the lead. Mitch Booth of the Netherlands was second just ahead of Lars Guck of the USA. Pease Glaser of the USA and first female sailor overall was also close at hand. Olympic Tornado sailor, Robbie Daniel found himself just ahead of Pete Melvin of the USA. </div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="461cc310.jpg" border=0 width="460" height="305" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>Lars Guck (42) rounded the first weather mark just ahead of Pease Glaser (37). Glaser went on to win the race. </I></div> <bR> <div> Things started getting shook up on the next time around the weather mark. Pete Melvin had moved up close to Glenn Ashby, Booth had slipped to 3rd, Pease Glaser stayed in 4th place, but Lars Guck slipped to 5th.</div> <div> The wind was slowly dying and took a slight shift to the west, or the left side of the course looking upwind. Pease Glaser took advantage of the left shift by going left and moved into the lead around the last windward mark. Mitch Booth was close behind her, with Melvin slipping to 3rd spot. </div> <div> Going into this race, Glenn Ashby and Lars Guch were tied. At this last windward mark, Ashby was about two boat lengths ahead of Guck as they both headed for the downwind finish.</div> <div> At this finish and moving out was Glaser. Surprisingly, Guck had tacked short of the finish layline, then got a header to take him down to the finish line faster, finishing in 2nd place. Melvin setttled for 3rd place, Ashby took a 4th and Booth slipped to 5th place</div> <div> Roughly speaking, this seems to be following top positions using a throwout of their worst races:</div> <div> Position, Sailor, Points w/TO</div> <bR> <div> 1. Lars Guck 6</div> <div> 2. Glenn Ashby 7 </div> <div> 3. Pete Melvine 10</div> <div> 4. Mitch Booth 25</div> <div> 5. Charlie Ogletree 27</div> <div> 6. Phil Kinder 46</div> <div> 7. Robbie Daniel 56</div> <div> 8. Pease Glaser 65</div> <div> 9. Chad Atkins 65</div> <div> 10. Woody Cope 71</div> <bR> <div> Only one race was completed. Two races are again planned for Thursday starting at 11AM </div> <div> At this point <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://acatworlds.com/res/worlds/2007_A-Cat_Worlds_Championship.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://acatworlds.com/res/worlds/2007_A-"><U><U>CLICK HERE</U></U></A></FONT> for the standings:</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>