Andrew Landenberger and Mischa Heemskerk became the 2019 ‘A’ Class cat World Champions on Friday at WPNSA in great style. Sailing in almost Champaign sailing conditions of sun and 14-17 knot wind, the pair dominated their respective divisions with 8 bullets each in a superbly run regatta and under the control of David Campbell-James and his race team.
Day 5 of the ‘A’ Cat Worlds was another early start, but for the Open fleet this time. David Campbell-James, our favourite PRO, is keen to get a full 12 race series in, as we think he may have a little money on doing it! So, it was two Open races followed by 3 Classic fleet races and Weybiza was set to deliver again.
It was an early start for the Classic sailors at the World ‘A’ Cat Championships at WPNSA on Wednesday. The PRO, David Campbell-James, wanted to get them 2 races, before the Open fleet’s 3 later in the day, and a building wind was forecast. However, in the end the wind didn’t materialise quite as advertised, but they got a very sailable 8-10 knots, building slightly as the day progressed. This could be the first Worlds regatta that has completed the whole 12 race series for many years. But, then this is Weymouth, and one of the World’s top sailing event venues because of the wind conditio
The third day of competition at the Worlds really just continued where the last one left off. David Campbell-James was keen to get the race numbers evened out and back on track for a full series as we’d promised Weymouth could deliver. Day three saw 3 open fleet and 1 Classic fleet races in a light 5-8 knots, getting underway after a 2hr postponement.
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 yesterday. 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.
The first day at the Worlds at WPNSA was, to say the least, challenging. We all knew the racing was not going to happen in the morning as the day dawned hot and sunny. And windless. The PRO, David Campbell-James, broke the news to everyone at the daily 9:30 breifing that there would probably be at least a 2 hr postponement. Everyone then set about sitting about. Chatting about settings, looking at stuff in the popup shop and drinking coffee. The sun was hot and the academy, being concreat and hardstanding became rather warm.
Practice races are funny things, especially at a World Championships. Sailors, being a superstitious lot at the best of time, are especially prone to strange rituals, tend to treat it as a semi race, pretending the result doesn’t matter. However, psychologically is must be better to your mental preparation if you do well. The top sailors, who have experience of many really big events, have strategies for coping with this, and particularly when things go wrong, but those lower down the fleet can get spooked if things don’t go to plan.
The second day of racing at the GBR Nationals brought much lighter conditions, 7-8 knots was the form. This also created wind holes in parts of the course, and together with wind shifts, created conditions more familiar to lake sailors. Often though, a sea breeze can develop in the afternoons here, but today it would added maybe a knot or two this time.
After two days of not sailing due to high wind limits, the thoroughbred competitors of the GBR Nationals, or Britnats, as the Aussies call it, where starting to get rather twitchy. But on day 3, Weymouth finally delivered, albeit with a few jellyfish the size of dustbins floating around, having blown in during the previous few days South Westerly storms.
How many times do you hear ‘ Ooh, it’s not normally like this here!’ when you get to regattas? The 2019 Worlds warm up event, the GBR Nationals, started with a bang. In fact, a rather too big a bang in fact.
