Dear Sailors.

The Europeans Championship 2018 in Warnemünde, Germany will be a closed event with maximum 100 entries. The IACA has set the contingent as defined in the championship rules.

The contingent (attached below) depends on the fees paid by your national association to IACA.



The president of national associations should now collect the desired number of entries, and request the desired changes. On the side of IACA, the process is handled by Graeme Harbour for the IACA committee.



Kind regards,

Charles

Glenn Ashby is the new Australian Champion. Bob Griffits gives his wrap up.

The penultimate day of racing on Lake Macquarie today was marked by beautiful sailing conditions, heralding a great start to the new year, reports Bob Griffits.

The early morning cloud cover burnt off to provide a beautifully warm sunny day.

The forecast of light variable winds proved to be inaccurate, and instead a moderate strength south east wind filled the course. The breeze strengthened to about 18 knots by the start of the first race of the day, stabilised at that strength for the first two races, then settled at 12 knots for the third race.

The wind today was perfect for sailing. Despite some cloud cover, the warm land was able to suck in a moderate sea breeze from the South Pacific Ocean.  Bob Griffits reports.

Three races were sailed in quick succession in breeze which settled in at about 8 knots, and slowly built to 12 knots by the end of the third race.

A DNA F1, sailed by Brad Collett, notched up the first win for the design in Australian water the during the first race of the day.

The Race Committee had planned to run three races today, but it was not to be.  Bob Griffits reports

Unfortunately, the weather forecasters were correct, and their predictions of light winds out of the west eventuated.

The morning was characterised by drizzling rain, which at least helped to encourage a good participation attendance at the class AGM.

West winds are turbulent in nature by virtue of their transit large distances across the vast Australian interior, which at this time of year is extremely hot.

Dear fellow sailors,

I wanted to write a message for 2018, reminding the nice moments we had in 2017. Gordon beat me to it with his excellent article "2017 - A Class Year". So I thought, let's take another road and talk about people making the class.

Day One at the Australian Nationals Championships 2017/18.  Bob Griffits reports from the centre of action.

Racing commenced today in the Australian Championships at Wangi, NSW. 51 boats faced the starter’s gun at 1300 hours under blue skies on a typical NSW summer’s day.

...and a hoping you all have a very happy New Year!

Down in Australia, the Aussie superstars are gathering for what promises to be a hotly contested opening event of 2018   Robert Griffits reports.

In just a little under one week, the starter’s gun will fire signalling the start of the 2017/18 Australian A Class Cat Championships.  The composition of the fleet is now crystallising.

As European sailors shiver under an icy onslaught, and reflect longingly on all those great sailing days of the summer, we must spare a thought for those plucky Aussies, readying themselves in the heat and doing all that training in their bathlike warm, shark infested seas for the coming year.  We take a look back at 2017, a year which, as ever, saw some significant developments within the class.