The final playday before the racing events kick off on Castor Bay was a pleasant one for most.  @PredictWind had the winds pretty much spot on again with 6-8kts.  A few sustained puffs up to 11kts here and there, and a NNE direction, which is onshore here.  Out in their chosen training zone there developed the expected short chop as the wind over tide conditions pushed waves up to half a metre or so, but nothing they can’t handle. 

Our headline sponsor at the PredictWind A-Cat Worlds 2025 had got it pretty much bang on in Thursday’s forecast.  A nice 12-13 kts NNE out on Castor Bay and slowly falling throughout the afternoon.  But, the wind over tide again created a chop on the water much larger than the wind deserved, and half meter short frequency waves made for lumpy riding out to the middle of the bay in a RIB with a fat bloke on board plus his 12kg of kit. But this was the area favoured by the sailors for their practice/setup/mode testing/playpen area.

Yesterday, out on the bay, only a handful of sailors went out.  It was the ‘Usual Suspects’ of Kuba Surowiec, POL41, Jacek Noetzel, POL1, Michal Korneszczuk, POL111, Emmanuel Dode, FRA2 and Dave Shaw, NZL 270 who just can’t see a body of water without needing to be on it.    But now joined by Valdek Kwasniewski, POL 120, David Haylock NZL284 and Lamberto Cesari ITA13.  But they’d forgotten to book a suitable wind, so initially stooged about in sub minimal conditions of 3-4kts, with the odd 5kt blast, all coming from the NNE.  The sea state was benign, with a slight

Tuesday at the Milford Cruising club saw more sailors arriving and getting their boats set up.  Rolling about on the grass underneath them, occasionally emitting profanities so extreme that birds literally burst into flame mid flight, as they drop a split pin into their eyeball or discover that their take-away bungee comes from the wrong side of that rope.

Sailing superstars on the A-Cat fleet (yes, I do realise you are ALL covered in his category, but you are not all here are you?!) are arriving at Milford Cruising Club in Auckland.  A lovely club set in parkland and quite possibly one of the friendliest venues we ever had.  Nothing is too much trouble for Andrew the Commodore and his dedicated crew.

The SI's are now HERE

It’s that time again.  That time when the great and the good sailors of the World’s most elegant catamaran class come together to battle for their World Championships, as the A-Class Cats comes to town.  This year they are gathering at the sailing Mecca that is Auckland Harbour.  The Kiwis are a proud waterborne nation and their dominance of the sport over the years, results in many of their sailors being at the highest level.  

The Venue

Denis Brendel - the IACA financial auditor - is doing his last audit of the IACA finances. We are grateful for Denis' work during the past several years!
However, he feels that it is time to hang up his spreadsheet now, so we are looking for his successor to be the new IACA auditor. It's a "once a year task" that should take only a few hours.

Please think if you could do this task for the class. Pre-requisites are knowledge of English and a basic experience in accounting/finance.

Contact : Charles Bueche <iaca@bueche.ch>

A challenging weekend on Como for the Swiss Nats.  Chris Stock reports.

Sailing is a sport that requires a wide range of skills: physical fitness, agility, endurance, technical understanding, knowledge of the rules, meteorological knowledge, strategic thinking and much more. However, there are two other key skills that were particularly important at this year's Swiss A-Cat Championship in Dongo on beautiful Lake Como: patience and frustration tolerance.

After 6 great years in on the trampoline of the Belgian Class Association, the popular Philippe Muyzers BEL 54 is stepping down at President.  Phil's friendly and gentle style will be misses, although we hope to see him still on the circuit.

Michel Worlop, BEL 9 will be grasping the BEL Class sheets, and knowing him, he will be a great replacement.

We wish them both the best for the future!