The Chief Measurer's observations.

French A Cat Nationals will be held from the 1st to the 4th of November in Maubuisson, near Bordeaux, the same place than the 2014 Europeans.  It's usually good flat water, windy and tactical conditions making it a very interesting and fun place to sail for either foiling or non-foiling A cats.

Dutch A-cat Nationals 2017, - Rutger Krijger reports

From the 22nd till the 24th of September the Dutch Nationals were hosted as they usually are by the great catamaran club of Hellecat.  Racing started on Friday with three races in fantastic conditions. Sunshine, 10-12 knots of breeze and flat water.  Coen de Koning, PJ Dwarshuis and Rutger Krijger emerged as the three front boats after the 1st day, showing some good foiling speeds.

Just twelve days after Sopot Worlds, the Spanish Championship were held in Puerto Sherry (Cadiz), which incidentally, is now bidding to host the 2020 A-Class Europeans.  Abdón Ibáñez reports

Andalusia has a big fleet of Classic A-Class, so it was a very good opportunity to bring back the Classic boats into the Class. A total of 25 A-Class, 12 Classic out of them, sailed the Championship.

Here are the minutes from the IACA 2017 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, Wednesday 23 August. , Navigo Sailing Club, Sopot, Poland.

Download Here.

Following the conclusion of the 2017 A Class Catamaran World Championship in Sopot, Poland, responsibility has moved onto Australia, to organise the next World A Class Championship.

Planning is well underway for the 2018 event, which will be held at Hervey Bay, in south eastern Queensland. Bob Griffits reports.

Hervey Bay is located approximately 300 kilometres north of Brisbane , and falls just a little short of the Tropic of Capricorn, so the climate is essentially tropical. The weather in November is reliably dry, with moderate south east trade winds.

The ‘A’ Class Cat.  Staying at the cutting edge - Written originally for Scuttlebutt

With the end of the ‘A’ Class Catamaran World Championships, seeing Stevie Brewin (AUS) crowned for his third title, now is a good time to reflect on what has been happening in the ‘Formula 1’ of small sailing cats over the last couple of years.  The development class, conceived in late 1950’s, is never standing still.

The ‘A’ Class Catamaran Worlds ended with a day on the beach for the sailors.  50deg windshifts, coupled with 28kt gusts from the SW finished the 2017 championships. With a similar power to weight ratio as a Moth, these 75kg carbon machines have a class limit set to 22kts for obvious reasons.  A few sailors, who could have improved their positions, would have been willing to sail, but only Manuel Calavia (ESP) could have had a mathematical chance of catching him. 

‘A’ Class Worlds. - medal races 2, 3 & 4

And the merry-go-round of the Polish weather continues.  Thursday brought light winds and sun.  But the winds were within the proscribed class minimum of 5kts, so the boats headed out to their allocated sailing zones.

After the thunder and lightning of yesterday, many of the ‘A’ Cats sailing the current Worlds in Sopot were on fire today.  The wind turned up in larger quantities than before in this regatta, with the sailors having to cope with 17+kts and 3ft seas. When things get to the upper end of the ‘A’cat’s envelope, these 75kg machines, powered by 150sqft of sail, start to get pretty lively and they begin jumping about with excitement.