This weekend at Rutland Sailing Club, in central England and an area famed for Stilton cheese, pork pies and Leicester City FC incidentally, I met with Ron Price. 

Ron is a senior lecturer in naval architecture at the Warsash Maritime Academy at Solent University, Southampton.  He is the designer of the 5.9m Whisper T foil catamaran.  You’ve probably seen it, a red thing based on stretched hull lines of a foiling Moth, with a modified A Cat type rig with a jib and claims to foil in 5 knots of wind.

Mothman sees the light!  In a record turnout for the UK fleet, 24 boats raced over 4 days at Rutland SC in a variety of interesting conditions that tested all.  Foiling Moth World No. 2, Chris Rashley, flew to a convincing 9 race win at the UK ‘A’ Class Catamaran Nationals this weekend to become the 2016 UK National Champion.

A-Cat Dutch Nationals 2016 - Kees Krijger files this report.

28 boats were entered for the Dutch Nationals held at the Hellecat Catamaranclub on the great flat waters of the Haringvliet. Quite a few competitors were practising in the days leading up to the event, providing some great training. 

Polish A Cat President, and World number 4, Jacek Noetzel, reports on what was a great Polish Nationals at Sopot.

From 19th to 21st of August A-class Polish Championships were held in Sopot. The City of Sopot is the town where the World Championships will be held in 2017.

Nordic Open in Skovhoved Denmark.

The local Danes Thomas Paasch, Bo Erhardt and Tom Bojland took the podiums at the Nordic Open regatta on 20-21st August.   7 races with foiling conditions in two of them, meant that Bo Erhardt on his straight board Flyer showed excellent performance alongside the foiling boats



Next Danish regatta is the Danish nationals

Many sailors were intrigued by the 'knitting machine' that was underneath Stevie Brewin and Adam Beattie's Exploder Ad3 trampolines.  So, here is an annotated photo to show what does what.  The undertramp mainsheet cascade system was not actually used in the racing, so you can ignore that bit.  The added apparent complexity is just ingenious use of the takeaway bungees to allow a clear deck, the holy grail of 'A' cat systems. 

Many thanks to Stevie for sharing his secrets.

The North American National Championships, at Newport RI, on 12-15th Sept.  The NOR and registration is available here.

The Italian Championships, at the Adriatico Wind Club A.s.d., Porto Corsini (Ra)  25 – 28 August 2016 NOR has been published here

The NOR is published for the British A Class Nationals, August 26th to 29th 2016.

The first Dutch 'A' Cat open, since the Worlds, was a chance for friends to catch up and to put into practice what was learned at Medemblik.  Kees Krijger reports.

A-Catweekend at Sea – Vrouwenpolder – Catclub Zeeland.