Report by Thomas Paasch -- There’ll be some big races coming up next weekend, with the Danish Nationals up north and the German/Swiss/Austrian nationals in the middle of Europe. The “A-Cat Treff” at Bosau in North Germany was the last chance to test the form for Danish and North German sailors. Hobie Cat Tiger/Wild Cat, 16, 14 and Dragoons where also invited to the regatta, so lots of different classes racing in the same race area.

Great success for 2013 French Nats with 70 boats racing. Organized by the French Association and held by Club Multicoques Hyeres.
Bob Baier took first place, followed by Chris Field and Eugenio Calabria.
Hervé Ledue took the National title on being the first French rider with a 8th overall among a top list of International sailors like 2012 A-Class World champ, Mischa Heemskek that ended 6th.

Really sad day for the sailing community. Olympic gold Medalist Andrew Simpson died yesterday while Artemis AC72 crashed and pitch at San Francisco Bay in conditions and details yet to be verified. Official press release at http://artemis-racing.americascup.com/news/4522

A-Class Association and our thoughts with his family. Sail On! Andrew.

Report sent by Manuel Calavia -
The A Class Trophy of the City of Valencia was held this past weekend. 15 A-Class sailors were there and we did 6 races with winds from 8 knots to 14 knots. As always Valencia is a fantastic spot to sail.

Saturday we had 3 races in 8 to 14 knots and Sunday 3 more races from 10 to 12 knots.

Manuel Calavia (ESP-11) won each race with more than 200m before the second.

ABYC was the venue for the successful 2012 F18 Worlds. Now the Club will organize the A-Class North Americans. The A-Cat US fleet managed to host a 120 boat World Championship at Isla Morada last year, now it is time to cross the country to race at a perfect sailing spot location like Long Beach.

Report by Guido Schulte // Schweriner Cat - Cup 2013 Clear win for Thomas Paasch
"The start-up of the season for the Baltic A-Class community took place on Schweriner See, a reasonbly sized beautiful lake, 30 km south of Wismar and a traditional hot spot for racing sailors of many classes. However, the The A-class joined this Regatta for the first time after several years of absence, and a surprising number of 19 competitors from Poland, Denmark and Germany showed up.

51 entries already for the French Nats to be held at Hyeres. The French Class Association is growing strong and two local new built boats, by Dorian le Pluart and the Addiction, are a good sign of what is going on at their home waters. Also we might see Raphael Censier racing with his home built A.

Entry List www.afcca.org/jy-vais/
More info and NOR at http://ducdalbe.oxatis.com
French Assoc http://www.afcca.org/

Nice initiative on the three Alpine A-Class associations to run together their Nats at Lake Constance on 17-20  organized by the Yacht Club Rheindelta and the Austrian Assoc. Image from the great A-Class Shortfilm by Johannes Obermaier  and produced by Catarina Jentzsch for the German A-Class.  If you haven't seen it yet do it now ,  as it is the best sailing short film ever made.
Full NOR attached below.

The new D3 A-Cat by D3 & Scheurer Design is progressing towards a near launch. The boat is being built at a renown Frecnch boat yard, http://www.cdk-technologies.com. Ben Moon has been racing quite well past seasons and right now is dominating the US fleet. He will be one of D3 riders for the Europeans.
More info at http://www.d3-a-cat.com/

Report from Chris about the first UK event at Datchet
1st event of 2013 On the weekend of the 16 th & 17th March the British AClass association
held the first Ranking event of 2013. It was hosted by Datchet Water Sailing Club on a reservoir next to Heathrow airport.
The fleet had 3 new boats racing along with the regular competitors including myself sailing the new VISION from CatamaranParts.nl and a new Hammer sail.