Ash and Landy take A-Class World Titles

Hervey Bay, Australia (November 23, 2018) – After a two day delay in racing due to excessive winds, Australian Glenn Ashby (above) won his 10th A-Class Catamaran World Championship in the Open (foiling) division when racing resumed today to complete the 9-race series. In the Classic division, Andrew Landenberger (AUS) took the title by winning eight of the nine races.

After Mischa Heemskerk (NED) had reduced Ashby’s lead, the Aussie came out and posted a 3-1 to seal the victory with a race to spare which, in typical fashion, Ashby won to claim his sixth bullet of the championship to beat Heemskerk by nine points.

Ashby’s Emirates Team New Zealand teammates Blair Tuke (NZL) and Peter Burling (NZL) finished third and fourth while Ashby’s old Olympic teammate Darren Bundock (AUS) was fifth and the top Master.

A point of difference between Emirates Team New Zealand sailors and a lot of the fleet was the different rake angle they set between windward and leeward rudders.

“We are mimicking what we used to do with the AC50 catamarans in Bermuda” explains Ashby. “To put more grip on the windward hull (less rake rudder angle) to increase the righting moment and therefore allow the power of the rig to be harnessed to drive the boat faster. On the tack and gybe, we pull the controls exactly the opposite to help the maneuver happen faster.”

Last week Ashby notched up his 11th Australian National Championship as a warm-up regatta to the Worlds where he won 6 of the 7 races sailed.

“Of course I’m very happy about winning both the Australian Nationals and the Worlds again. It is obviously an event and a class of boat that is very special to me.” continued Ashby. “What has been really impressive is to see how Pete and Blair have been handling these boats so intuitively after basically four years not sailing them.

“This month has been fundamental for us to get back into high-performance development boats on a competitive nature but more importantly, collectively as a team moving forward to developing our first AC75 boat and onwards to 2021.”

Racing was held from November 18 to 23.

Class information – Open results – Classic results – Facebook

Source: ETNZ