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Articles: A-Cat Worlds Report - Day 2

Added by damonAdmin on Nov 14, 2007 - 01:41 PM

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Grass, grass, grass…  Recent storms that have rolled through the Florida Keys have washed a lot of shallow water sea grass up on shore and a change of wind carried the grass out into the Atlantic by way of the channels.  Well, guess what?  The A-Cats are racing both outside of a channel that cuts between a couple of the Key Islands and the racing area is located smack dab in the middle of the main Atlantic inshore channel that runs the length of the Keys.  So what we saw on the course today was a lot of grass drifting downwind through the course.  Oh it’s not as bad as it sounds, we could be sailing off of San Diego where the kelp will stop a boat cold dead in its tracks.  But for a fleet that was expecting beautiful tropical sailing in the Florida Keys in the late Fall, the floating grass was frustrating for everyone.  But, taken in the gestalt of everything, grass was fair and frustrating for everyone equally. 

The Race Committee drove around the racing area trying to find the most grass free zone and settled in for the first race.  Before the start of the second race , the RC sent out a scout boat to try and find a different location to move the course.  Unfortunately, the entire area had floating grass in varying thickness – from clear and weed free to floating palm fronds in clumps with entangled weed.  Some competitors had rudder assemblies that enabled them to yank a line to raise one or both to easily clear.  Most though had rudders that had to be raised manually and individually which made clearing the grass more problematic.  There were some boats with “short boards” that could be easily pulled up to clear the weed, and some that had a more difficult time raising daggerboards to clear them.  Overall, the grass was equitably challenging to all competitors. 


Check out the Day 2 Results at http://www.acatworlds.com/res/worlds/regatta.html and you’ll see that all competitors met the grass challenge equally.

Racing conditions today were lighter than yesterday.  The breeze filled in and held relatively steady out of 020 between 5 and 8 knots.  The first race of the day got off in good order with an Individual Recall of 2 boats.  The six-leg course was 1.0nm long for each leg.  Glenn Ashby (AUS 1) and Pete Melvin (USA 69) took first and second with Lars Guck (USA 250) close behind in third.  The weather mark was shortened to about 0.8nm for the last leg as the breeze lightened a bit.  Race 2 also saw a clean start with 2 OCS boats – one exonerated, on did not (more on this later…).  Steady winds kept the course length at 0.85nm for the entire race.  The same three competitors took the top three spots, except this time Lars Guck (USA 250) got the bullet, followed by Glenn Ashby (AUS 1) and Pete Melvin (USA 69).

After 4 races it is apparent that there is a real battle for the top.  Lars Guck (USA 250) and Glenn Ashby (AUS 1) are tied at the top with 7 points each.  Pete Melvin (USA 69) is alone in third with 17 points, Luc DuBois (SUI 202) in fourth with 30 points, and Matt Struble (USA 198) and Mitch Booth (NED 250) tied with 32 points each.

There were a couple of twists in racing today that raised some eyebrows.  First was the method being used as a Safety Check as well as a Check-In method for the boats.  Each competitor is required to pick up a numbered tag before leaving the beach each morning and are also required to turn the tag back in at the end of each day of racing.  Failure to comply with either checking out in the morning or checking in when returning to shore results in a 20% scoring penalty for the first race sailed each day.  Yesterday, everyone complied, but today 5 Competitors discovered that there is a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to this procecedure.

The second controversy involved one boat that was called OCS and then requested Redress on the grounds that the RC was late in raising the Individual Recall Flag.  After the hearing, the International Jury decided to award Redress points to the competitor even though he admitted at the hearing that he knew he was over early.  Based on the facts found, this was what the Jury thought was the appropriate outcome.  Needless to say, the Fleet is a tad bit upset with this compromise decision.  Sea Lawyers who use the rules to gain an advantage in this manner are never looked on with respect in our sport.  It’s unfortunate that this occurrence was even brought up.  Oh well, it’s all part of the sport and is even more important at this level of competition.

Looking forward to racing tomorrow, the forecast is for wind much the same as we saw today.  Many locals around Islamorada have assured us that the weed/grass issues should be gone by tomorrow, if for no other reason than there is only so much grass that can be washed out of the channels.  Let’s hope that’s the case since seeing seaweed snagged on forestays just looks ugly!  Once we reach 5 races the throwout kicks in and the results will jumble a bit as the high scores get tossed.  We’ve got 4 races on the books with two races scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday and one race on Friday.

More excellent pictures have been uploaded http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=37435 all taken by Lou Vest.  Take some time to check out the excellent pics posted here. Here's three samples from Day Two.

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Lastly, but definitely not least, this a great opportunity to recognize the stellar Race Committee that has been put together for this event.  Many are volunteers who have been recruited on-site, but there is a core of people who have come here from Texas to provide the World-Class Race Committee that this event deserves.  Billy Richnow, the Principal Race Officer, is a long time multihull sailor with many championships under his belt as well as many years organizing and running first class Race Committees.  Billy has brought his all star core team with him from Texas.  Every one of these folks have years of deep Race Committee experience at this level.  On the Signal Boat with Billy are Betty Reeh and Ann Apel.  The Pin/Finish boat is managed by Leigh Ann Hawboldt, and the Weather Markset boat is under the able charge of her husband Brian Hawboldt.  It would not be possible to execute the on the water racing without both this core crew and the large number of volunteers who make this happen for the 100 Competitors in this World Championship.

http://acatworlds.com/res/worlds/2007_A-Cat_Worlds_Championship.html


 
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