Issue date
ISLAMORADA FLORIDA
The 2012 A Class Catamaran World Champion is Mischa Heemskerk from the Netherlands.
While only five races could be sailed as conditions steadily deteriorated with the impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy this week, Mischa was clearly dominant in the strong wind conditions.
The kiwi team made this event possibly one of our most successful worlds ever... three boats in the top ten; Murray Philpott 5th, Mike Drummond 6th and Allan Coutts 8th. Big thumbs up for Murray Philpott, now Grand Master World Champion and Blair Tuke 19th now Junior World Champion.
None of the races were sailed under 18 knots, and most were in the 20 to 22 knot band with attendant stronger gusts. The final race was sailed in very strong conditions; the regatta organiser took the appropriate decision to call a halt to proceedings after the first upwind/downwind legs. As one competitor quite nicely put it; “I have sailed in such strong winds, but I have never raced in such strong conditions”.
As would be reasonably expected the regatta told a reasonable toll on the carbon fibre masts, with some failing under load or capsize, especially when their tips were planted in the shallow placed seabed.
The prize for the most innovative mast break goes to a veteran German sailor who lost control of his boat while leaving the beach, and ran into the pier. He escaped what could have been serious injury, with the mast and rig behaving as his “safety crumple zones”, as it broke in multiple places, and draped the railing in an art form that would have made the artist Christo proud.
Fortunately, everyone survived the conditions well apart from sprains and bruises. The 2013 World Championships will be held in Auckland.
Image: A USA competitor capsizes
