A-class NA's get underway in Santa Cruz, Calif.

No Pictures, it didn't happen.

http://www.acatnas.org/photos Jeremy is working hard out there

Set Up Day.

Excellent starts.

Pete Melvin Gettin er done, Race 3.

Santa Cruz is a really nice place to sail.

<img src="http://www.surfcitycatamarans.com/sitebuilder/images/P9300816-466x346.jpg" alt="" />

This is all I know:

Racing started around noon in 6kts of breeze from 240 and calm seas. Epic racing between Pete Melvin and Lars Guck for the top spot. The second lap the wind increased to 8kts. Perfect light wind A-class weather--not your typical Santa Cruz boat breaker like in the Summer. Nice and mellow fall weather.

Race 2 10-12kts from 240 with a bit more chop. Local boy Paul Allen was in the mix toward the top of the pack. Don't know how it ended up though.

3rd Race 12 to 15kts, lengthened course.

I don't know how any of it ended up. Stay tuned for results. I have to put the skiff away. Perfect day for A-cattin'.

What about Ben's Wingsail ? He did not participate ?

Ben's using a soft sail I believe.

He used a soft sail in Bristol, and in Roton Point.

The nice tree huggin', peace and love Santa Cruz that we all know and love left today and the dark underbelly of typical Santa Cruz sailing showed itself. Just kidding, it wasn't that bad.

Started out light in the am, races off at 11. Picked up to around 15 solid at A. Later it was solid 18 with puffs to 25kts and the second race was finished and races called for the day. Sea state deteriorated and a pretty good ground swell filled in. Many boats over, several rigs down and various damage here and there. Nothing too bad.

This is the first A-class regatta that I've chased at and I

m enjoying watching the strategy and how the boats sail in different conditions.

Fun party last night at our friend Adam's (H16 extraordinaire) House. Good family style, Santa Cruz chillin'. Good folks! Adam remarked that if we had that many Hobie 16 sailors in his house the place would've been destroyed, it wasn't <img src=

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I still don't know the stats, someone else can post them. Lars is looking good as well as Pete. I have no idea, and it's time to go to another party! Good times!

No pix, too busy scoopin' and towin'!

Happy sailing!

Bill, has he given up on the wing or is it just too much to ship to Cali? I was hoping for a

Wing 2

soon.

Guck Goes Fast in the Breeze
By Lynn Fitzpatrick

Santa Cruz, CA, October 1 – Lars Guck continued to pull away from the fleet at the A-Cat North Americans hosted by Santa Cruz Yacht Club. Guck posted a 1, 1 in today's two races. Pete Melvin sailed a consistent 3, 3 and Phil Kinder and James Spithill slipped in between Guck and Melvin to cop a second in Race 4 and Race 5, respectively.

It was another sunny fall day in Santa Cruz, but today's breeze was a lot more thrilling for spectators and racers. A front came through, the sky clouded over and the wind piped up during the first 1.5-mile beat of the second race so that by the time the fleet popped out from the protected area below the bluff they were in 20-25 knot winds with gusts up to 28. Some overstood the weather mark and reached out of control into the mark. Bearing away for the offset or heading downwind in the 4-5-foot waves and swells proved to be the undoing of many.

It was like riding a bucking bronco in those conditions,

said Melvin.

Some people got washed off their boats, others pitch-poled and still others broke shrouds and masts. With people separated from their boats and watching boats sail off by themselves with the trampoline as their sail, the race committee shortened course and finished the fleet at the bottom of the run.

The day may have been short on the water, but there was a lot of work being done in the boatyard during the late afternoon. Unofficially, nine of the 28-boat fleet were scored DNF and the committee will hear requests for redress on Thursday morning. Newcomers to the A-Cats (but not multihulls) who seem to be getting the hang of things – Enrique Figueroa, of Puerto Rico, who sailed a 9, 4 for the day and James Spithill of Australia with a Valencia address, who posted a 7, 2 amidst the carnage on the course.

Provisional Results following 5 Races and no discards.

1. Lars Guck – 6
2. Pete Melvin – 11
3. Phil Kinder – 20
4. Ben Hall – 41
5. Paul Allen – 46
6. Woody Cope – 46
7. Enrique Figueroa – 48
8. Pease Glaser – 50
9. James Spithill – 52
10. Ken Marshack - 55

I havent talked to Ben directly about it, but I heard secondhand that the wing was too heavy in any kind of swell and caused too much pitching.

The trailor to CA was loaded down with boats and gear and getting the wing on would have been tough.

Does anyone have damage bad enough to keep them out of the rest of the regatta? Any broken masts?

How about posting the full results?

I wish I had natural talent like Spithill. If he can jump into the A Cat class and have a 2nd place finish in high winds, then he deserves to be sailing AC Cup boats...especially if they are cats!
Anyone got any scoop from him on what we will be sailing in the AC or DoG? Corner him over a beer Jeremy!

2008 A-Class Catamaran North American Championship
Provisional Results

Hull # Country Sail # Competitor Pos Points Pos Point Pos Points Pos Points Pos Point Total Place
30 USA 250 Lars Guck 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1
Black USA 69 Pete Melvin 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 11 2
16 USA 110 Phil Kinder 3 3 7 7 3 3 2 2 5 5 20 3
15 USA 99 Ben Hall 6 6 8 8 7 7 11 11 9 9 41 4
19 USA 181 Paul Allen 14 14 3 3 6 6 13 13 10 10 46 5
24 USA 209 Woody Cope 13 13 9 9 12 12 4 4 8 8 46 6
17 USA 80 Enrique Figueroa 21 21 6 6 8 8 9 9 4 4 48 7
34 USA 280 Pease Glaser 4 4 12 12 5 5 14 14 15* 15 50 8
10 AUS 7 James Spithill 18 18 21 21 4 4 7 7 2 2 52 9
20 USA 192 Ken Marshack 8 8 22 22 10 10 8 8 7 7 55 10
31 USA 88 Peter Cogan 5 5 4 4 13 13 5 5 dnf 29 56 11
28 USA 241 Bill Westland 11 11 10 10 17 17 15 15 6 6 59 12
11 USA 9 Ian Lindahl 7 7 15 15 9 9 6 6 dnf 29 66 13
18 USA 180 Jay Glaser 10 10 16 16 18 18 10 10 13 13 67 14
27 USA 240 Craig Yandow 9 9 20 20 16 16 17 17 16 16 78 15
36 USA 1819 Rory Giffen 16 16 11 11 11 11 12 12 dnf* 29 79 16
33 USA 279 Jeremy Laundergan 15 15 13 13 21 21 20 20 14 14 83 17
21 USA 195 Ian Storer 20 20 17 17 15 15 22 22 11 11 85 18
22 USA 197 Eric Marshack 19 19 5 5 14 14 18 18 dnf 29 85 19
32 USA 260 Davi Ottenheimer 12 12 18 18 19 19 16 16 dnf* 29 94 20
29 USA 244 Andy Kolb 17 17 19 19 dnf 29 23 23 12 12 100 21
26 USA 231 Rush Bird 23 23 14 14 22 22 19 19 dnf 29 107 22
35 USA 282 Oliver Moore 24 24 23 23 20 20 21 21 dnf 29 117 23
23 USA 206 Sandy Dick 25 25 26 26 25 25 25 25 17 17 118 24
12 USA 23 Stan Breed 22 22 24 24 23 23 dnf 29 dns 29 127 25
14 USA 55 Ed Bourguignon 26 26 25 25 24 24 26 26 dnf 29 130 26
13 USA 44 Joe Leonard 28 28 27 27 27 27 24 24 dnf 29 135 27
25 USA 223 Mark Skeels 27 27 28 28 26 26 dnf 29 dns 29 139 28
28 Entrants
* Request for Redress Pending
Race 4 Race 5Race 1 Race 2 Race 3

You know who else is amazing is Enrique. He can hop on a 16, A class, Tiger, etc and basically figure it out. Listening to he and Lars talk about tuning, strategy etc is pretty cool. E. was trying to convert his knowledge from sailing spi boats to the A class. Looks like he figured it out. He'xs going to hop on a 16 at the 40th this weekend. To transfer knowledge between boats like that is amazing. A lot of these guys are so good they make it look easy. Look at Spithill, same thing. They tapped into some knowledge.

I guess this does look kind of like an a class:

Just goes to show it's not really the boat that makes for a good finish, it's the raw talent of the skipper.

This whole fleet is made up of exceptional sailors, and good people in general!

Ben told me at Roton that the wing was still broken from the Worlds and that he wasn't happy enough with it's performance to repair it yet.

Provisional Results

There's gotta be some stories behind all the dnf/dns...

From USACA Website
Guck Takes A-Cat NA’s with a Perfect Score
Saturday, 04 October 2008 00:18 Lynn Fitzpatrick Santa Cruz, CA, October 3 - The writing was on the official notice board at Santa Cruz Yacht Club Friday morning. After having sailed eight races, Lars Guck had seven points. It would be tough for anyone to prevent Guck from winning his fourth A-Class Catamaran North American championship title.
The committee was going to give it their best to get off three races on the final day of the A-Class Catamaran North American Championships in Santa Cruz, CA. Pete Melvin also had a phenomenal score of 15 points and Phil Kinder was in third with 25 points going into the day. Clustered, but more than 20 points behind Kinder were Paul Allen, Enrique Figueroa, Peter Cogan, James Spithill and Ben Hall.

Guck, a boat repair wizard and the new builder of the A3 A-Cat from Bristol, RI, claimed to be on vacation all week and has been enjoying himself in all conditions on and off the water. He's gotten a few chuckles out of watching a pro or two behind him trying to master the A-Cat, the wind, waves and weed in Santa Cruz.
After winning all three of the final day's racing and finishing the 11-race, 2-discard regatta with 9 points, Guck said,

It's all about the local fleet. We sail every Tuesday night and complete about 100 races every summer. It keeps you sharp.

Guck's winning equipment combination was an A3, a Glaser sail and a Fiberfoam spar.

New to the A-Cat, James Spithill certainly performed better as the week went on. Mortal that he is, he started the week by thinking that he crossed the finish line only to discover that he went to the wrong side of the pin. He got hung up on the weather mark during the second race. He went for a swim on Thursday. He yelled at the kelp, just like everyone else. He got the most satisfaction out of Friday's second race when he shared the lead with Pete Melvin until getting stuck in kelp near the second weather mark.

I loved it,

said Spithill of the racing. Not only did he have a lot of brains to pick and styles to emulate, but he found it,

good to be overpowered,

in the breeze. He learned how to control the feisty A-Cat by

playing with the trim, trying stuff and just getting the feel of it in all kinds of conditions.

Some of the competitors, including Enrique and Carla Figueroa, the 2002, 2005 and 2006 Hobie 16 North American champions packed up quickly so that they could make it to Dana Point, CA for the Hobie 40th Anniversary Regatta this weekend.

1. Lars Guck - 9
2. Pete Melvin - 19
3. Phil Kinder - 34
4. Peter Cogan - 60
5. Ben Hall - 63
6. Paul Allen - 64
7. Enrique Figueroa - 68
8. James Spithill - 73
9. Pease Glaser - 79
10. Ken Marshak - 83