Ashby Sails News
Ashby Sails take all 3 podium places in recent A class Victorian championships
The Victorian A-Class Catamaran state titles were held over the March Labour day weekend on the 12th to 14th of March, 2011 at the McCrae Yacht Club. Glenn Ashby placed first, with Dave Brewer coming second and Dean Barker in third. Due to light winds on the Saturday and a storm front on the Sunday where only one race was sailed, four races were conducted back to back on the Monday to complete the series.
Photo by David McDonald
For more information on the event click here to go to the A class website
Results can be found here from the McCrae Yacht club website
Comments by Glenn on the titles can be viewed here from the A class website
A gallery of photos by David McDonald is also available on the A class website here
Update: Brad Collett has just won the NSW states with an Ashby Sail! for more details on the event click here!
Ashby Wins 8th A Cat Australian Title
Glenn Ashby takes out his 8th Australian A Class Championship title against a high class fleet of 73 competitors. Fellow competitors consisted of Olympic medalists, Americas Cup specialists and home grown high class sailors. 4 of the top 7 competitors were using the new 2011 design Ashby Sails MAXX sails. For more information on the 2011 designs click here or on sails
Following on from his A Class Worlds win in July in Italy, Ashby showed he was not ready to give up the podium to fellow Aussie Steve Brewin, finishing in second position. New to the class, Emirates Team New Zealands skipper Dean Barker, Great Britain Olympic sailor William Howden and Olympic silver medalist Darren Bundock all tufted out top places in the final days of racing, showing their talent.
The start of the week saw excellent racing conditions though rain hampered the final two days. The race committee managed to get one race in and whilst they attempted to start further races the weather was against them.
Ashby said “ I feel like I sailed a solid regatta and felt that the efforts in my training preparation and rig developments paid big dividends. The racing was great fun and generally very close”.
A few shots of the racing are in the gallery below.
Etchell Australian Championships
One day later after taking out the A Class Championships Glenn Ashby was back on the water though on one hull rather than two. He joined skipper Mark Bulka and Stewart Nichols in Geelong on the Etchell. The three had last sailed in Adelaide, winning the Etchell Australian Championships.
In a close series which saw the fleet face all elements of weather the crew merely missed taking out the regatta, final results coming down to the last downwind in the last race. John Bertrand and his crew managed to pass two boats on the finishing line holding on to the title. Ashby commented “considering we had done no training and at the start of the week had all agreed this week was going to be a bit of fun, we were pleased with the result. Congratulations go out to John and his team.”
A-Class Worlds 2010 – Ashby wins seventh World Championship
‘Glenn Ashby wins his 7th A-Class Cat World Championships- Italy 2010′ Eva Fagnoli
This afternoon Australia’s Glenn Ashby has taken out his seventh A Class World Championship, on the Adriatic Sea in Cesenatico Italy, from a fleet of 100 entries. It was another extremely light day. The wind finally lifted to 4-5 knots going into the last race of the day (two races had been scheduled though the last one was cancelled due to lack of breeze.) Glenn had a two point lead over fellow Aussie Steve Brewin. Rather than attempting to cover his rivals, Ashby chose to sail his own race starting at the pin end. He had a clear start and was first at the top mark with Brewin back in fourth place.
Brewin closed and was able to climb up into second place but fell back to third again, while Ashby held his lead drifting over the finish line to take out the World Championships.
Whilst Ashby and his fellow Australian’s are used to heavier conditions, this 2010 championship was sailed almost completely in light wind conditions and Ashby this week used sails which would have seen him seriously overpowered in the kinds of conditions that prevailed when he won the 2009 A Cat Worlds on Lake Macquarie, Australia. This will be Ashby’s 14th World Championship title.
Ashby said ‘I accepted early, that light wind was what the weather gods had dealt us and put my head into light weather racing’.
He continued. ‘It was super tough mentally today in extremely soft wind conditions. I’m very relieved to have gone the right way in the first upwind to defend my lead.
‘Congratulations to Stevie (Brewin) and Jack (Benson) for a great regatta. I will pack up now and look forward to the Formula 18 World Championships which start next week, with James Spithill. I am really happy and stoked with the win.’
Gallery
