Glenn Ashby has one hand on sixth A-Cat Crown

8:35 AM Tue 6 Jan 2009 GMT
Australia's Glenn Ashby performed brilliantly today in Races 4, 5 and 6 of the A-Cat Worlds at Belmont, on Lake Macquarie.

All three races for the 94-boat fleet were sailed in similar 10-12 knots conditions, perfect for these high performance catamarans.

The fourth race of the 2009 A-Cat Worlds was one for the history books with three Australian Tornado (multihull) Olympic champions competing. Ashby, the Beijing Olympic Tornado silver medallist (with Darren Bundock) won the race from Gosford's Scott Anderson, the Australian 1984 Olympic Tornado Silver medallist and the Australian 1996 Olympic Tornado Bronze Medallist Andrew Landenberger.

Ashby won the second race of the day, Race 5 of the series, from Bob Baier, the top German A-Cat sailor and Steve Brewin, the second ranked Australian.

In the third race (Race 6) Baier won from Ashby with Dave Brewer, in third.

With racing back on schedule after the first day was blown out due to high winds and with six races in the series now complete, tomorrow marked as the reserve day, has been declared a lay day.

One drop has been taken into consideration in the progressive scores. In the case of Glenn Ashby, this is a lowly third.

With one further drop coming into play after the next three races, at this point in the regatta it appears that Glenn Ashby only has to get another 'keeper' to become unbeatable at this event and claim the A-Cat World Champion title for the sixth time.

Here is how the day unfolded.

At the start of Race 4, Glenn Ashby and Steve Brewin started right near the Committee boat.

Andrew Landenberger was first to the bottom mark, followed by Ashby and Brewin, who had come in from the right hand side of the course. James Spithill picked up 30 seconds around the right hand mark, zipping across from the left to avoid gas from the oncoming fleet.

The wind shifted fifteen degrees to the right, causing Principal Race Officer Peter Moor to shorten the race at the bottom mark after two laps.

First across the line was Glenn Ashby, followed by Scott Anderson, Andrew Landenberger, Steve Brewin, Ben Deed, and James Spithill.

As Race 5 began there was a 10-degree wind shift to the left, to 080 degrees, as the fleet came down the run; Brewin was first to the bottom mark ahead of Bob Baier. Next came Manuel Calavia (ESP), then Ashby, Tom Slingsby (AUS), Brad Collett (AUS) and Nathan Outteridge (AUS).
At the second bottom mark Baier lead the fleet, followed by Ashby and Calavia.

A big finish from Ashby produced another win for the champion sailor. Next came Baier followed by Brewin, Calavia, Anderson, Brewer and Outteridge.

In Race 6 there was, in the last minute, a stack up of boats above the Committee boat.

The Spaniard Manuel Calavia started above Glenn Ashby. Below him was Steve Brewin and this group won the start.

Early in the first beat there was a shift to the right and on the run the breeze shifted back again. Germany's Bob Baier was the major beneficiary; Brewin the big loser as he lost eight places in the lap. Baier led Ashby round the bottom mark with Brewer in third place.

By the next lap around, those three boats had cleared away from the fleet and stayed in the same order until the finish.

Bob Baier had a convincing win finishing about 100 metres ahead of Glenn Ashby. Dave Brewer came a very solid third ahead of Luc Du Bois (SUI) and Manuel Calavia (ESP).

by Rob Kothe

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