Stewe Brewin - 2011 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Champion. Image copyright Kristoffer West/Sailing Aarhus.
by Thomas Capitani
The 2011 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Champion is Steve Brewin (AUS)
“This has been my best win ever! I stood up and delivered,” said Steve Brewin in a live interview few minutes after crossing the finish line.
After eight successful races in weather conditions ranging from clear blue skies, with 4–6 knot breezes, to harsh, rainy days with up to 22 knot gusts, the 2011 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship was finally settled today.
The excitement of this last day’s racing was further underlined by the fact that PRO Andreas Kuchler, following today’s first race (the eighth overall), put the AP over H (postponement on shore), sending the sailors back to shore due to the rough conditions. The sailors had to endure nearly one hour of tension, not knowing whether to ready themselves for a ninth race or to get changed and pack their gear.
Steve Brewin in action during the 2011 Worlds. Image copyright Kristoffer West/Sailing Aarhus.
At 14.00, after having been in dialogue with the meteorological Royal Danish Airforce Base in Karup, PRO Andreas Kuchler decided to fire one shot and pull down the postponement pennant, calling the sailors onto the water for a ninth race.
By 14.45 the wind had dropped to a steady 17 knots and there was some sunshine, so PRO Andreas Kuchler set the starting time to 15.05. As the sailors were still facing relatively rough conditions, though, many stayed on shore, either for fear of damaging their gear or due to their poor overall rankings.
The ninth race was started at 15.10 and was an action-packed drama, with live video streaming commentated on by an energetic Jack Punch (father of Jack Benson), who provided enthusiastic coverage of the hectic battle between the all-Australian leaders, Steve Brewin, Scott Andersson, Jack Benson and Andrew Landsberg. Steve Brewin had to make at least third place to win, but ended the race with a spectacular first place and, hence, the title of 2011 World Champion in front of Scott Anderson (AUS) and Jack Benson (AUS).
“This has been my best win ever! I stood up and delivered,” said Steve Brewin.
The last day of the 2011 Ronstan A-Catamaran World Championship thus ended with the mixture of both drama and action that characterizes the spectacular A-Cat. All that remains is the prize-giving ceremony and barbecue, where many sailors will doubtless linger in the bar, despite their tiredness, consuming plenty of beer and recalling the events of recent days with the well known “hand sailing” attitude.
How-to review all the #acat2011 coverage
Like previous years, Sailing Aarhus had teamed up with Active Institute of the University of Aarhus in order to cover the event online via internet which integrated GPS tracking , online video streaming from the race course, live morning and afternoon interviews with daily winners, twitter feeds from the committee boat as well as countless, exiting photos. If you want to review all the excitement please look here
Start of Race 4 on Day 2. Image copyright Kristoffer West/Sailing Aarhus.
The 2011 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship is organized by Sailing Aarhus in association with Kaløvig Sailing Center. The event is supported by the City of Aarhus and Sport Event Denmark and is sponsored by Ronstan, Volvo Cars Denmark and Henri Lloyd.
Overall Results (top 12)
2011 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship
Sailing Aarhus - Kaløvig Sailing Centre
Sailed: 9, Discards: 2, To count: 7, Entries: 96, Scoring system: Appendix A
Rank Nat SailNo Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Points
1 AUS 4 Steve Brewin (6.0) 1.0 (37.0) 4.0 3.0 4.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 16.0
2 AUS 902 Scott Anderson 1.0 2.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 (11.0) 4.0 4.0 (97.0 DNF) 18.0
3 AUS 13 Jack Benson 2.0 7.0 (21.0) 8.0 5.0 1.0 (39.0) 2.0 1.0 26.0
4 AUS 308 Andrew Landenberger 5.0 9.0 1.0 2.0 (25.0) 6.0 (21.0) 9.0 13.0 45.0
5 AUS 10 Brad Collett 9.0 5.0 (16.0) 7.0 9.0 3.0 (11.0) 8.0 6.0 47.0
6 ESP 1 Manuel Calavia 3.0 10.0 (33.0) 12.0 2.0 10.0 (16.0) 7.0 5.0 49.0
7 USA 11 Ben Moon 7.0 6.0 3.0 15.0 4.0 7.0 (97.0 BFD) (97.0 DNC) 8.0 50.0
8 AUS 25 Steve Brayshaw 8.0 (48.0) 12.0 13.0 10.0 2.0 3.0 (16.0) 15.0 63.0
9 NZL 245 Mike Drummond 14.0 8.0 8.0 9.0 13.0 (22.0) 10.0 (97.0 OCS) 7.0 69.0
10 GER 14 Bob Baier (27.0) 4.0 13.0 23.0 8.0 9.0 2.0 (97.0 OCS) 11.0 70.0
11 GBR 7 Chris Field 4.0 11.0 4.0 18.0 (32.0) 19.0 (33.0) 5.0 12.0 73.0
12 NED 7 Mischa Heemskerk (97.0 DNC) 35.0 (48.0) 19.0 6.0 5.0 9.0 3.0 3.0 80.0
Ronstan A-cat Worlds 2011
