In the bag with two races to spare

Glenn Ashby secures his sixth A-Cat World title

Glenn Ashby (above) just could not help himself today: he won race seven in the nine race series and claimed the A-Cat World Title for the sixth time. He then lined up again for race eight of the series.

Ashby was close behind Australian America's Cup skipper James Spithill at the top mark, but did not manage to catch the BMW Oracle mono and multihull sailor as they headed down the run. At the bottom mark Ashby hit the left hand mark and did an efficient 360 penalty turn, dropping him back to fourth place.

But a lap latter the six time World Champion was back in the lead. With his low trapping style he was sailing flatter and climbing inside his rivals.

He crossed the line in an impressive minute and 27 seconds ahead of Andrew Landenberger. Third was the European 2007 and 2008 Champion Manuel Calavia, followed by Spithill.

In the boat park Ashby was smiling. "Being World Champion for the sixth time is unreal. I had a great couple of races. I managed to sail well and so did the other guys. It turned out quite well. It's been a great regatta and I've enjoyed sailing here. The conditions were very nice today in both races and I managed to use that to my advantage."

Steve Brewin now has a gap on his rivals for second place overall and today he was blunt about the series: "Glenn has smashed us again. I'm happy with how I went and hopefully I'll do better next time, but now there is one more race to decide the podium places."

Manuel Calavia added, "I'm happy with how I went today. The other guys did well too and the conditions were good for the racing. Tomorrow will be interesting."

James Spithill is looking forward to the last race, and hopes to sail A-Cats again in the future: "The conditions were fresh and shifty. Glenn was great and Manolo (Manuel Calavia) did very well as well. Tomorrow the last race will be interesting because that brings another drop in. I'll sail in this class again; I'll have to lose a bit of weight first though, because most of the guys are about ten kilos lighter than me."

The final race in the 2009 A-Cat World Championship is scheduled for 10.30 am on Friday.

Overall results (one discard)

1 Glenn Ashby 8
2 Steve Brewin 26
3 Manuel Calavia 39
4 James Spithill 44
5 Andrew Landenberger 44