Big names head for A-Cat Worlds

Spithill, Slingsby and Outridge to compete on Lake Macquarie in January

Some unlikely characters will be at Belmont 16 Foot Sailing Club on Lake Macquarie NSW in a few weeks when it hosts the 2009 A-Class Catamaran World Championships.

The youngest ever America's Cup skipper, Australian match racer James Spithill, started in monohulls but has been working hard on the multihull scene, while continuing to be a top class monohull skipper.

As one of BMW Oracle America's Cup helmsmen, he was suddenly thrust into the multihull world with the giant BMW Oracle 90 foot catamaran and as part of his new multihull program he has been sailing the two crew Formula 18 cats and the very fast Extreme 40 cats. In October Spithill came eighth at the 2008 North American A-Cat titles.

Two interesting entries come from the monohull sailors and Australian Olympians, Tom Slingsby and Nathan Outteridge.

Slingsby, who hails from Gosford on the News South Wales Central Coast, is the dual Laser World Champion. Outteridge, a Lake Macquarie sailor, is the 2008 49er World Champion whose high-speed skiff capsized on the last big wave in Qingdao. He was just 15 seconds from winning an Olympic gold medal.

Glenn Ashby, the race favourite, five time A-Cat World Championship winner and 2008 Olympic Tornado silver medallist feels that his Australian Olympic teammates may surprise with their results, despite their lack of Cat racing experience. He said that Slingsby and Outteridge were definite contenders because of their Olympic experience, as well as their impressive training sessions.

"You'd certainly have to count Tom Slingsby and Nathan Outteridge in the mix because they're both come off an Olympic campaign - certainly they've both grown up in that neck of the woods.

"I've sailed both with Nathan and Tom myself, (on Lake Macquarie) about a week ago and did three days with them. They've just been sailing up there with Scott Anderson who is a very good yardstick for them. Their sailing skills and their tactics are of course of a very high standard. I think they'll certainly surprise a lot of the international guys with how well they'll be sailing their boats when the Worlds come around," Ashby said.

Outteridge says he and Slingsby have been training hard, but the conditions will have to be right for them to do well. 'If conditions are light and shifty then our tactical experience will help us, but it's a very steep learning curve and if the summer sea breezes are honking then it will be the experienced cat sailors who will shine,' he said.

"Actually I've found the A-cats quite similar to the 49ers, sailing hot angles with little tacking. But for Tom it's just so different from the Lasers. It's a lot of fun for us both,' Outteridge remarked.

The action starts with the Australian A-Cat Nationals on 28 December followed by the A-Cat World Championships from 2-9 January 2009.

The World Championship fleet will consist of 95 to 100 boats, with sailors from 12 countries competing. Around 40 international entries have been received and amongst these are many of the top ranked sailors, including Luc du Bois (SUI), third in the 2008 Europeans, Manuel Calavia Arias (ESP), the top ranked European behind Ashby and Anderson at the 2007 Europeans and second behind Brewin in the 2008 Europeans, Sjoerd Hoekstra (NED), fourth at the 2008 Europeans, Donald Beike (GER), sixth at the 2008 Europeans, UK and Belgian champion Chris Field (GBR) and well know America's Cup sailor Kiwi yacht designer Mike Drummond, who finished in the top ten in the 2007 A-Cat Worlds.