Auckland delivered the full spectrum of sailing conditions as the PredictWind A-Class Catamaran World Championships made its transition from practice racing to points scoring this week. Tuesday (11 November) opened the campaign proper under a steady northeasterly at Castor Bay, while today brought a more demanding picture, with rain squalls encircling the course, the breeze fading in and out, and wind shifts covering wide arcs across the harbour. When the racing was done, the Open fleet had three races on the board and the Classic fleet five, with the best four results counting toward each sailor's tally.
Tuesday's racing unfolded in relatively clean conditions. A NNE breeze of 10 to 12 knots pushed short, wind-against-tide chop across Castor Bay, giving both fleets enough pressure to run tidy starts and complete two races each before the wind eased late in the afternoon. Sailors who returned to the Milford Cruising Club lawn afterwards noted that the day had rewarded patient upwind angles and smooth downwind transitions rather than raw boat speed, and the scoreboard reflected that pattern. As opening days go, it was about as tidy as the venue could have offered.
The second day of racing was a different story. Moderate air greeted the fleets in the morning, but it was short-lived. The breeze dropped away, the AP flag went up, and the sailors drifted near the start area while rain cells built around the harbour and tracked both north and south of the course. The Race Officer held the fleets through repeated pauses as the wind swung unpredictably. Only late in the afternoon did conditions relent, delivering enough breeze to complete one Open race and three Classic races. It was a taxing day, but both courses finished their work.
In the Open foiling fleet, American sailor Ravi Parent (USA 76) has taken a firm grip on the championship lead. Scores of 1-3-1, giving him two race wins and a third for a total of 5 points, reflect a sailor who found the narrow upwind lanes in the lighter patches and held them when others could not. Australian Darren Bundock (AUS 88) is second on 8 points following a composed 2-4-2 series, with Poland's defending World Champion Jakub Surowiec (POL 41) a step further back in third on 11 points. Australian Adam Beattie (AUS 14) trails Surowiec by a single point in fourth, while Kiwi Dave Shaw (NZL 270) occupies fifth, a race-two victory sandwiched between two difficult results in the shifting conditions giving him a mixed but promising position overall.
Further back, Carolijn Brouwer (NED 888) stands as the leading woman in the Open fleet. Her day featured tidy mark roundings and composed boathandling across water that lurched between glassy calm and confused chop as the big shifts rolled through. Those same shifts caught plenty of mid-fleet sailors wide of their intended lanes, and the overall standings remain close enough that a single good race could reshuffle the order significantly.
The Classic fleet completed a heavier racing schedule and has already produced a clear leader at the top. Poland's Jacek Noetzel (POL 1) won all five races held so far, and with one discard now applied he leads on 4 points. Australian Jamie Jochhiem (AUS 956) sits second on 10 points, underpinned by a pair of solid second-place finishes, while three-time World Champion Andrew Landenberger (AUS 308) follows on 11 points. New Zealander Mike Drummond (NZL 287) showed well in the difficult afternoon conditions and sits fourth on 14 points, with Spain's Micky Todd (ESP 7) rounding out the top five on 22 points.
Back on the lawn at Milford Cruising Club, conversation among the returning sailors turned as readily to the weather as to the results. The general view was that Auckland had provided a genuine test of both technique and temperament, and that the racing ahead would look quite different once more breeze filled in as forecast. The margins separating the fleets are small enough for positions to shift rapidly once conditions stabilise, and every boat has now been put through a meaningful examination.
Racing continues tomorrow, with both fleets preparing for another changeable day on the Hauraki Gulf. The championship is far from decided.
