2024 A-Class World Championship
The 2024 A-Class World Championship was unique, challenging, and rewarding in many ways. We had record-setting attendance for this class with 82 boats in the Open (Foiling) Fleet and 86 in the Classic Fleet. The venue of Punta Ala attracted a large fleet in 2015 when the class last held the World Championship here. This venue is known for a choppy to wavy sea state and light to moderate sea-breeze, so the fleet anticipated a medium-paced yet productive week of racing. Oh how we were wrong…
The weekend before racing we had our Pre-Worlds, a key regatta for checking in with the fleet and getting a little more racing practice before the big show. This regatta is incredibly valuable for any class as it maximizes the time the fleet is together and helps everyone get simple mistakes worked out ahead of the Worlds. With most of the fleet in attendance racing was challenging. After 2 days in a typical sea-breeze wind and waves I finished 2nd overall behind A-Class legend and multi-class World Champion Mischa Heemskerk. He was using his radical DN style mast which showed a lot of potential backed by his wealth of experience. However, in the week between the Pre-Worlds and Worlds he decided to revert to his conventional mast.
When the World Championship finally arrived the weather had changed significantly. Mistral conditions in southern France pushed big waves and strong wind into the Golfo di Follonica. Race day 1 hosted 1 complete race in and beyond the maximum conditions allowed by the class. I had a good start, but struggled off the starting line after catching a long piece of debris on my leeward foil. After tacking and clearing off the long tree branch I worked my way back to 5th place, a “keeper” finish but not really my target.
Strong breeze and waves persisted on race day 2 and we completed 3 races in these physically demanding conditions. A few good scores pulled me closer to the front of the fleet, but I would need a few more races to reach my performance targets.
Finally on day 3 we had a break in the conditions and actually had some light wind races, even marginal downwind foiling at times. In these types of races fleet management is extremely important. Sailing in clean breeze lanes lets you stay on the foils and initiate out of maneuvers easier, which results in huge distances between boats in the fleet. A few more top finishes pulled me into 4th place overall.
On day 4 we were greeted by more mistral-fueled conditions and the building breeze and waves kept us ashore. No racing on this day.
On day 5 we launched for 1 final race as the conditions were eerily similar to day 1: big breeze and waves fueled by the mistral. In order to move onto the podium I had to win this race and Mischa in 3rd overall had to sail a discard, so my goal was simple. After battling around the racecourse I finished this race in 2nd, not good enough to move up, but Mischa had also avoided sailing his discard.
I finished this World Championship in 4th place, repeating my finish from last year. I have mixed feelings about my performance. Of course I’m always pushing to win, but I have to look at this Worlds with a broader perspective. I had torn the meniscus in my knee earlier this summer, so after recovering from surgery I was grateful to even be sailing at this point. Without proper lead time and preparation it’s difficult to win peak events, but I will carry this fighting spirit into future regattas!
This venue had many good and challenging attributes for the fleet. The housing for the entire fleet was on-site, so that made most of daily life much easier and greatly strengthened fleet comradery. There was plenty of space to house all of the boats and more, as well as ample hoses for the fleet to wash up after racing. However, the conditions made for a difficult launch-landing. The sea-breeze is a side-shore direction making launching easy and easing the waves at the beach. However, the entire week of the Worlds we had onshore wind and a large shore break. On day 1 around 20 rudders were broken launching/landing through the waves, and on day 4 many in the fleet had to evacuate their storage spots as the waves were reaching very far up the beach. We learned lots of lessons on how to safely operate in surf and protect our equipment.
Next year’s Worlds will be held in Auckland, NZ and I have analyzed my past performance to create a development plan for the future. I will race in more domestic regattas and actively seek out the specific conditions where I can make the biggest gains in my performance. Next year my goal is to finish on top off the podium, and now is the time to put in the work to do so!
