Archived 2022 site
Classic Division Champion - Andrew Landenberger
Open Division Champion - Ravi Parent
Photo - www.guppypix.com
We are delighted to invite you to our wonderful sailing venue at the Houston Yacht Club (HYC). Ourfacility located in La Porte, Texas (30 minutes southeast of Houston) is one of the largest sailing venues in North America. HYC is nationally recognized for its history of top level sailboat racing and is a casual, comfortable and friendly yacht club.
Located on the shores of Galveston Bay, the racing area is immediately adjacent to the Club. Ourmodern container port is located only a few kilometers from the sailing venue. Your containers can be delivered directly to the Club where they can be stored, along with all trailers on the Club grounds, with 24- hour security. There is ample room.
The George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) lies one hour to the north from the sailing venue and offers direct, non-stop flights from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Yourboats will be located on grassy lawns next to the newly-refurbished swimming pool and lounge area.
Early May typically brings steady, warm sea breezes, with chances of quickly passing cold fronts.Average air temperatures are warm, but not hot, with comfortable water temperatures as well.
The surrounding bay area has many hotels and restaurants from which to choose. Events during theregatta are planned to be outdoors to the fullest extent possible. Houston Yacht Club offers a full-service restaurant and two bars in its historic clubhouse.
Houston, being a short distance away, offers many attractions, including world-class shopping at theGalleria, museums, galleries, NASA Johnson Space Center, and four professional sports teams. Houston will also provide a convenient jumping off point for exploring other beautiful areas of Texas, including hundreds of miles of beaches, great cities, and well-known theme and nationalparks.
Finally, we feel sure you will find the folks from Texas to be warm, friendly, andaccommodating during your stay in the United States. Welcome to Texas!
Bob Webbon, President
US A-Class Catamaran Association
Howdy Fellow A-Cat Sailors!
Event Sponsors
We are grateful to the following sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible!
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With special thanks to -
The 'A' Class Background
Classic Division
Open Division
Photos - www.guppypix.com
The 'A' Class Catamaran
Dating from a competition for a single handed sailing catamaran held in the UK in 1957, the 'A' Class Catamaran specification was chosen. Being a 'Development Class, it had a few simple rules and parameters for it's design. It should be no longer that 5.49m, no wider than 2.3m, weigh no less that 75 kg and have a sail area no larger than 13.94sqm including the mast. The result was a very fast, high performance racing machine, and until the emergence of small foiling boats such as the Moth, was the fastest single handed small sailing class in the world.
The development aspect meant that the design was always at the cutting edge of building and design techniques and was one of the pioneer classes of carbon fibre construction and design. As a result, it became a popular class for those interested in pushing and exploring design, and for those who like to tweak and trim to get a marginal gain over their fellow sailors.
In recent years, the light carbon construction meant that the class was one of the first cat classes to adopt foiling as the daggerboards and rudders were modified to provide upward lift sufficient to 'fly' the boat hulls above the water. The resulting increase in speed was eyewatering. Currently, the top sailors are regularly exceeding 30 knots.
The boats have long attracted the World's fastest sailors, amongst our sailors are many former Olympic, Sail GP and America's Cup sailors
The class now has official 2 divisions. The Open Division - boats fitted with J or Z shaped daggerboards, who can foil above the water. And the Classic Division - boats with straight or C shape boards that will only legally fly one hull at a time. This came about as a result of realising that there were many in the class not wanting the increased expense, or unwilling to develop the circus skills required to sail the foiling boats, or who sail on waters where shifts and gusts tend to dominate, making a foiler much harder work., and those who prefer the closer racing possible on the Classics. The two divisions now have separate handicaps, but are frequently seen sailing together as one happy fleet. Interestingly, it has emerged that at the ends of the class wind range (min 5kts, max 22kts) the Classics tend to be faster in the right hands.
This event will, therefore, crown two World Champions!
Reigning Open Champion - Mischa Heemskerk NED
Reigning Classic Champion - Andrew Landenberger AUS
Venarated 'A' Cat veteren, Ben Hall, explains the history of the cup.
"The Admiral's Cup was created by my wife Nan and I in 2009. The idea was to have the regatta right out our house in Bokeelia, Florida. And since my A Cat nickname has been "The Admiral" for over 20 years, why not call it the Admirals Cup...not to be mixed up with the big Admirals Cup which I have done several times. We commissioned Ken Madeiro, who ran the carbon shop at Hall Spars, to create the Admirals "Cup". Made from carbon fiber and cherry wood, he crafted a beauty.
The first year we had 25 entries and also started the infamous Mudslide registration.
In 2010 we had 35 boats...this was starting to get too big to organize as its popularity was growing fast. So we then had the help of Davis Island YC and Sarasota Sailing Squadron to alternate hosting the regatta from 2011 through 2019.
Over these years we started getting increased pressure to come back to Bokeelia...so in 2020 we planned to host it again and were expecting 50+ entries. We had planned for Mudslides, fabulous meals and great live music...then we had to put the brakes on hard and cancel the regatta because of you know who..Mr Covid 19.
We did however sneak in the event in November 2021 at Davis Island. And now onto Houston."
Past winners have included
Bruce Mahoney, Bailey White, Ben Moon, Matt Struble, Woody Cope and Richard Stevens.,
HoustonYacht Club – Organizing Authority www.houstonyachtclub.com
Farley Fontenot – Commodore of Houston Yacht Club farleyfontenot@gmail.com
Bob Webbon – USACA President bobwebbon@aol.com
Charles Bueche – IACA President iaca@bueche.ch
Richard Stevens - Official Logistics Partner richardstevens@hecny.com
Gordon Upton - IACA Editor & Event PR and Media editor@a-cat.org