By JONATHON HOWARD
THE Australian “A” Class Catamaran National Championships was held on Lake Cootharaba at Booreen Point last week.
The event attracted local sailing star Brad Collet who was crowned the 2015 Australian ‘A’ Class Catamaran champion.
Brad, a member of the Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club at Boreen Point and a past champion of the event, competes regularly in international events.
Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club member and publicity officer Sue Germain said the glamour event attracted sailors from many parts of the world and is a feeder into prestigious racing such as the America’s Cup.
“Because of a clash of dates with the International World Titles in the Moth class in Sorrento on Port Phillip Bay, numbers at this year’s ‘A Class’ titles were slightly down due to the absence of some of the more elite sailors,” she said.
“However, there was no shortage of elite sailing from some of Australia’s finest.”
Ms Germain said two-time world champion and European champion Steve Brewin, could only manage seventh place when he was penalised for an early start in one race and had equipment damage in another race.
Second-place winner was Graeme Parker and in third place was Steve Brayshaw both from Victoria.
“Adding even more glamour to this event was the significant number of boats that were equipped with foils making this one of the first major events in the world for this class where this has happened,” she said.
“Foils are mounted under the hull of a boat and as the boat increases in speed, the hydrofoil lifts the hull up and out of the water which results in increased speed, possibly achieving speeds twice as fast as the wind speed.”
