Category: Regatta Notices

Province of Rimini to feature catamaran match-racing as part of BLURimini Festival.

SEA CLIFF, N.Y. - The Trustees of the International Catamaran Challenge Trophy, in conjunction with defender Southern Yacht Club, have accepted the bid submitted by Rimini, Italy, to host the celebratory 25th anniversary regatta. The event is scheduled May 26-June 1, 2005.

The Province of Rimini, located northeast of San Marino on Italy's upper Adriatic coast, is the host. The BLURimini organization and the Vela Viva Sailing Club will coordinate the event. The regatta will be a featured part of the 7th annual BLURimini Festival, a celebration of music, entertainment and sailing.

"We think that Rimini and its popular festival will make a wonderful host for the silver anniversary of the ICCT," said John B. Dawson, Chairman of the ICCT Trustees. "Multihull racing is popular in Europe, and we anticipate a fleet of 10 to 15 defenders and challengers."

The event will be sailed in F18HTs, an 18-foot, high-performance catamaran. The two-person cats are being provided by the host city and Bimare Marine, the Italian builder. They carry a 20-square-meter (215-square-foot) mainsail and spinnaker.

1Design.Net (www.1design.net) is very pleased to announce that Harken (www.Harken.com) has signed up as the primary sponsor for a new buoy racing series for 2005! The Harken Buoy Series for the Harken Cup will consists of 6 major buoy regattas in the State of Florida.

The Harken Buoy Series will complement the Endurance Distance Series that will finish its inaugural season this year.

The Harken Series is open to all one design and/or formula classes. Complete rules will be posted in the next couple months, but for a fleet to qualify, it must have a 5 boat fleet at 4 of the 6 series races. There is no registration necessary or no additional entry fee required other than the standard regatta entry fess.

So NOW is the time for your fleet to get together and start planning to attend. Based on past years, A-Cat, Hobie Wave, Hobie 14, Hobie 16, F-16, and I20 should all be able to qualify. 1Design.Net will be happy to provide links on its site for any one design and/or formula class website to help promote your class. Contact 1Design.Net for more information.

The First Challenge <P align=left>Sometime late 1999, a small group of international Hobie 16 catamaran sailors envisioned an extreme sailing event that will take them to different islands in the Philippines; six days in the open seas and camping in rustic areas. Thus, the Philippine Hobie Challenge had its relatively modest start in March 2000 with five (5) regional teams making the 190 nautical-mile passage from Lucena, Quezon down to Boracay. Michael Scantlebury, who was in the group that conceptualized the event, eventually took the honours of winning the first Challenge.

<P align=left>Dreaming the Impossible

The highly successful inaugural event proved the concept of long distance racing in Hobie 16 catamarans to be workable and the Challenge had its repeat in March 2001. This time, entries had more than doubled to twelve (12), including teams flying in from HK, Australia and Europe. Using experience gained during the first event, the organizers scheduled a 5-race inshore series and the Challenge series with 5 consecutive daily passages, taking the teams 154 nautical miles from the Batangas resort of Maya-Maya down to Maricaban Bay in Northern Palawan. The team from Down Under, Andrew Keag and Naomi Angwin, bested the rest of the fleet to win the 2nd Philippine Hobie Challenge. In 2001, the Challenge went Northwest, taking fifteen (15) teams from Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur down to Subic Bay, Zambales. Blood Red, the team of Chris Steilberg, Dave Harris and Krishan George took honors in this 230 nautical mile race.

On September 25th and 26th 2004, Houston Fleet 8 and the Texas City Dike Yacht Club present Wayward Winds 2004 - a beach cat regatta open to all makes of catamaran. This Division 6 sponsored event will also be the US Sailing Area F Alter cup qualifier. The notice of race is available here.

We will have some great T-Shirts designed by Tami Shelton - you can see the design here

For more information/questions got to http://texascitydike.com

Chris Green
Comodore - Houston Fleet 8

The Catamaran Racing Association of Michigan is proud to announce it’s fifth year of sponsoring the Catfight race at Muskegon State Park – Muskegon, MI, August 19-22, 2004.

Join us for three existing days of extreme catamaran racing & sailing with sailors and boats from all over the United States! The event is held in conjunction with Mount ***** Rum, The Cat House, Animal Cancer & Imaging Center & American Rental, Inc. It’s a Mount ***** Rum Beach Party! Members of the media are invited to attend our parties Friday & Saturday night!

Races start on Friday morning and continue through Sunday. Race courses are set with windward to leeward buoy marks. The racing heats are set by boat classes & boat size. All catamaran manufacturer’s & sailors are welcome and encouraged to participate; Nacra, Hobie, Prindle, and others. Trophies are awarded to top three positions in each boat class. Scoring is to Portsmouth Wind USSA Wind Velocity System & Formula Classes standards.