Category: Reporting

Day two has come and gone Damon with very little to report. Most of the day has been spent measuring sails and weighing boats. There has been very little drama of excitement, although there have been a few European chutes that have a newer cut that are not legal at this race. It seems that the Tiger class continues to evolve over time little by little and making small refinements all the time.

Eric and I were jacks of all trades yesterday doing multiple jobs while we floated around the venue. We did a short stint in the sail measuring room and had a great conversation with Eric Olsen, the official measurer and also a member of the ISAF board of directors. His take of the future of all small two handed boats (dinghy as well as cats) is that they will all be sailed with three sails. Apparently in Europe it is all that the sailors want and the traditional rigged cat is a thing of the past. The Tiger is currently very dominant in the F-18 class with about 75% of the boats competing being Tigers and taking the top spots in all competition. Mr. Olsen feels that the future of youth sailing lies in a spinnaker rigged Hobie 16 as well. Time will tell if we see this movement in the US as strong as in Europe, but from the beach here in Santa Barbara, it sure looks to be headed that way.

The great wind we enjoyed yesterday when Eric tried to kill me on the Super Cat has subsided to a mild breeze in the 7-10 range. Quite a few of the teams made it out on the water playing games with each other to see who was faster. I can only imagine at this level of competition that there is a fair amount of sand bagging going on as well. The chutes were out in full force with a few teams showing their prowess at flying the windward hull while going downwind. Most of the competitors on the beach are jovial and very friendly, but there are also quite a few very serious game faces on already, but with a title of "The Best Tiger Sailor in the World" on the line I can understand why.

Eric and I also did a stint selling the official clothing of the event with t-*****, sweatshirts and ball caps available. High quality merchandise at a reasonable price. I know that you sent us some money to buy you some mementos, but we found an adult bookstore on State Street and all of a sudden your money was gone. I don't even remember what I bought...

Speaking of money, that last Western Union transfer that you sent is already gone. How long do you think we can last working in these kinds of conditions? Eric and I have even moved out of the presidential suite to a "mini" suite to save money! Do you know how much they want for one of those little bottles in the fridge?

Until tomorrow,
Dave Atwater

Well Damon, it's our first day here in Santa Barbara and the venue is absolutely beautiful. We have taken over the parking lot with a sea of motor homes and boats. The weather is a blue sky with wispy clouds and wind at 20 plus today. Eric Finley and I took out the Super Cat 20 with seas at about the 4-6 foot range. Trying conditions to say the least. If the wind stays at this speed it will be very interesting to see who has the balls to pop the chute. The beach is a stereotypical picture of California, complete with the requisite Baywatch scene of palm trees, white sand beach, and a hot chick in a pink bikini jogging on the beach.

All the rock stars are here, and we mere mortals are walking shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Jeff Alter, Mitch Booth, Enrique Figueroa, Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier. The view is somewhat surreal - in a parking lot adjacent to the venues lays some thirty brand new Hobie Tigers in various states of assembly. Three huge shipping containers hold more hulls and parts in a never ending stream of construction. It is a seemingly impossible task to get all these boats built in the few days that we have before official competition begins.

We are in the process of setting up an internet cafe on site courtesy of Hobie Fleet 2 from Nevada City, Ca. The parking lot where the motor homes are parked it set up as a WiFi hot spot so everyone with a laptop can stay connected to home with out leaving their rigs. Three parties are planned for the week, with the rum drinks and beer flowing freely.

Tomorrow we will begin to weigh the boats and measure the sails - I hope there is a keg close by because this will be a long day with 100 boats now competing. Speaking of beer - the daily stipend you have given us is great, but 250.00 per person per day is a little less that we are used to. Eric is blowing through his like the proverbial drunken sailor. This is really making the living conditions unbearable. I am afraid we will need more money to last us out the week. The Mount ***** rum is gone, as well as the Blue Sapphire gin, so we have already resorted to drinking the cheap stuff. It is only the first day and already we have had to lay off the college girls we hired to wheel the boat up and down the beach - the inhumanity of it all!

That's all for today, I'll send more tomorrow, and remember - send more money! We don't want to have to pawn these nice laptops you gave us to afford the "entertainment" we have planned for later in the week, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do...

Dave Atwater
Somewhere in Santa Barbara

On Tuesday March 22 2005, Team Zwitserleven of Booth/Dercksen from the Netherlands could not easily get going during the first racing day of the Princess Sofia Cup. Due to lack of wind at the coastside of Palma de Mallorca, the participants had to stay ashore yesterday. As a result, four races were scheduled for today. The only Dutch representatives went from a seventeenth place in the openings race to victory in the last one. That gives Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen a sixth position on the provisional overall ranking in a fleet of 33 Tornado’s.

The Sofia Cup is Team Zwitserleven’s first olympic regatta since the Athens Games in 2004, where Booth/Dercksen ended in fifth place. Today, they were not in their element yet. Dercksen: “At the beginning it was hard to do it right. We had troubles to speed up the boat. Not only because of the new mast and sails, but also because we did not have enough practice. I really had to find everything again.” During the first two races, there was a light wind of about eight knots. Booth and Dercksen crossed the finish line in respectively seventeenth and fourteenth position. Subsequently the wind increased to fourteen knots and the Dutch crew could add a sixth place and a victory to their total score. Dercksen: “It is good to know that we are still competitive. Now, we need more training and less weight.”

Neil Bernardo and Roman Azanza's entry, named "To Follow..." (Not their expected position on the water one hopes...???), is the 30th confirmed entry for PHC6, marking a fresh milestone for the Philippine Hobie Challenge team.

The first container of fifteen Hobie 16's is already en route from Taal Lake Yacht Club and it will be in Cebu's Tambuli Beach Resort ready in time for the January 15/16 International Hobie 16 Championships incorporating the 8th Philippine National Championships.

This promises to be a red hot warm up regatta even without Hong Kong's Tong Shing defending his Open title (although race organisers are putting a lot of pressure on him to move house the following weekend instead!!!). PHC4 Champion Peter Davies will however fly the HK flag in his stead together with his wife Brenda.

Mike Leneman has designed, built, and test sailed a revolutionary coastal day-sailor trimaran called the L7. It is a pocket-cruiser that can kick butt on many of the much more costly, coastal racing trimarans.

Until now, the biggest difference between a catamaran and trimaran has been the way that the trimarans were designed to primarily sail upon their center hull while leaning on one of their two outrigger style amas. Leneman has made a timely step forward in developing a trimaran that more closely resembles a catamaran.

For so many years, Mike Leneman has been representing a very famous multihull manufacturer who has had the greatest and best trailerable multihull trimaran on the market. That design, brand has been extremely popular and partly thanks to Leneman, has enjoyed tremendous success on the West Coast.