Pete Melvin and Nacra A2 "Team Up" to Sweep A-Class Championships with 7 Bullets!

September 23, 2004 - The new Nacra A2 catamaran, with Pete Melvin at the helm, swept the A-Class North American Championships with 7 bullets out of 11 races! 28 top sailors from North America competed for the championships but were defeated by Melvin on the A2 who¹s total score was only 13 points.

The boat I sailed was a stock Nacra A2, built with the latest materials and production processes, fresh out of the box and included a Hall Spars mast and Ullman sail. "It's performance was outstanding!" says Melvin. The A2 was very fast in all conditions sailed, including the 20 knot+ conditions experienced the first two days, as well as the more moderate conditions at the end of the regatta.

Click on "Read More" to see full story and results.

9/18/04 Final Results, Hobie 16 North Americans Mexicans Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach are the new Hobie 16 North American Champions. Noriega is a Pan-Am Games silver medallist in the Hobie 16 but the title of North American Champion is a first for him and for Achach. The team dominated the seventy-one catamaran fleet, on Lake Oneida in Syracuse NY, finishing twenty two points ahead of the second place team, and 2004 Alter Cup Champions, Mike Montague and Cathy Ward from California. Defending Champions Paul and Mary Ann Hess finished fourth.

The regatta came to an anticlimactic end on Friday with only one race started in winds just above the class minimum wind strength of five knots. The conditions where light and shifty for most of the week with the exception of Tuesday when the winds topped out at about fifteen knots.

Top Five:

1. Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach
2. Mike Monntague and Cathy Ward
3. Bob Merrick and Eliza Cleveland
4. Paul Hess and Mary Ann Hess
5. Wall Myers and Tyler Myers

Full results and pictures are on the event website at www.HobieNAC.com .

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.

BRITISH UNBEATABLE IN BOTH HOBIE YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2004
Duinbergen / Belgium, July 31st 2004 – The British teams were unbeatable in both Hobie Youth Championships organized in Duinbergen / Belgium from Tuesday July 27th until July 30th 2004. On Friday July 30th, Richard and Andrew Glover became the first Hobie Dragoon World Champions ever. Tom Phipps and Jonathan Cook won the Hobie 16 genaker Youth Europeans 2004. The prize giving was a party with lots of gifts for all competitors. The three medallists in both classes received their awards on stage in front of Hobie Catsy’s with the national flags in top.

The wind conditions varied from light to moderate, the sky was blue all week long and the temperature was almost sub-tropical. On the second racing day, a sea breeze came up and increased to force four. Capsizes, some damage to the equipment and bruised limbs were the result, but the younsters had great fun. “I liked the stronger wind with many waves coming over me”, said nine year old Nicolas Sarlet. The Hobie Dragoons completed eleven races and the Hobie 16’s ten, while the parents on the beach used field glasses to watch their children racing.