On Sunday November 7th 2004, Gunnar Larsen and Xander Pols from the Netherlands started strongly at the fourteenth Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. Last year’s winners were victorious in both races with a northeaster force five to six. The British competitors Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power followed with their Spitfire on the second place. Christopher Sproat and Georgina Burke, also from Great Britain, are in third position in a field of fifty-four catamarans, representing five countries.

"It went very well", was the enthusiastic reaction of Larsen. "We have sailed conservatively, which gave us a good position to start with.” Many teams capsized under genaker and lost their races. According to Larsen, they did not push their Nacra F18 to the limit: "We did not want to start with a discard.” They are again the men to beat. Today, the performance of the Spitfires was remarkable good with four teams in the top ten.

FREE PORT TO PORT SHIPPING TO THE 2005 TIGER WORLDS IN SANTA BARBARA

P&O Nedlloyd, the premiere shipping company in the world, has become a major sponsor of the 2005 Hobie Tiger World Championships. They are sponsoring 6 containers from various ports in Europe and Australia to Los Angeles and return.

The following are the final ports of departure for the containers
Northern Europe – Bremerhaven, Germany – loaded in Reinfeld
Central Europe – Rotterdam - loaded at Hobie Cat Holland
Southern Europe – (2) LeHavre - loaded at Hobie Cat Europe
Australia – Melbourne – loaded at Frankston Yacht Club
Australia – Sydney – loaded at Hobie Cat Australasia

Details will be posted on the website – www.hobieworlds.com - within a few weeks.

2005 Hobie Tiger World Championships Santa Barbara, California March 28-31, 2005

Hobie Cat has negotiated a special rate with Landstar Ranger for a trailer to depart from the East Coast and make 2 stops, picking up Tigers as it goes on its merry way to California. Hobie Cat has obtained 50% OFF Round Trip Transportation for a 53’ trailer. This makes the overall cost of transporting boats from the east coast very reasonable. The tentative current costs for one-way is approximately $4,600. The trailer will hold 12 – 15 boats plus beach wheels and gear. That is less than $400 per boat round trip. Of course the final cost per boat will depend on the exact number of boats being shipped.

This includes the following:
• 53’ Trailer with cross racks to tie your hulls so they do not sit on each other
• Partial loading at initial departure point
• Partial loading at two other locations in route
• Trailer to remain on-site in Santa Barbara for duration of the event
• Return trip with same stops

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.

LOVELL AND OGLETREE SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND TITLE


NEW ORLEANS, LA. (October 23, 2004) In an exciting final day of competition, the USAs 2004 Olympic Silver Medal team of John Lovell (New Orleans) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas) have successfully defended their claim to the International Catamaran Challenge Trophy (ICCT) by defeating Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez of Puerto Rico. After going ahead on a score of 3-1 yesterday, the American pair needed to win only one match today to hold on to their title in the first-to-four point series sailed in F18HTs on Lake Pontchartrain and hosted by Southern Yacht Club.

But the win did not come easily. In the first do-or-die match for the Challengers, Lovell and Ogletree replicated the mastery theyve displayed all week in match racing, controlling the Puerto Ricans in the pre-start and leading around the first mark by several lengths. And while the 9-12 knot southerly breeze was the most promising all week for match racing, there were not only opportunities to speed away in the puffs but also pitfalls to die in the lulls over the 2.5-mile course. Soon after their rounding, Lovell and Ogletree gybed away to protect their lead only to fall into a hole while Figueroa and Hernandez sped away to a spectacular three-minute lead, the largest of any match of the week.

Thanks for the mulligan, quipped Figueroa to a disappointed but smiling Lovell between matches. We lucked into that one. Even with a long-standing rivalry between these two going back to their Olympic Tornado competition -- the sailors have maintained their good nature and camaraderie both on and off the water.