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.

49 ENTRIES FOR HOBIE YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2004

Belgium / Duinbergen, July 22nd 2004 - Forty nine sailing teams, representing six countries, registered for the Hobie Youth Championships in Duinbergen/Belgium. Thirty two will participate in the Hobie 16 genaker Youth Europeans and seventeen in the first Hobie Dragoon Worlds, both from 27 until 30 July 2004. It is a competitive fleet with sailors like the Hobie 16 ISAF Youth World Champions 2004, Tom Phipps and Jon Cook (GBR). Hobie heros Alberto Sonino (ITA) and Gerard Loos (NED) will give a special clinic on Sunday July 25th and Monday 26th.

Other favourites in the Hobie 16 fleet are silver medalists of the ISAF World Youth Championships 2004, Julien Villion and Martin Bataille from France, the girls’ crew Laurancy Morgane and Estelle Rousseau from France and the Australians Taylor Booth and Jesse Dobie. Booth had a great personal teacher, since his father Mitch Booth is a successful olympic Tornado sailor (bronze in ’92 and silver in ’96). He will represent the Netherlands in Athens. The British teams Andrew and Richard Glover and Hannah Rowles/Stephanie Wall are likely winners in the Hobie Dragoon class.

London, UK Song Helps Disabled Sailing.

Some of the proceeds from the sale of a CD featuring a song about sailing are to help raise awareness of disabled sailing.

Sailing is one of the sports featured in the Paralympic Games which take place in Athens this September, and to mark the occasion, UK singer/songwriter Peter Brodie has released a CD with 10 tracks including 'Summer Breeze', a ballad about going sailing. For every copy of the CD sold during 2004, Brodie is donating one US Dollar to the International Foundation for Disabled Sailing (IFDS).

The Third Annual SAILATHON will be held on Sunday, October 3, 2004 off the Ventura Pier in Pierpont Bay.

This event, the only one of its kind in Ventura County, is non-competitive and is open to all sailors interested in raising money for CAREGIVERS while enjoying a fun-filled day with friends and family.