Holiday Inn, November 13th 2003 - On Thursday November 13th, the long distance race of the Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta was thrilling. Tornado teams were fighting the Formula 18 sailors Gunnar Larsen and Xander Pols from the Netherlands. William Sunnucks and Mark Self from Great Britain took the lead on the reach and they won the race.

At 10:30 hours this morning, the coloured fleet of catamarans left the beach for today's first race. The wind force was about two to three, but it decreased later on. The small boats had to sail two laps instead of three, which made their competition more interesting. The Hobie 16 teams Rowen/Baring from England and Heilbron/Bogaards from the Netherlands, were fighting hard for the first position of the smaller catamarans. Meanwhile, it was team Sunnucks/Gummer that took the lead of the fleet. Until the finish, the competition remained close. Sunnucks: "Gunnar crossed the finish line in about four minutes behind us, which is enough to beat us". Both teams were now leading the overall ranking. Richard Allen got a third place and the gap with the numbers three, Graat and Koene, decreased to just one point. The pressure was on. The Dutch Hobie 16 team beat the English and moved into the 11th position overall.

I really liked sailing my Hobie 16 with my wife and dog when we first got the boat last summer, and wanted to enjoy exploring the lakes around the parkland area. But after about an hour of cruising, sitting up at the helm got a little hard on the back, and I got jealous of the wife being able to lie out on the trampoline in the sun. So I started looking for some way to put a lawn chair on the cat.

The wings that existed for the Hobie 18 seemed a solution, but I wanted a more comfortable answer for day-long cruising. I found some references to trap seats but they seemed too expensive for a lawn chair. So using the few grainy pics that I could find on the internet as reference, I got to work making my own.

Here's a first person account of solo Hobie 16 catamaran sailing from the Gold Cup Regatta that was sailed Nov. 8-9, on Lake Meade, NV.

I counted 10 Hobie 16 catamarans at the Gold Cup on Lake Mead this past weekend. While there was no wind for sailboat racing on Saturday, Sunday was awesome.

Performance Race Week 2003 combined with Formula 18s prove a successful North American Championship

Performance Catamarans, the builders of NACRA, Prindle and Inter catamarans invited the Formula 18 class to join their 2003 Performance North American Championships held in Pensacola Florida October 13th through 16th.

Monday morning the skies were gray with a light NE at 5-10 knots. The Race Committee set up a "Course 2" and the racing got underway by 11:00 am. Then the wind started to. Only seven of the Inter 20 teams to complete the course before the time limit expired.

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