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Reporting: Hobie 16 North American Championships

Added by damonAdmin on Sep 13, 2004 - 12:18 AM

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 .


9/15/04 Thursday was day four of the Hobie 16 North American Championships. It was the first day of the Gold Fleet finals and another light air day on lake Oneida. Three races were sailed in the Gold fleet. With more wind on the left hand shore it was a one-way racetrack. The name of the game was go left until your rudders kick up then tack to get the breeze on the port tack layline. The conditions put a premium on good starts.

With one day left in the regatta Mexicans Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach are still in the lead but are within striking distance after a pair of 14’s today. 2004 Alter Cup Champions Mike Montague and Cathy Ward moved into second, eight points behind the leaders. Last years champions Paul and Mary Ann Hess dropped from third to seventh today.

Provisional results after 12 races

  1. Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach
  2. Mike Montague and Cathy Ward
  3. Bob Merrick and Eliza Cleveland
  4. Dan Borg and Sharon Kong
  5. Enrique Figueroa and Natalia Olivero

9/14/04 Day three at the Hobie 16 North American Championship was the final opportunity for each of the 71 teams attending to qualify for the Gold fleet. Unfortunately the wind did not arrive as forecast and only one light air race was completed in each qualifying group. This brings the total number of races up to nine. Two attempts were made to sail additional races but the first beat of each race was met with drastic wind shifts and dying breeze. Both races were abandoned before the sailors reached the first mark.

Tonight is the cut party where the Gold fleet will be announced. The rest of the teams will compete in the Silver fleet for the next two days.

Last night was the annual Hobie Class Meeting. Rich McVeigh has reached his term limit as the Hobie class Chairman and will be replaced by Ed Muns.

Complete results and pictures are at the event web site www.HobieNAC.com

9/14/04 Day 2 of the Hobie 16 North Americans brought ideal weather conditions that enabled the race committee to run 5 races for each fleet. The wind was strong enough for double trapping, and some de-powering, for the first three races of the day. As the day went on the wind slowly lightened to single trapeezing in race 4 and light winds in race 5. The morning wind kicked up the chop on lake Oneida making for great surfing opportunities as the wind died.

The day undeniably went to Mexicans Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach with four bullets and a seven over the days five races. The pair are currently in first place, seventeen points ahead of defending champions Paul and Mary Ann Hess in second.

After tomorrow the fleet will be split into gold and silver fleets for the final two days of racing, but the scores carry over to the finals so every race counts.

The top five after 8 races:

  1. Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach
  2. Paul and Mary Ann Hess
  3. Wally and Tyler Myers
  4. Javier Cabildo and Andrea Mier Y Teran
  5. Greg Thomas and Sandra Taraglino
The forecast for tomorrow is for 10 to 15 knots with highs in the mid 70’s.

9/13/04 Monday was day one of the Hobie 16 North American Championships. The regatta runs through Friday on lake Oneida in Syracuse New York. Things got off to a slow start with an on-shore postponement until about 1:00 in the afternoon when a weak Northerly finally broke the five-knot class minimum.

When racing got underway the seventy-one boat fleet was broken up into four groups with groups pairing off against each other in two fleets. Racing will continue under this format through Wednesday when the teams will be broken up into Gold and Silver fleets.

Following are the provisional results after three light air races, for each group, in shifty lake breezes.

  1. Steve Leo and Marcelle Abbott 11 pts
  2. Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach 11 pts
  3. Bob Merrick and Eliza Cleveland 15 pts
  4. Wally and Tyler Myers 17 pts
  5. Paul and Mary Ann Hess 17 pts
The name of the game today was sail to the wind, if you could figure out what way that was. The top teams after the day are the ones who have, so far, avoided major catastrophe and major holes in the wind. With four more days of racing and a throw out to be factored in it’s still any team’s race.

Full results and pictures are on the event web site at http://www.hobienac.com/ .

The Hobie 16 North American Championships start Monday in Syracuse New York.

Over the weekend North American Championships were held for Hobie 16 Youth, Hobie 16 Women and Hobie 14s. Full results and pictures can be found on the event web site at http://www.hobienac.com/ .

Presently over seventy teams are registered for the Open Championships. Registered teams include this years Alter Cup Champions Mike Montague and Kathy Ward. To win this year’s championship they will have to beat last year’s winners Paul and Mary Ann Hess.

Footnote: Thanks to Bob Merrick for providing daily updates from the regatta. Congratulations on taking third!
 
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