Just in time for "Black Friday" shopping, I am pleased to announce the launch of "Shopping At TheBeachcats.com".

The plan for the new store is to offer catamaran sailors unique and usefull items related to our sport that are not available everywhere. In keeping with the gift giving season, the first items available are beautiful watercolor prints of catamarans, lighthouses, and nautical scenes. These have been created by the Maryland Watercolor Artist, William C. Gardner.

So if you happen to know any catamaran sailors who have been very very good this year (wink/wink) please let santa know that these are available, you will be sure to make that sailor happy, and support this site at the same time.

If you sail catatamarans or ever wanted to, join us.. "Hillbilly Cats" on Summersville and Blueston Lakes.

After being an active MHRA member on the west coast for a number of years, I now find myself in the mountains of West Virginia with few if any prospects of local regattas. So, I have decided to start up a cat/mono group here.

I have 7 boats, all are Sea spray 15's and one pram., our local lakes and ponds are wonderful and clear and nearly free of high speed boats. Most local lakes are very sail friendly. If you want to learn to sail, I will help. If you have a boat and would like to join us, (now three) we welcome your interest.

Well the racing conditions for the last day of the 2007 Ronstan A-Cat World Championship turned out to be pretty severe. The event that was building up to be a “Clash of Champions” on the final day of racing has been decided by a blow out, the wind that is.  Glenn Ashby, Lars Guck and Pete Melvin all had a shot at taking the title today in a heavy air event, but in the end the wind was too much. 

A frontal system passed over the Florida Keys last night and the breeze picked up to over 25 knots just after 0300EST.  This strong breeze refused to abate throughout the morning.  Buoy and land station reports were coming in at 22-29 knots, with gusts in the 30+ range for most of the morning.  The Organizing Authority requested a postponement at around 0900 and the PRO, Billy Richnow, flew the AP.  The RC, International Jury and competitors closely monitored the wind strengths throughout the morning watching the winds with strong hopes of getting racing in today. Winds at water level continued in the 19-22 knot range with gusts to 28.  There was also a fairly severe and square chop setting up with standard waves at 4 feet with frequent sets of 3 waves in the 6 foot range.  In the end the decision was based upon keeping the racers and their boats safe.  Even though this was a real blow to all of the competitors who had raced each other hard all week, keeping themselves in contention throughout the regatta, the OA made and outstanding call putting the safety of the sailors, their boats and all of the officials first and preventing the possible carnage that racing might have incurred.

Congratulations to Glenn Ashby, Lars Guck, Pete Melvin, Luc DuBois, Mitch Booth, Charlie Ogletree, Scotty Anderson, Murray Philpott, Andrew Landenberger, and Eugenio Calabria who were the Top 10 finishers in this event.  Congratulations also to Carla Sheifer for her efforts on the course to rescue another competitor in Thursday’s racing.

Final day preview - The 2007 Ronstan A-Cat Worlds is shaping up to be the clash of champions that it was built up to be.  The top three competitors in the event have between them won national, continental and World Championships.  Lars has dominated the US A-Class scene, winning the last 2 North American championships with straight bullets.  Pete Melvin has won the 1997 & 2005 A-Cat Worlds along with many other A-class national or continental championships.  Glen Ashby is the defending A-class world champion with many other national and international titles including the 2007 tornado class championship.  Down, but not out are three more championship competitors, Luc du Bois, Mitch Booth and Charlie Ogletree, but to win, these three would need a major stumble of the top three.  This all leads up to a 2 race shown-down on Friday in what is building up to be a real blow. 

See hundreds of photos at
http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=36401

The forecast is calling for the winds to build overnight to 20-25 knots, out of the North with gusts to 30 knots.  By 6:00PM tonight, one could see all of the competitors out checking and securing their boats to the ground (A’s weigh 75kg fully rigged and are easily picked up if not secured).  In addition the schedule of racing has been changed to add a second race to make up for Wednesday’s cancellation, pushing the start to 10:30AM EST.  As the “Cat Fight” continues, we will see who makes the starting line in the morning.

Day 4 (Thursday) Report - Racing began this morning in 11-13 knots out of the North, steady and solid.  The course was set for six 1.3 nm legs and got off on time.  The course was clear of kelp with a light chop, just a perfect day for sailing.  Glen got away cleanly with Lars close on him through the first leg.  Scott Anderson got in the mix and Pete Melvin had a difficult leg.  After the first leg, Lars faded a little and at the finish it was Ashby, Guck, Hoekstra, Beike and Calabria for the top five.

Grass, grass, grass…  Recent storms that have rolled through the Florida Keys have washed a lot of shallow water sea grass up on shore and a change of wind carried the grass out into the Atlantic by way of the channels.  Well, guess what?  The A-Cats are racing both outside of a channel that cuts between a couple of the Key Islands and the racing area is located smack dab in the middle of the main Atlantic inshore channel that runs the length of the Keys.  So what we saw on the course today was a lot of grass drifting downwind through the course.  Oh it’s not as bad as it sounds, we could be sailing off of San Diego where the kelp will stop a boat cold dead in its tracks.  But for a fleet that was expecting beautiful tropical sailing in the Florida Keys in the late Fall, the floating grass was frustrating for everyone.  But, taken in the gestalt of everything, grass was fair and frustrating for everyone equally. 

The Race Committee drove around the racing area trying to find the most grass free zone and settled in for the first race.  Before the start of the second race , the RC sent out a scout boat to try and find a different location to move the course.  Unfortunately, the entire area had floating grass in varying thickness – from clear and weed free to floating palm fronds in clumps with entangled weed.  Some competitors had rudder assemblies that enabled them to yank a line to raise one or both to easily clear.  Most though had rudders that had to be raised manually and individually which made clearing the grass more problematic.  There were some boats with “short boards” that could be easily pulled up to clear the weed, and some that had a more difficult time raising daggerboards to clear them.  Overall, the grass was equitably challenging to all competitors.