Alter Cup and Americas Cup on Same Course

wow that's amazing

They are going to look REALLY slow!

The Sausalito Yacht Club is really working to make this a great event. We have sailed here on a regular basis and condition can be epic. The racing City front will be early in the day before the wind normally goes really high. Hopefully it is a flood or slack tide so there is flat water too. This is not an event to miss.

Yes but what isn't next to an AC45 or AC72? Makes a lot of sense to me to showcase a class that is very much in touch with the beach goers of the world, i.e a large portion of SoCal.

This is a pretty remarkable opportunity. I'm not going to miss it. 🙂

Any small cat will look slow. Mega Props to the CA Hobie 16 class for stepping up and promising to support the US championships.

I'm probably opening a big ole can of worms here, but what makes this the Alter Cup?

Could we just say that Spring Fever is the Alter Cup? or Juana's Good Time Regatta? or pick a random open event?

Not looking for a can, just trying to answer your question...

US Sailing has a committee, led by Laura Sullivan, which selects the Alter Cup events. To have an event considered, there is a formal bid process and a list of conditions.

Your best bet is to visit the US Sailing website, review the conditions, and contact Laura to submit a bid.

Hope this helps.

Mike

EDIT: Also, it's far from random (this event was not an existing regatta) and currently is one-design or formula (not handicapped).

And technically, the regatta is not the

Alter Cup

- that's the name of the trophy.

The official name is,

The U.S. Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Trophy.

It's not even the name of the trophy. Does anyone know where the term Alter Cup originated? It's also not the shape of the trophy...

Mike

perhaps Hobie Alter?

CUP

is the word in question...

Mike

What is, is. What was, will be. What will be, was; but will be, again.

OK, I'll bite... What does Arnold know about the etymology of the term Alter CUP?

Mike

oh oh ohhh ohhhh ohhhh

Haha, that was funny JW

Originally Posted by John Williams

Already four former Alter Cup Champions registered, in addition to multiple class champs. If you watched ITA v NZL, you saw the sailing area. Seriously. Sign up and take part in history.

Mike,

Last year marked a change in formatting due to the loss of factory sponsorship. The boats have become so expensive that the old practice of leaning on generosity from NACRA and AHPC was deep - sixed.

US Sailing owns the Deed of Gift for the Hobie Alter Trophy, and that's that.

The name 'Alter Cup' most likely came about due to ease of expression. As Matt has said, the formal name is the Hobie Alter Trophy.

The US Sailing Championship Committee is the formal governing body, and when I was booted off last year, after securing Sausalito, the regatta was intended as a

stand alone

event.

If the winds are true this year and fate has its way, the event will be sharing a time frame with the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup racing.

Look out for a PM regarding some other business brewing Zhik might be interested in.

The victors write the history? Shouldn't have poked the worms. Bert's statement is inaccurate, though I personally believe him to be well-intentioned.

OK Arnold, why is it called a cup?

Trust me, I know the recent history, but no one at US Sailing seems to be able to answer this, either.

Mike

JW, Correct my error if you will. After hours of teleconferencing that was my perception. I did not mean to poke any worms - only to explain why/how the term, Alter Cup originated and offer some reasonable explanation for the change of format for MK.

I am growing too old to keep up with you young folk, but you were correct. You know where my heart is.

Hi Mike -

Of course nobody at US SAILING (don't they still require the volunteers to write it in all caps?) knows - it was the Multihull Council that started the event with no support. After a time, we got a great Championships Manager in Lindy Christopherson for a long time - she supported all 10 qualifiers and the finals, and gave the volunteers anything they needed with a smile and a wink. She got canned, though.

I've asked the one guy that knows the whole story to make an appearance here - hope he does. In the meantime, to whet the appetite and set the stage, all of the original documentation referred to

U.S. Yacht Racing Union's Alter Cup.

Even the post-conception typed

deed

isn't the original.

I have a terrific reverence for this trophy and the man that created it. In his humbleness, he named it for someone he admired, and the Council enthusiastically followed suit.

GORDON Rocks....period.

He pretty much rocks all punctuation.

Who has the napkin upon which this is written?

Mikw

Especially exclamation points!!!!

I talked with Gordon today - I'm hoping he makes it for the A Cat event here next month; I lured him with sipping rum and free lodging. I don't think he's going to post in this thread, but his knowledge is invaluable; the world will go on spinning without it, but just as with Darline, Gordie has memories that are worth preserving. I will always regret not mining Darline's memory before she was gone; I won't make the same mistake again.

Gordon Isco was leading the Council at a time when the USYRU didn't think much of multihulls.

They can't tack

and

They flip over

and

They're dangerous

and

They aren't REAL boats

were common quotes in the hallways at meetings... Hell, that was the pervasive attitude. Yet the Multihull Council was able to forge a Championship for us. Gordie said his biggest beef since 1985 has been that he always hears cat sailors talk about

them

when referring to US SAILING.

Them

can be

us

and we are

They

in Gordie's mind.

The USYRU Board started calling it the Alter Cup in about 1989 after the event started gaining traction. The Council always called it the Multihull Championship. Gordon, who does some pretty amazing metal sculptures, built the trophy himself - you'll note the boats on the trophy share design characteristics from several classes racing at the time, but aren't identifiable as a particular boat on purpose.

So, it was US SAILING (as USYRU) that coined the

Cup

terminology - it was marketing. Or maybe just a mistake that got perpetuated for it's similarity to the Americas Cup (Gordon's speculation). Regardless, the volunteers that built the event always struggled to balance the competing ideologies among cat sailors in US SAILING - the event was to be a Championship of class Champions, or it was to be a US SAILING tool to build membership by attracting sailors to a qualification ladder and an invitation to the finals. Gordon was responsible for the partnership with Bill Jolley and the Hoyt-Jolley Foundation that funded the event so successfully for over a decade. I hope Bill knows what his donation created and how many sailors he supported...

Youth sailors at Alter Cup

Women sailors at Alter Cup

John,

Is that you in the Ronstan top?

The

us

and

them

thing has bothered me for a long, long time. I too value making the event relevant to all cat sailors.

Hopefully, this has been recognizable through my words and actions over the past two years...

Mike

I remember when both JC and Gordon had hair. does that make me old?