I am going to try to restart the long-dead Hobie Fleet 276 in Southeast Michigan. If you have any interest in taking part in the Spring of 2003, please visit www.geocities.com/
Hi J
METRO Beach is a great place to sail cats .
When I got my first H-18 in 78 --used to go sail of the beach on Lk St Clair through Oct and into Nov . sometimes in40 degree temps along with another crazy . --fun times -
CRAM held a number of regattas there way back when ,-
remember the fog rolling in one race so thick visability was about 10 yards ,--the only way we found C mark was by zig zagging every 30 seconds downwind ,-we just got lucky and almost bumped into it .
Also recall PROSAIL holding an event there in 88 ,on H-21S -
GREAT FUN also.
Anyway ,-hope you get some interest locally .
CRAM does welcome all cats to race , it has its banquet Oct 26 at Lk Fenton Sail Club . Info is on the CRAM WEB SITE .
You may want to stop in and contact other active catsailors there as well . It is a very nice group with a long consistant history of great cat racing at locations throughout MI for more than a few decades now .
Sail safe
have fun
Carl Roberts
Ji Jeff, Good luck on restarting your Hobie Fleet. You are welcome and encouraged to attend the 'Round The Bay Race on Saturday, June 14, 2003. It is a 24 mile race around Maumee Bay at the west end of Lake Erie, starting and finishing at North Cape Yacht Club in La Salle, MI. It would be a good place to recruit sailors. We still have Hobie fleet 400 going in Toledo (just barely); you will meet those members, some other sailors from Michigan and CRAM members as well as many sailors from Ohio and OCRA members. It is an event that is popular and pulls many racers in from quite a distance. Hope to see you there next year.
Mike Fahle Toledo
Carl, thanks for your stories of sailing on St. Clair. My wife and I have some fond memories of that body of water ourselves! That is definitely my target for the fleet. However, I understand that when Fleet 276 was nearing its death, a lot of the frustration of the members was due to all the jet skis flooding the beach area, making sailing in and out quite frustrating. I will be doing some research to see if that would still be the case. If it is, we may need to find a different lauching area.
Anyway, thanks for the response. I hope we can meet up on the water some day!