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Fear and Loathing in Santa Barbara - 2005 Hobie Tiger Worlds
Well Damon, it's our first day here in Santa Barbara and the venue is
absolutely beautiful. We have taken over the parking lot with a sea of
motor homes and boats. The weather is a blue sky with wispy clouds and
wind at 20 plus today. Eric Finley and I took out the Super Cat 20 with
seas at about the 4-6 foot range. Trying conditions to say the least.
If the wind stays at this speed it will be very interesting to see who
has the balls to pop the chute. The beach is a stereotypical picture of
California, complete with the requisite Baywatch scene of palm trees,
white sand beach, and a hot chick in a pink bikini jogging on the
beach.
All the rock stars are here, and we mere mortals are walking shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Jeff Alter, Mitch Booth, Enrique Figueroa, Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier. The view is somewhat surreal - in a parking lot adjacent to the venues lays some thirty brand new Hobie Tigers in various states of assembly. Three huge shipping containers hold more hulls and parts in a never ending stream of construction. It is a seemingly impossible task to get all these boats built in the few days that we have before official competition begins.
We are in the process of setting up an internet cafe on site courtesy of Hobie Fleet 2 from Nevada City, Ca. The parking lot where the motor homes are parked it set up as a WiFi hot spot so everyone with a laptop can stay connected to home with out leaving their rigs. Three parties are planned for the week, with the rum drinks and beer flowing freely.
Tomorrow we will begin to weigh the boats and measure the sails - I hope there is a keg close by because this will be a long day with 100 boats now competing. Speaking of beer - the daily stipend you have given us is great, but 250.00 per person per day is a little less that we are used to. Eric is blowing through his like the proverbial drunken sailor. This is really making the living conditions unbearable. I am afraid we will need more money to last us out the week. The Mount Gay rum is gone, as well as the Blue Sapphire gin, so we have already resorted to drinking the cheap stuff. It is only the first day and already we have had to lay off the college girls we hired to wheel the boat up and down the beach - the inhumanity of it all!
That's all for today, I'll send more tomorrow, and remember - send more money! We don't want to have to pawn these nice laptops you gave us to afford the "entertainment" we have planned for later in the week, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do...
Dave Atwater
Somewhere in Santa Barbara
BOOTH/DERCKSEN WARM UP AT FIRST RACING DAY SOFIA CUP 2005
On Tuesday March 22 2005, Team Zwitserleven of Booth/Dercksen from the Netherlands could not easily get going during the first racing day of the Princess Sofia Cup. Due to lack of wind at the coastside of Palma de Mallorca, the participants had to stay ashore yesterday. As a result, four races were scheduled for today. The only Dutch representatives went from a seventeenth place in the openings race to victory in the last one. That gives Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen a sixth position on the provisional overall ranking in a fleet of 33 Tornado’s.
The Sofia Cup is Team Zwitserleven’s first olympic regatta since the Athens Games in 2004, where Booth/Dercksen ended in fifth place. Today, they were not in their element yet. Dercksen: “At the beginning it was hard to do it right. We had troubles to speed up the boat. Not only because of the new mast and sails, but also because we did not have enough practice. I really had to find everything again.” During the first two races, there was a light wind of about eight knots. Booth and Dercksen crossed the finish line in respectively seventeenth and fourteenth position. Subsequently the wind increased to fourteen knots and the Dutch crew could add a sixth place and a victory to their total score. Dercksen: “It is good to know that we are still competitive. Now, we need more training and less weight.”
The Sofia Cup is Team Zwitserleven’s first olympic regatta since the Athens Games in 2004, where Booth/Dercksen ended in fifth place. Today, they were not in their element yet. Dercksen: “At the beginning it was hard to do it right. We had troubles to speed up the boat. Not only because of the new mast and sails, but also because we did not have enough practice. I really had to find everything again.” During the first two races, there was a light wind of about eight knots. Booth and Dercksen crossed the finish line in respectively seventeenth and fourteenth position. Subsequently the wind increased to fourteen knots and the Dutch crew could add a sixth place and a victory to their total score. Dercksen: “It is good to know that we are still competitive. Now, we need more training and less weight.”
All NACRA Catamaran Class Championships Together for 2005
NACRA catamaran racers worldwide are coming together to celebrate NACRA¹s 30th Anniversary for an action-packed week of class racing. Traverse City, Michigan on Lake Michigan has been chosen as this year¹s championship location having been the the site of the very successful 1991 NACRA North American Championships. For 2005, from September 12th through 16th, an even bigger turn out is expected because of the combined championships for all NACRA Catamarans:NACRA F18 World Championships; NACRA F17 North American Championships; NACRA 20 U. S. National Championships; and the NACRA Open Championships for NACRA 5.0 to 6.0 as well as the Beach Series Catamarans 500 to 580 models -- all to be held in 5 days of excitement.
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