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Figueroa/Figueroa Leads Hobie 16 North Americans, Ventura, California (CA)
The race committee has eased up a bit on the schedule today running only three races. This ensures that all of the teams have had an equal number of races at the end of the day as we get towards Friday, the last day and the Gold fleet finals.
Enrique Figueroa an Olympic Tornado sailor from Puerto Rico sailing with his wife Carla is still in the lead. Figueroa is working towards his fifth North American Championship in the Hobie 16 this week. Family teams and couples teams are the norm in the Hobie 16 class and it’s very common to see one of them on the top of the score sheet.
The provided boat format of this year’s event has brought some top-level international competition to the North Americans this year with competitors hailing from seven countries.
Hobie 16 North Americans, Ventura, California (CA)
It was a late day on the water with the final race of the day ending at 7:30. After waiting for wind all morning racing finally got started at 2:30 in the afternoon. The wind built slowly throughout the day and each group got in one race with double trapeezing conditions at the end of the day. Each team sailed two races today with four races total.
Defending champions from Mexico Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach are off to a good start and lead the series. Americans Kieth Christensen, a three time past champion, and Kristen King are in second.
The favored team from Puerto Rico, Enrique and Carla Figueroa jumped the gun at the first start but managed to salvage a 15 after re-starting. They were second in their second race.
There are lots of young teams at the top of the field this year. Juani Maegli and Christina Guirola from Guatemala came to California directly from the ISAF Youth Worlds and are presently in seventh place.
Youth and Women’s Hobie 16 North Americans Conclude
The Youth and Women’s Hobie 16 North Americans concluded on Friday with a third day of good racing and winds of about ten knots.
Although the racing in the Youth fleet was tight at times the Guatemalans always came out on top. Jason and Alexander Hess ended the series with a perfect score of all first place finishes. Last years champions, Michael Siau and Trey James finished second. Canadians Andrew Robins and Trent Freeman were third.
In the Women’s fleet the win went to former World Champion Annie Nelson and Kathy Kulkowski. Worrell 1000 veteran Sandra Tartaglino and Eileen Haubl came on strong in the end to finish the series in second. Mary Lindsay and Barbara Roettger were third.
Racing for the Open Championship starts on Monday. The winds over the weekend have been unseasonably light making it hard to get through the surf. When the wind does come up it tends to be late in the day and could make for some late afternoons on the water.
Hobie 16 Youth and Women's North Americans after 5 Races
The second day of the Hobie 16 Youth and Womens North
Americans had some welcomed breeze. After a light wind
first day, with only one race completed, the fleets
had a building breeze that peaked at close to twenty
knots late in the afternoon.
With one day remaining Jason and Charles Hess from Guatemala are dominating the Youth fleet with five bullets in the first five races of the series. These young guys are the top team from a competitive fleet and are likely to be right up there in the Open Championship next week. Last years Youth Champions, Mike Siau and Trey James (NY), are in second place going into the last day.
After a slow start Annie Nelson (CA) and Kathy Kulkoski (NJ) have taken the lead in the Women's fleet. It appears that the increased wind was a bit more to their liking. The pair won race four and five today.
Hobie 16 Youth and Women's North Americans
The Hobie 16 Youth and Women's North Americans got off to a slow start today with an onshore postponement due to a lack of breeze. After a morning of frisbee on the beach the racing finally started at about three in the afternoon. One race was completed in a five to ten knot Westerly. In the youth division Jason and Charles Hess from Guatemala have won the first race and take the early lead. Judy Nasmith and Vicki Ulibarri won the first women's race.
2005 Scandinavian Tornado Camp, Stockholm, Sweden
Account of this years "Tornado Camp" held in Stockholm, Sweden in conjunction with a mixed fleet multihull regatta known as "Liding Rundt". Story by Rolf Nilson, pictures by Stefan BomanEight Tornados attended, 5 from Sweden, list member Heine Foss from Denmark, two times (?) Tornado Olympian Hannu Jarvela from Finland and one boat from Norway (us). The plan was to do some training on friday, participate on the major regatta "Liding Rundt" on saturday, and another training session on saturday. Monday was a holiday in Norway, and this suited us nicely as we had 900km to drive home from Stockholm.
Friday started with a briefing and intro session held by Martin Strandberg (sailed T's both in Sydney and Athens, I think he also participated earlier with Mats Nyberg..). He shared quite a bit of information in compressed form, so all were listening with ears perked. Then we went on the water, and the weather gods blessed us with sun and around 8m/s of wind. Launching at "Ranangen" boatclub was 'interesting' as the ramp was framed by all kinds of obstacles (buyous, rocks, weed, piers etc). But everybody handled the advanced launching routines without to much drama. My crew fell between the bows, and hit the bowsprit full on with his forehead. Thank god the bowsprit wasn't damaged, but he sailed the rest of the day with a blistering headache. We did some initial speed training, with Martin trying to keep up with the T's in a coach boat, before we did some start procedures and one lap races. Obviously, Hannu knew how to make a T fly under those conditions.
2005 Hobie 16 North American Championships
The 2005 Hobie 16 North American Championship gets underway in Ventura, California on Wednesday July 20.
2005 marks the championships return to a supplied boat, round robin format thanks to the support of the Hobie Cat Company. Hobie Cat has generously supplied 35 brand new Hobie 16s for the regatta. (http://www.hobiecat.com)
Over a week and a half of racing the Hobie Class Association of North America will determine the 2005 Hobie 16 Youth, Women's and Open Champions.
The regatta will start off with racing for the Hobie 16 Youth and Women's North American Championship on July 20, 21 and 22. Over the weekend of July 23 and 24
the qualification round will take place for the Open Championship. The qualification round allows teams that have not pre-qualified through the North American ranking system to qualify for the Hobie 16 Open Championships. Over 500 teams appeared on the Hobie 16 rankings last year but only 50 pre-qualified spots areavailable for the regatta. In total 70 teams will qualify for the Open event.
The Open Hobie 16 North Americans will start on Monday July 25 and run through Friday July 29.
Who To Watch
The Hobie 16 Youth North Amercians will likely be a battle between defending champions Mike Siau and Trey James from Manlius, NY and Jason and Charles Hess, the top ranked team from Guatemala.
2005 marks the championships return to a supplied boat, round robin format thanks to the support of the Hobie Cat Company. Hobie Cat has generously supplied 35 brand new Hobie 16s for the regatta. (http://www.hobiecat.com)
Over a week and a half of racing the Hobie Class Association of North America will determine the 2005 Hobie 16 Youth, Women's and Open Champions.
The regatta will start off with racing for the Hobie 16 Youth and Women's North American Championship on July 20, 21 and 22. Over the weekend of July 23 and 24
the qualification round will take place for the Open Championship. The qualification round allows teams that have not pre-qualified through the North American ranking system to qualify for the Hobie 16 Open Championships. Over 500 teams appeared on the Hobie 16 rankings last year but only 50 pre-qualified spots areavailable for the regatta. In total 70 teams will qualify for the Open event.
The Open Hobie 16 North Americans will start on Monday July 25 and run through Friday July 29.
Who To Watch
The Hobie 16 Youth North Amercians will likely be a battle between defending champions Mike Siau and Trey James from Manlius, NY and Jason and Charles Hess, the top ranked team from Guatemala.
Reynolds Sailing and SailMax headline live web cast for Formula 18 North America
Reynolds Sailing and SailMax headline live web cast for Formula 18 North Americans and then some during The F18 North Americans at Buckroe Beach, Hampton, Virginia from August 8th through the 12th, 2005.
If watching some of the top Formula 18 catamaran sailors compete for the North American title isn’t enough to fulfill your need for fast thrills, then how about a duo of high-performance, spinnaker donning, 33 foot catamarans tearing it up on the race course?
That’s exactly what it’s in store when R33.com and SailMax host a seven day Reynolds 33 land and water exhibition to surpass all expectations.
On-line sailing enthusiast will be able to follow the action of the 2005 Formula 18 North Americans when they log on to www.F18NAOnline.com Live updates, frequent video clips of on and off the water action, sailor interviews and more are all courtesy of R33.com and SailMax.
If watching some of the top Formula 18 catamaran sailors compete for the North American title isn’t enough to fulfill your need for fast thrills, then how about a duo of high-performance, spinnaker donning, 33 foot catamarans tearing it up on the race course?
That’s exactly what it’s in store when R33.com and SailMax host a seven day Reynolds 33 land and water exhibition to surpass all expectations.
On-line sailing enthusiast will be able to follow the action of the 2005 Formula 18 North Americans when they log on to www.F18NAOnline.com Live updates, frequent video clips of on and off the water action, sailor interviews and more are all courtesy of R33.com and SailMax.
What it's like to sail the Round Texel
I arrived on the beach Wednesday morning at around eleven, once there I noticed that quite a few people had already setup their boats to compete in the Texel Dutch Open (6 round-the-cans races) which would start at twelve. A beautiful day with sunshine, no surf, and light winds. After setting up the boat I went for a sail to see if I hadn't forgotten anything, apart from a few minor details everything was ready for action. After sailing I met up my fellow club members which had already setup their tents on a nice camping close to the beach.On Thursday we went for a sail (The "Horstocht") to the south of the island for free fish and drinks, it gives you a good opportunity to scout the south of the island for the race on Saturday. Its a tricky place with shoals, sandbanks, currents and tides. As always people try to go as far outside the channel markers as possible which makes for the usual capsizes and groundings. Since there were no more than 8-10kts of wind there where no serious problems.
Friday was a cold day (12C/53F), to cold for me anyway! This gave me a good opportunity to take pictures and follow the racing. First stop was the Pit Lane's Hobie Europe stand with the very cool looking Hobie Fox Extreme, this all-carbon beast was built to take line honors and maybe more. Interesting was the "Made by Hobie Europe" sticker on the hulls, obviously they now have facilities to build carbon hulls. Also the rudder system was not standard Hobie style, ironically they didn't use carbon boards and rudders but standard GRPs. Opposite the Hobie Europe stand where the F18-Capricorns, a relative newcomer that seems to perform very well within the F18 field.
Saturday morning, race day. I set the alarm at 6am, had some breakfast, headed to the beach where everyone was preparing their boats for the start at 10am.
First Pictures of New Carbon Hobie Cat
It appears that rumors of a new, possibly experimental, carbon Hobie are true. The boat appears to be based on the Hobie Fox and is manufactured by Hobie Europe. The first example was at the Texel race but, (like over half the participants) wasn't able to make it out through the surf. We'll have to wait for another event to see what the black boat can do. Pictures of the Carbon Hobie CatThanks to Tony Mels, we have these first pictures of the new boat.
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