News
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Added by damonAdmin on Nov 08, 2004 - 11:07 AM
On Sunday November 7th 2004, Gunnar Larsen and Xander Pols from the Netherlands started strongly at the fourteenth Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. Last year’s winners were victorious in both races with a northeaster force five to six. The British competitors Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power followed with their Spitfire on the second place. Christopher Sproat and Georgina Burke, also from Great Britain, are in third position in a field of fifty-four catamarans, representing five countries.
"It went very well", was the enthusiastic reaction of Larsen. "We have sailed conservatively, which gave us a good position to start with.” Many teams capsized under genaker and lost their races. According to Larsen, they did not push their Nacra F18 to the limit: "We did not want to start with a discard.” They are again the men to beat. Today, the performance of the Spitfires was remarkable good with four teams in the top ten.
Added by gt on Nov 05, 2004 - 12:23 PM
FREE PORT TO PORT SHIPPING TO THE 2005 TIGER WORLDS IN SANTA BARBARA
P&O Nedlloyd, the premiere shipping company in the world, has become a major sponsor of the 2005 Hobie Tiger World Championships. They are sponsoring 6 containers from various ports in Europe and Australia to Los Angeles and return.
The following are the final ports of departure for the containers
Northern Europe – Bremerhaven, Germany – loaded in Reinfeld
Central Europe – Rotterdam - loaded at Hobie Cat Holland
Southern Europe – (2) LeHavre - loaded at Hobie Cat Europe
Australia – Melbourne – loaded at Frankston Yacht Club
Australia – Sydney – loaded at Hobie Cat Australasia
Details will be posted on the website – www.hobieworlds.com - within a few weeks.
Added by gt on Nov 05, 2004 - 12:18 PM
2005 Hobie Tiger World Championships Santa Barbara, California March 28-31, 2005
Hobie Cat has negotiated a special rate with Landstar Ranger for a trailer to depart from the East Coast and make 2 stops, picking up Tigers as it goes on its merry way to California. Hobie Cat has obtained 50% OFF Round Trip Transportation for a 53’ trailer. This makes the overall cost of transporting boats from the east coast very reasonable. The tentative current costs for one-way is approximately $4,600. The trailer will hold 12 – 15 boats plus beach wheels and gear. That is less than $400 per boat round trip. Of course the final cost per boat will depend on the exact number of boats being shipped.
This includes the following:
• 53’ Trailer with cross racks to tie your hulls so they do not sit on each other
• Partial loading at initial departure point
• Partial loading at two other locations in route
• Trailer to remain on-site in Santa Barbara for duration of the event
• Return trip with same stops
Added by damonAdmin on Oct 26, 2004 - 02:22 AM
The First Challenge
Sometime late 1999, a small group of international Hobie 16 catamaran sailors
envisioned
an extreme sailing event that will take them to different islands in the
Philippines; six days in the open seas and camping in rustic areas.
Thus, the
Philippine Hobie Challenge had its relatively modest start in March 2000
with
five (5) regional teams making the 190 nautical-mile passage from
Lucena, Quezon
down to Boracay. Michael Scantlebury, who was in the group that
conceptualized
the event, eventually took the honours of winning the first Challenge.
Dreaming the Impossible
The highly
successful
inaugural event proved the concept of long distance racing in Hobie 16
catamarans to be workable and the Challenge had its repeat in March
2001. This
time, entries had more than doubled to twelve (12), including teams
flying in
from HK, Australia and Europe. Using experience gained during the first
event,
the organizers scheduled a 5-race inshore series and the Challenge
series with 5
consecutive daily passages, taking the teams 154 nautical miles from the
Batangas resort of Maya-Maya down to Maricaban Bay in Northern Palawan.
The team
from Down Under, Andrew Keag and Naomi Angwin, bested the rest of the
fleet to
win the 2nd Philippine Hobie Challenge. In 2001, the Challenge went
Northwest,
taking fifteen (15) teams from Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur down to Subic Bay,
Zambales. Blood Red, the team of Chris Steilberg, Dave Harris and
Krishan George
took honors in this 230 nautical mile race.
Added by damonAdmin on Oct 20, 2004 - 11:48 AM
LOVELL AND OGLETREE SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND TITLE
NEW ORLEANS, LA. (October 23, 2004) In an exciting final day of competition, the USAs 2004 Olympic Silver Medal team of John Lovell (New Orleans) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas) have successfully defended their claim to the International Catamaran Challenge Trophy (ICCT) by defeating Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez of Puerto Rico. After going ahead on a score of 3-1 yesterday, the American pair needed to win only one match today to hold on to their title in the first-to-four point series sailed in F18HTs on Lake Pontchartrain and hosted by Southern Yacht Club.
But the win did not come easily. In the first do-or-die match for the Challengers, Lovell and Ogletree replicated the mastery theyve displayed all week in match racing, controlling the Puerto Ricans in the pre-start and leading around the first mark by several lengths. And while the 9-12 knot southerly breeze was the most promising all week for match racing, there were not only opportunities to speed away in the puffs but also pitfalls to die in the lulls over the 2.5-mile course. Soon after their rounding, Lovell and Ogletree gybed away to protect their lead only to fall into a hole while Figueroa and Hernandez sped away to a spectacular three-minute lead, the largest of any match of the week.
Thanks for the mulligan, quipped Figueroa to a disappointed but smiling Lovell between matches. We lucked into that one. Even with a long-standing rivalry between these two going back to their Olympic Tornado competition -- the sailors have maintained their good nature and camaraderie both on and off the water.
Added by damonAdmin on Oct 19, 2004 - 06:56 PM
Olympic Reunion for Competitors
The ICCT was revived last year after a hiatus of more than seven years. Like the classic match racing event it mimics and from which it long ago derived its nickname "The Little America's Cup," the 2003 ICCT had matured into a new class of boat--the dynamic F18HT. Reborn in Newport, Rhode Island, the 2003 ICCT came down to the final match in a best four-out-of-seven finals before the champagne was uncorked for winners Johnny Lovell (New Orleans, La.) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas). Following the example of the ICCT's namesake, the winners will now compete for the right to defend the Trophy for Southern Yacht Club, which will host the 24th running of this event through October 23.
Olympic Re-Match: The win of the 2003 ICCT last year launched a banner year for Lovell and Ogletree. In February, they won the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the Tornado class--the only catamaran ever sailed in the Olympic Games--for their third consecutive trip to the Olympics. Two months later, they were victorious in a fleet of 53 Tornados at the Princess Sofia Regatta. That event, sailed in Palma de Mallorca, was a warm-up for the Tornado World Championship where 62 teams from 24 nations competed in the final qualifying event for the Athens Olympic Regatta. Lovell and Ogletree won the Silver Medal at the Worlds with a performance that included winning two of nine races, before moving on to Hyeres, France, the following week where they collected yet another silver medal at Semaine Olympique Francaise.
Added by damonAdmin on Sep 29, 2004 - 12:47 PM
Hurricane Jeanne hits regatta location with less force than expected - Nacra
North American Championship is still on!
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - Hurricane Jeanne came barreling up the coast
of Florida and Georgia late last weekend and the Nacra North American
Championship regatta site was in jeopardy.
Weather Channel's Jeff Morrow was on Tybee Island over the weekend, keeping
a watchful eye on the winds and waves. However, the storm was downgraded to
a tropical storm and Tybee Island did not receive the damage that was
expected or experienced in other parts of the Southeast.
After contacting Regatta Official Chuck Bargeron this morning, he briefly
stated It¹s a go! and quickly hung up with no time to chat.
Added by damonAdmin on Sep 22, 2004 - 09:24 PM
Pete Melvin and Nacra A2 "Team Up" to Sweep A-Class Championships
with 7 Bullets!
September 23, 2004 - The new Nacra A2 catamaran, with Pete Melvin at the helm,
swept the A-Class North American Championships with 7 bullets out of 11 races!
28 top sailors from North America competed for the championships but were defeated
by Melvin on the A2 who¹s total score was only 13 points.
The boat I sailed was a stock Nacra A2, built with the latest materials
and production processes, fresh out of the box and included a Hall Spars mast
and Ullman sail. "It's performance was outstanding!" says Melvin. The
A2 was very fast in all conditions sailed, including the 20 knot+ conditions
experienced the first two days, as well as the more moderate conditions at the
end of the regatta.
Click on "Read More" to see full story and results.
Added by damonAdmin on Sep 13, 2004 - 12:18 AM
9/18/04 Final Results, Hobie 16 North Americans Mexicans Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach are the
new Hobie 16 North American Champions. Noriega is a
Pan-Am Games silver medallist in the Hobie 16 but the
title of North American Champion is a first for him
and for Achach. The team dominated the seventy-one
catamaran fleet, on Lake Oneida in Syracuse NY, finishing
twenty two points ahead of the second place team, and
2004 Alter Cup Champions, Mike Montague and Cathy Ward
from California. Defending Champions Paul and Mary Ann
Hess finished fourth.
The regatta came to an anticlimactic end on Friday
with only one race started in winds just above the
class minimum wind strength of five knots. The
conditions where light and shifty for most of the week
with the exception of Tuesday when the winds topped
out at about fifteen knots.
Top Five:
- Armando Noriega and Roderigo Achach
- Mike Monntague and Cathy Ward
- Bob Merrick and Eliza Cleveland
- Paul Hess and Mary Ann Hess
- Wall Myers and Tyler Myers
Full results and pictures are on the event website at www.HobieNAC.com .
Footnote: Thanks to Bob Merrick for providing daily updates from the regatta. Congratulations on taking third!
Added by Anonymous on Sep 10, 2004 - 01:26 PM
On September 25th and 26th 2004, Houston Fleet 8 and the Texas City Dike Yacht Club present Wayward Winds 2004 - a beach cat regatta open to all makes of catamaran. This Division 6 sponsored event will also be the US Sailing Area F Alter cup qualifier. The notice of race is available
here.
We will have some great T-Shirts designed by Tami Shelton - you can see the design
here
For more information/questions got to
http://texascitydike.com
Chris Green
Comodore - Houston Fleet 8