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Great Texas Catamaran Race, South Padre Island, Texas
This year TheBeachcats.com will have on-the-scene reports from the Great Texas Catamaran Race. The race starts June 14th, so watch this space for reports and photos.
If you aren't familiar with the Great Texas, which started in 2003, here is a description from the race headquarters site "The Great Texas Catamaran Race is an off-shore beach catamaran race along the Texas Coast. Starting in South Padre Island and finishing in Galveston, the race covers approximately 300 miles along the Texas coast over the Father’s Day weekend. The race will be conducted in four stages with each stage starting and ending on the beach! This will be the fourth year that the Great Texas Catamaran race is held."
Click here for the Great Texas Catamaran Race, Notice of Race for more info.
If you aren't familiar with the Great Texas, which started in 2003, here is a description from the race headquarters site "The Great Texas Catamaran Race is an off-shore beach catamaran race along the Texas Coast. Starting in South Padre Island and finishing in Galveston, the race covers approximately 300 miles along the Texas coast over the Father’s Day weekend. The race will be conducted in four stages with each stage starting and ending on the beach! This will be the fourth year that the Great Texas Catamaran race is held."
Click here for the Great Texas Catamaran Race, Notice of Race for more info.
Spectacular capsizes at Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix
Team Holmatro started inconsistantly at the Volvo Extreme 40 Grand Prix in
Portsmouth (GBR). After two days and eight races, the Dutch entry claims
a fourth position overall. The Austrian Andreas Hagara, former European
and national Champion Tornado, did the honours as a skipper on Sunday.
He performed pretty well with a series of 4-2-2-4. On Tuesday May 30,
Mitch Booth returned in his role as skipper with Hagara next to him. The
crew experienced difficulties with the short course and a drop on the
point table was inevitable. Tommy Hilfiger and subsequently the Volvo
Ocean Race multihull made history as first VX 40's to capsize in a
breeze up to 25 knots. Basilica stood up against all risks and is
leading, followed by Tommy Hilfiger and Motorola.
"That
was an entertaining day", said Mitch Booth afterwards on the
dock. "I was so much distracted on the downwind leg, that I sailed over
the starting buoy." It was Leigh MacMillan that pitchpoled first with
the Motorola in the second race. The crew was hanging in the air for
seconds, with the rudders free. The VX 40 came down snail-like and
everybody drew a breath of relief, as nobody knew the consequences of a
capsize. The answer came in the last race: the carbon boat and the
sailors were very strong. Randy Smith and his teammates were given the
honour to be the very first VX 40 upside down. They were just recovering
from a pitchpole, as the next wind gust came in. It blew the American
multihull over. A heavy rib was needed to upright it. While being in
this rescue process, the Volvo Ocean Race team pitchpoled merciless.
Skipper Yves Loday, designer of the VX 40 and 1992 olympic champion
Tornado, could not avoid this unvoluntary swim and crashed badly into
the mast. Loday, who had a bruise in his face: "The cold water relieved
the pain, but my back hurts now." Nevertheless, the sailors could still
make fun of it. Randy Smith, sitting on the upper hull and shouting down
to the people in the rib: "Of course we will finish the race anyway."
This did not happen.
Team Zwitserleven, Booth/Dercksen, Close to Medal at ISAF World Sailing Games
Lake Neusiedl, Austria, May 19th 2006 - Team Zwitserleven Booth/Dercksen is close to a medal at the ISAF WorldS ailing Games 2006 in Austria. After eight races on Lake Neusiedl, the Dutchmen are second on the points table of the Hobie Tiger class. The Australians Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby are leading. The medal race on May 20 will be decisive for the final podium ranking. According to Mitch Booth, the competition is close. Theoretically, it could be a win or a tenth.
Before Herbert Dercksen starts to talk about today's racing in Austria, he expresses his feelings about the tragedy onboard ABN AMRO II: This is a really tragic story and our deepest sympathy go out to all at the ABN Amro team, and our hearts go out to Hans=92 family and close friends.
Before Herbert Dercksen starts to talk about today's racing in Austria, he expresses his feelings about the tragedy onboard ABN AMRO II: This is a really tragic story and our deepest sympathy go out to all at the ABN Amro team, and our hearts go out to Hans=92 family and close friends.
2006 Hardway Distance Race Report
Team Full Tilt Race Report, Saturday, May 20, 2006My crew Corey M. & I entered my Tornado "Full Tilt" in the annual "Hardway" distance event this past Saturday. This race starts in Santa Barbara and finishes in Ventura harbor. There are several courses between the different fleets participating. The ORCA class big multi's typically go around Santa Cruz island for a ~70 mile distance...though this year they voted for the lesser 45 mile option of going around Anacapa island.
This year's event was officially opened up to the beachcats for the first time thanks to much lobbying by several individuals, including Ventura Nacra driver John S. Though John could not make the event himself, he did a lot of leg work promoting the it and even shuttled teams to SB the morning to the race!
We had 7 boats turn out....4 I20's, 1 Hobie Tiger, 1 Prindle 19 with spinnaker and our T. We were given the shortest course, sharing with the non-spinnaker class keelboats. Start outside SB harbor, Oil Rig Platform "C", Platform "Habitat", Platform "Grace" then finish inside Ventura harbor...for a 29 mile race distance.
March 2006 Mission Bay Yacht Club Cat Fight Results
Just Swell! MBYC Cat Fight, San Diego, California, by Connie Brown
What is cold (51 degrees), has a sizable storm swell, rains and has sun? A great weekend of Cat racing! On Saturday wind direction was due west at 270 degrees and blowing in the teens with swells from trough to peak from 8-10ft. Event coordinator, Carl Teyssier, noted that it was, “an educational day for skippers and crew”.
I had a different platform for this year’s Mission Bay Yacht Club Cat Fight. Usually, I would be hanging off the side of a cat catching a stiff breeze but this year I had a great ride on a 36ft Monohull Committee boat photographing the days events and the photo opts kept coming.
The swells on the first day crested one right after the other and sent several committee boats riders to the side rails more then once. Racing was a hard and fast. With several boats capsizing and a few completely turtled, some needed chase boat assistance. By the end of the second race on Saturday, more then half the boat had heading in. The other diehard teams wanted more. The Race Committee obliged.
Nigel Pitt's Spring Fever at Lake Hartwell Want You! (to pre-register)
Spring Fever at Lake Hartwell, Georgia, (April 14-16) is a professionally run catamaran regatta that is one of the top events in the Eastern USA. Lake Hartwell, located on the border of Georgia and South Carolina is a great place for a regatta, great camping right onsite. See Spring Fever 2005 PicturesThis year it is also the Southern Area Formula-18 Championship. (See Calendar Listing) All beach catamarans are welcome and Forumula 14, H16, H18, Isotope, Mystere 4.3, NACRA 5.8, NACRA 20 fleets, as well as others, are expected.
The event is presented by Nigel Pitt, well known catamaran sailor. Since this is a large regatta, Nigel has an urgent need to have a good idea who is coming.
"Our original concept for Spring Fever was to bring together all makes of catamarans and rebuild the fun that we all used to enjoy at the large regattas. Our goal was, and is, to have 100 or more teams and their families getting together in a fun but competitive atmosphere."
So please, if you are planning to attend Spring Fever, fill out the registration form: 2006 Spring Fever Pre-Registration Form.
Statue of Liberty Race - special edition
It's winter up here in NJ/NY. We're waiting for spring, and it's already itching. Some folks are fixing their boats, some are working on upgrades, some are hanging out in this site here, but we're all basically just keeping busy.
In our club (SHBCC), we just decided to make our Statue of Liberty Race this season something really special. It's our clubs' 30th anniversary. So just for the fun of it we pulled together this invitational video clip . We're hoping to see MANY of you at the start this year. Sailing New York harbor and rounding the Statue of Liberty is a "once-in-a-lifetime-must-do-can't-miss" event for every catsailor . We're inviting you early cuz we know your season will be booked up before you know it! Click here to view the clip.
In our club (SHBCC), we just decided to make our Statue of Liberty Race this season something really special. It's our clubs' 30th anniversary. So just for the fun of it we pulled together this invitational video clip . We're hoping to see MANY of you at the start this year. Sailing New York harbor and rounding the Statue of Liberty is a "once-in-a-lifetime-must-do-can't-miss" event for every catsailor . We're inviting you early cuz we know your season will be booked up before you know it! Click here to view the clip.
Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power (GBR) Win the 2005 Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta
Aruba, November 11th 2005 On Friday, Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power (GBR) won officially the 15th Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. Although the 2005 victory was already a fact, the British winners sailed the very last Aruba Bank Race as well and finished as first F18 in fourth position overall. Eduard Zanen and Mischa Heemskerk (NED) are second best this year, followed by Richard Allen and Simon Farren (GBR). Stuart Gummer carried a little camera on top of his cap during their champion’s race. Gummer: "That is fun. We have produced a lot of footage this week, which we will use for a report on the 15th Aruba Regatta." The end of the racing was a relief for Gummer: "I have been ill for the last two days, so I am happy that it is over now." Although it seemed to be an easy victory, it was obviously not that easy. Power: "We had to sail hard for it. Competing on handicap means that you never know how you did, until the prize giving in the evening." Last year, Gummer and Power had a terrible regatta, as their Spitfire crashed in a collision, so they had to make up for that and they did.
Big smile for runners up
"Every day, I have come off the boat with a big smile", said Mischa Heemskerk after the last race. "The conditions have been great and we enjoyed the sailing very much." He and his occasional skipper Eduard Zanen became second best. Heemskerk: "We are happy with the result, since we are the first Tornado and we know it is hard to beat the F18’s on handicap. We did well in comparison to other Tornado teams and so did Stuart and Gillian. They were very fast and sailed a good competition." Heemskerk will fly directly to Miami / USA for a training session on the olympic Tornado with his skipper Koen de Koning. They are aiming for the 2008 Olympic Games in Bejing. Marcus Lynch (GBR), crewing for James Power, has also aspirations for the Olympics in London in 2012. Back home, he will participate at the F18 Olympic Sailing Camp with Christopher Rashely.
Gummer and Power (F18 GBR) Unbeatable at Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta Day 4
Aruba, November 10th 2005 British teams dominated on the fourth day of the Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. In the morning race, Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power (F18, GBR) beat Chris Sproat and Georgina Burke (Spitfire, GBR) by just three seconds after calculation. The Dutch Tornado sailors Eduard Zanen and Mischa Heemskerk won the Gaastra long distance race in the afternoon, followed by Gummer/Power and Allen/Farren. With one race left, Gummer and Power are unbeatable, so they can start to dismantle their F18 Capricorn. "We had a good race with Mischa", told Richard Allen in the morning. "We were up to three laps in the lead, when he took it over. We caught them back and we rounded together the last gate, but we both choose another mark and Mischa finished just ahead of us." After calculation, Allen and Farren got a 7th position and Zanen and Heemskerk a 6th.
Bad start for leaders
Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power, the current leaders, did not win the eighth race because of a good start. Power: "We were too conservative. We rounded as fifth Formula 18 the first upwind mark. It was a terrible feeling to see all the Tornado’s and then the F18’s in front of us, but in every downwind reach we caught one up and we ended as first F18." Chris Sproat and Georgina Burke came very close to victory with their Spitfire in the morning race. Sproat: "We had a good start at the committee boat, so we had clear air. We zig zagged through the middle and reached the mark just behind Stuart. We increased our speed downwind, so we seemed to do very well. It was a good day for us so far."
Capri speed wanted
James Power and Marcus Lynch finished as second F18, which put them in third position on handicap. Power sailed a Spitfire last year, but he enjoys his Hobie Tiger (F18) now: "It sails smoother and you can push it much harder, but we want to have some ‘Capri speed’ upwind." The British sailors had two bad results, due to a broken jib and an OCS. After eight races, the second result could be discarded and that is why they came back in third position overall.
Tornado (Netherlands) and F18 (Great Britain) Tied at Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta
On Tuesday November 8th 2005, the top two teams showed a tied battle for victory in the Aruba Heineken Catamaran Regatta. Eduard Zanen and Mischa Heemskerk (Tornado, NED) won the first race, after which Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power (F18, GBR) took the next bullet. John Moret and Gijs Jannink (Tornado, NED) moved into third position overall with today’s top ten results. Due to a miscalculation, the race committee announced the wrong winners of race five yesterday. It was not the Dart 18 of Sybrand Trefffers and Tjitske Stoel that beat all high tech cats, but it was the Capricorn of Gummer and Power.Yamaha Race 6: No extra miles, two OCS
This morning, the competitors had to sail again a long course with two triangles and two rounds. Some people wrote the numbers of the marks down on their arm, others studied hard on the map, but everybody completed the race correctly. The offshore wind was about force four and initially the sun struggled to burst through the clouds. It was also a typical third day, as many sailors had to deal with muscular pains, painful hands and bruces all over. Zanen and Heemskerk were first at the upwind mark and staid in the lead until the end. Unfortunately for Gerard Loos and Ruurd van Wieren, they got an OCS (early over the line) after a second finish. The same happened to James Power and Marcus Lynch (F18, GBR). Stuart Gummer and Gillian Power scored a second place, followed by Chris Sproat and Georgina Burke.
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