Josh Rosenbaum and Fred Moffatt were one of the teams that participated in the youth multihull championship recently held at Fort Walton Yacht Club up in the Florida panhandle. In one of the pre-regatta practice races, they had a collision with a personal watercraft. Here is Josh's account:

"The winds were blowing around 15 mph, with gusts of around 18 mph which makes the Hobie 16 quite a handful. Fred and I zipped around the small bayou sailing area, when at the top of the area we saw a group of five Jet Skis coming for us at full speed. Two Jet Skis veered off to the right and two off to the left to avoid us and the middle Jet Ski came right for us at full speed. This Jet Ski was being driven by a middle aged woman with a small child on her lap. The woman was driving the Jet Ski at full speed while looking over her shoulder. She came nearer and nearer. Fred shouted, screamed, cussed and I turned the boat away as hard as I possibly could and WHACK! Fred and I were both on the trapeze when we got hit. Fred flew forward and my ankle was caught in between the Jet Ski and our port hull. Luckily, I moved my foot about three inches. If I had not moved my foot, it would have been crushed instead of just bruised. The Jet Ski impacted our boat at the stern and left a nice size crunch. We sailed back to the beach and the Jet Ski came back too as we waited for a law enforcement officer to show up. By this time, my ankle and heel were swollen up. The law enforcement officer, actually a Fish and Wildlife Officer, showed up and after interrogating, questioning, doing all of his legal stuff, he wrote both me and the Jet Ski lady a ticket! His reasoning to me for writing a ticket was that I did not take early enough action in avoiding the Jet Ski. When questioned as to what would be proper action, the officer responded with, 'You should avoid a Jet Ski the moment you see one.' Although we were faced with a ticket and the possibility of some bills for boat damage, the bottom line is that the situation could have been much more harmful if not fatal. I'm OK, Fred is OK, and the situation could have been much worse."