This weekend the Pacific Coast Championships for A-cats was held at the High Sierra Regatta put on by the Fresno Yacht Club at Huntington Lake. (I think Pete Melvin annihilated everyone downwind on the A2 and Ken Marshack made a great showing on his new AHPC Flyer.) Lots of interest seen by dinghy and mono sailors in these high tech gems. I had a couple teen 29er sailors tell me they were going to get a boat like mine next (F16). The A-cats had there own start with about 10-11 boats on the line. I sailed in the open multihull class, and they started us with the skiffs, which was actually a lot of fun. It was nice to demonstrate boat-to-boat that modern cats can point as well as (or nearly so) as skiffs and are as fast or faster up AND downwind. Only the International canoe seemed to point higher. Only the biggest skiffs (with huge mast head spinnakers) could match downwind. Jockeying at the start with the skiffs was fun also.

Only downside was that there were only three races. In general, the Fresno Yacht Club has welcomed multihulls with open arms. It's nice to see old prejudices falling away.