Perhaps it’s only me, but the pink elephant of the 2005 sailing season, the infamous hobie edict, deserves some discussion on April Fools Day. The 2005 sailing season is getting underway and I think it’s appropriate to assess the outcome of the political changes initiated by the IHCA and NAHCA with respect to catamaran racing opportunities for all sailors.

It appears that all of the Hobie fleets and Regional cat sailing clubs from the Gulf Coast, Florida and up the east coast through Maryland have chosen to host open catamaran events while offering one design Hobie classes when appropriate. One new regional organization, The Eastern Multihull Sailing Association; EMSA was created to organize the racing season on the lower eastern seaboard. The Hobie fleets of Delaware and New Jersey area which form the core of Hobie Division 11 choose to restrict their events to Hobie only boats. The very successful, Sandy Hook Catamaran Club on the northern edge of Division 11 will host both Open and Hobie only events this year in serving their membership. The good news is that the impact on the catamaran sailors in these regions has been negligible because there are very few non hobie racing sailors in the New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania region. The Hobie fleets focus on Division 11 Hobie racing serves the Hobie 16, 17 and 18 fleets. The A class fleets are located at a few clubs and are self sufficient hosting small regattas. One club, Chesapeake Hobie Fleet 54 is on the border and they are holding their breath with respect to turnout for their popular Gunpowder Open Regatta in May. Sailors with Hobie 20’s and Tigers are faced with 2 boat or fewer turnouts at the Hobie division events without the presence of an open class to play with.

Proceeding north up through New England presents a slightly different story. Another new regional sailing association was created to coordinate and schedule racing in New England, The New England Catamaran Sailing Association or NECSA joins the Long Island Catamaran Association (LICSA) to coordinate the regional sailing scene. It appears that clever scheduling has allowed different clubs to host two Hobie only racing weekends while the non Hobie fleets compete at different regatta locations on those same weekends without conflicting. It would appear that sailors won’t loose any sailing opportunities due to the policy changes… (just a smaller party) and on the plus side they can train lots of RC personnel.

Proceeding westward, upstate New York and Ontario maintain a Hobie only regatta focus. Open catamaran clubs don’t seem to have organized in this region and regattas such as the Unlimited Regatta at Kingston may be looking for support from all sailors. Non Hobie sailors will miss out since the Rochester Open regatta changed course and opted to be Hobie only this year.

The Michigan and Wisconsin regions are very well organized due to the efforts of Rrgional sailing organizations Catamaran Racing Association of Michigan or CRAM and the Catamaran Racing Association of Wisconsin or CRAW. These clubs host open events and support one design fleets when possible. Two events appear to be off limits to non Hobies in the region, however a robust high quality active schedule is available for all of the region’s cat sailors. Continuing southward finds the Ohio Catamaran Racing association or OCRA which also supports open racing events.

So, the sailing scene east of the Mississippi River has been negatively impacted by the Hobie initiative. However, I don’t have any sense of the magnitude of the impact on catamaran racers in the upstate New York region. For the most part, the changes have all occurred on paper as clubs and regions have created new documentation for name changes, bank accounts and insurance purposes. Time will tell if the impact is truly negligible.

Respectfully

Mark Schneider

With the price of gas hitting all time highs… many sailors may just stay local this year. Sigh...

Not sure what has transpired west of the river… Anyone?