Pat, in our program at Sail Sand Point in Seattle, www.sailsandpoint.org, we have five Hobie Waves. The Waves are used in "Cruising Camp" This is a five day, 9:00 AM to 4:00PM. The age in this class is 10 to 18. After the mandatory first day drill, where all the students are required to turn over, then right the boat it is a fun program. This is a US SAILING Program, with level 1 Instructors, so it also includes swimming with and without PFD's and other safety training. The number of students on each Wave varies, but can be from one to four. The social aspect dictates, and they are encouraged to rotate crews. This not a strict learn to sail program. They do learn how to sail the Waves, and all take turns at the tiller, but the emphasis is on having fun. Each day, they sail to a different beach, and have lunch at that location. The safety boat carries the lunches, and drinks they bring. On one day, they go to Kirkland, or Ivar's in the U of W district and buy lunch. They bring $8.00 on this day to cover the cost. Depending on the wind, they sail as much as possible, but often are towed back, or to the beach. All five Waves are equipped with righting/tow lines, and can easily be towed with the safety boat. We have 13ft Whalers, and similar RIB's for safety boats. Each day is a different adventure with the distance from SSP between 2 and 8 miles, all on Lake Washington. This is a low key fun program. My grandson Dan, now 11, has done this program for three years. He has also raced the Wave in our local Hobie Cat Regattas the past two years.

The Wave is also our most popular boat in the "Open Sailing" program. This is when the boats are available on weekends, and evenings when the boats are not in use in classes.

Last year we had our first Hobie 16 Class. We now have five Hobie 16's that will be used in our classes, and Open Sailing. The student must be checked out on any boat before they can sail it in Open sailing. We also have Opt's, Lasers, 420's and FJ's in the Program.

Two of our instructors, Chris Fuller and Callie Wade, are now in training to race in the US SAILING Youth Multihull Champ. in CA this spring. Local Hobie Sailors are training this team on both Hobie 16's and a Tiger to get them ready.

All information on this and other programs is on the webpage, along with lots of pictures. We encourage all young sailors to first learn to sail on the Opti. Their ability to sail the Wave is much improved by going through the Opti first.

Caleb Tarleton