I was approached, coincidentally, on Wednesday night about an off-shore multihull event in California. Some of the Ocean Racing Catamaran Association (ORCA) guys here in Cali were wonding if any beach cats are interested in doing any distance racing out here... I know there are some guys that sail out to Catalina just for fun, but this group of larger cruising multihulls in California actually has a race schedule.

Yeah, so what did you tell him?

I told him I'd need to ask around and see what people thought. Just about all the distance racers I know are in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Sounds like the ORCA races are one day point-to-point events. As you pointed out, Mary, there are parts of California's coastline that would be a problem in an emergency... for the same reason, I think the old Hogsbreath event that ran up the west coast of Florida had issues once upon a time, IIRC.

Right, the west coast of Florida is not a hospitable coastline.

Rick, thanks for the info. Didn't realize there were that many.

John,

In the years that I sailed those waters, I have never been warmly welcomed by the ORCA when I showed up with a beach cat to one of thier races. We had to fight for years to get them to let us in the Land Rover Island Series. They let us do the Anacapa race but not the other two. Finally on '06 we got to join in on the other 2. In '06 I was settng up my N20 at the boat ramp in Santabarbara the night before the Santabarbara to King Harbor Race and was verbaly assaulted by the ORCA president for even thinking about doing that race (only 80 or 90 miles, BFD). I told him we would stay off the start line but were free to sail where we wanted to. We sailed anyway and had a blast. It was a blast flying around the outside of Anacap Island passing all the F boats with the chute up as the sun was setting.
If their attitude has changed about things that would be great but they have a list of crap they want you to carry on your boat that is unreasonable. The owner of 2 of 10 (Rollands 36) spent a huge amount of $$ to meet thier demands and was later rejected.
Since they opened the Island Series, not too many beach cats seem to want to do it. The Tri-Point is the most fun of the 3 since it's in August and the wind blows like hell after you round Anacapa to starboard and get a nice 20 plus knot sleigh ride back to Ventura. John, let me know if yo ever need crew for those races, I'd love to do one of them again.

Lee Wicklund/Team Chums

Is it an issue of status? Why do they object to beachcats?

Hey Lee -

Thanks for the background - the guy that approached me seemed pretty genuine, so I imagine attitudes have started to change. I think that stories like those in the Daily Sail and SAIL magazine about multihulls in the Cup and the Olympics are helping. I was explaining to him that the ORCA equipent list didn't work for a cat, and he was surprised at the list of stuff we carry. The personal-sized EPIRB or locator beacon in particular blew his mind. I told him that if we could use the gear we normally have for races like the Worrell and Tybee, there might be some pretty serious interest. I'll let you know what happens next.

"Is it an issue of status? Why do they object to beachcats?"

I'm not sure what any one answer would be to that question. He made it sound like a safety issue and maybe a winning boat would have to withdraw from the race to rescue us. I let him know we could right our boats and left it at that.