2009 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE, JANUARY RESULTS

The January results are in and we have a winner of the first Hobie harness!!! An eblast will be going out this week with the person's name (hint, he lives in Iowa)...


We're off to an incredible start for 2009. By Jan 31, we had 268 members already renewed. THANK YOU ALL!!!


In case you've been living under a rock...


It’s time to join / renew your HCA membership for 2009. We want to encourage EARLY renewals this year, to minimize the early- and mid-season scrambles. So, we’ve come up with some extra incentives! (See the bottom of this message for a detailed list of HCA membership benefits.)

First, we are having a special series of raffles. We're drawing for prizes based on paid memberships at the end of January, February and March. You will have up to three chances to win a new harness for your Hobie. Here’s how this will work:

The January raffle is now closed. If you renewed by Jan 31, THANK YOU, and you're automatically eligible for the next two drawings...

Memberships paid online, or postmarked by 2/28/09, will be eligible for the second harness raffle, AND the subsequent raffle on 3/31/09. So, you’d have TWO chances to win!!

Memberships paid online, or postmarked by 3/31/09, will be eligible for the final harness raffle.

Later in the year, we will be having a Divisional contest. We want to see which Divisions can grow the most, and who can be the biggest overall. Details of this will follow, but the only way you can win is to pay your dues, and get lots of others to do the same!

To join, go here: www.hcanamembers.com

Paper form is here: http://www.hcana.hobieclass.com/sit...bership/2009/2009MembershipAp08Dec08.pdf

HCA MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS:

The most obvious benefits of joining are:

* Eligibility to race in Hobie events, from points regattas to international championships
* Eligibility to be scored in the North American ranking system
* Support of the Hobie Hotline, our newsletter

How do we use membership dues?

* Class Promotion
* Guest Expert Programs
* Youth Programs
* Standardized Racing
* NAs event support
* Racer support programs
* Regatta materials for fleets and divisions
* Racing Seminars
* Regatta Insurance

FIVE DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE NEXT DRAWING...

Congrats to Jeff Griffin of Ventura, IA. Jeff is the winner of the first Hobie harness!!!

Mike

You forgot one item the membership dues provide.

Kill racing and kill regattas.

Here in the North East we had a great division 12 Hobie Cat racing organization. Ever since HCA stated that only hobies can race at the events, the Buzzard, Hampton Beach, Pine Point, Winnipesaikee, Quonset regattas have all gone away.

Please get the HCA get involved with the IRS, then I will join the HCA, maybe they can make taxes go away also!

Mappy,
What happened to all the boats that used to race? Where did they go? Wouldn't you still be able to have those races even if they were not "Hobie" races?

Do we have to? Well, I'm passing out snacks then.


J

Still bitter, are we? Guess what? HCA dues have been around since '92. There goes your "cause and effect argument."

Don's right. The HCA didn't make your regattas go away. You guys just got tired of doing them.

Hey Mappy, your Email address explains it all. BTW your website does not work. local volunteers and sailors make regatta's happen. Not rules from a central organization.
Caleb Tarleton

GYC is still very interested in having Hobie members. If you hear of any "orphans" in our neck of the woods, have them give us a shout.

You may contact me here, or the club directly: http://www.gulfportyachtclub.com/

History reminder.

Back in the day, the New England area had a combined regatta schedule with hobie and nacra fleets running the events with one design fleets when you could get the numbers. They had a critical mass of racers that could make a regatta feasible.

The HCA and NAHCA decided to impose the hobie edict. Many areas of the country said no way! Some areas said no problem. New England Hobie sailors made the choice to say OK and split from the nacra fleet. Unfortunately, they could not sustain a racing schedule on their own.

The old adage... you can't put Humpty Dumpty back together seems to be true.

As history get's written... somebody ought to make the case and show where the Hobie Edict had the desired results!

All I can say is WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF is wrong with you people?????

This is a thread to promote joining the class early to win a F*&^ING harness!!! There's nothing saying you HAVE to do anything.

Great googly moogly...

Mike

EDIT: Oh, and by the way, I live in NE, and my memory of the history is "slightly" different than what is given here.

Hi Guys,

Ok, let me state first my bonofides... I am a HCA-NA member and Race a TheMightyHobie18 ... I am a CRAC member, own and race a P19MX ... I help organize at the Yacht Club I'm a member at a "Open" class start at the "Annual One-Design" Regatta in June and a seperate "Hobie Points" Regatta also, in September ....

Now there is (IMHO) two seperate issues here ... the infamous "Hobie Only" Policy and the "mandatory membership in the HCA-NA for attendence at a "Hobie Points" Regattas.

Both of these policies have led to some REALLY hard and intrenched feelings .... local relationships that had taken years to develope were destroyed by "national or international" forces with no stake in the local scenes around the country.

Now ... that was then, under completely different leadership then now. It is my belief that the current HCA-NA leadership has realized the mistakes of those policies in the "short term" and are trying to make changes that benefit the "long term" continuation and growth of our sport. It is important that we learn from the past and incorporate the lessons learned in/for the future. People like Mr Chris Wessels, Matt Bounds, Mike Levueqe(spelling?) and many others are working hard to make our sport better for all of us ...CATAMARANERS/MULTIHULLERS!!!!!

So, "constructive critisism" is needed to point out mistakes and false paths ... but "flogging" is out ... FURBOTTEN .....

Mike, I think you once stated you started HobieCatting" around 1998? It was somewhere around that time the "Hobie Only" edict was announced I believe ... it hurt alot of people locally as they saw the local sailing scenes that they had worked at developing basically destroyed ... on the east coast Div16 and Div11 survived (in NJ) ... New England and everything south of the Mason-Dixon line ... basically GONE!!! So I ask you to bare with and understand how deep the hurt is to all those that were involved in Cat sailing when that edict was announced ... like elephantes people have long memories ... and they will be leary of investing emotions and hard work to only be hurt again. I have spoken to Chris Wessels and you w/ some ideas/concepts/program about the "Mandatory Membership" requirement for attendence at a Hobie Points Regatta ... please think about my comments ... (let's be inclusive, not exclusive)

But ... you do know when I re-newed my membership for the 08' season ... and you also know when I re-newed my 09' membership .... you may take that as a vote of confidence that I think you are on the correct path.

Sail Flat, Sail Fast, Sail Safe ...
Harry Murphey
TheMightyHobie18/#9458, Fleet54/Div11
P19MX/#86, CRAC-Open Class

I'll say it again... WTFFF???

This discussion does not belong in this thread.

Beyond that, you don't have all your facts straight (or even close).

Mike

Since this thread is so off the rails, can I post a recipe for meatloaf?

Seriously - Mike's right. Where's the moderator when you need one?

You know what they say: Don't let you meat loaf.
I don't like the word 'edict' either. In its usage for this discussion, its negative and a bit callous, and I would prefer that we stop using it. Instead, we should all be happy that we have the wherewithall to actually have money to have a hobby, and participate in fun stuff on weekends with our friends and families and have things to look forward to. Being pissed because we can't have everything we want all the time is unfortunate. Be glad you can do things alot of other people can't do.
There, I hope I have solved this problem once and for all.

My memory is also very different. (You've sucked me back in)
The Hobie only enforcement of the existing rules didn't start until around 03 and was phased in through 05. No rules were changed, only enforced.
The Buzzard and other regatta's in that area were all but dead with regard to local Hobie participation. The Hobie boats were people like me that traveled a long way to get there.

Jeremy,
This is lasting longer than I thought. I made nachos.
At least it keeps the membership drive at the top.

I love nachos. And Margaritas. AND peace on earth....
That was Hilarious Don.

Don, bring that recipe South when you come down to play...looks great!

Now that there are five or six non-hobie regattas that count for...I do not know what, we are seeing more of the mixed boat events. I have received many calls trying to figure out which of the 14 or so regattas on this years menu would be good to get the Hobies to. Someone has paid attention to this plight. Is the pain going to go away? Maybe one day...but for now just sail!

Later,
Dan

Is there bacon on there, man every thing is beter with bacon!!!!!!

Throw me a beer to go with that.

http://eelriverbrewing.com/images/fun/wallpp/wallpaper04_800x600.jpg
Enjoy mike
Its Organic beer.