Hi Wave Sailors.
There has been a great union that should really make the Wave Class grow even faster than ever. The IWCA (Intl Wave Class Assn) and the HCA (Hobie Cat Assn) have decided to work together to grow the class. This is a huge leap forward for everyone involved.
Yes, the IWCA Class Rules will be used.
IWCA President, Rick White, believes that working closely with the HCA will allow for both to grow and flourish. In response, Chris Wessels, Chair of HCA said, “My intention with the Waves is to get it to a point where its in the top 3 sized racing classes within the HCA”

Consequently, Here are some MUST ATTEND regattas upcoming. Please do all you can to support these great regattas.

March 27-29 -- Hobie Midwinters East 2009! Carl Gray Park in Panama City, FL, [email protected], 850-235-2281
This is a really central location for those up north freezing and for those down in Florida and Texas to come and get in some awesome races. This will be FIRST official regatta of the two associations getting together. Let's make it a good one.

Apr 25-26 -- First Annual Great Plains Wave Championships, a National Series Race, Clinton Lake, Kansas, 796 N 1190 RD Lawrence, KS 66047(this will give a google map user the EXACT location), John Eaton 785-748-0881
John is trying to locate charter boats, but get there if you can. They are working hard to make this a great regatta, with more to come every year.

May 15-17 -- Wave Midwest Championships & Indy Garage Tour, Indianapolis, IN, Skip Kaub [email protected]
Last year was the first for Indy. Skip managed to get the sailors passes to visit the garages and talk to the mechanics and racers.

Aug 1-5 -- Hobie Wave North Coast Championships and I-LYA Bay Week Regatta, Put-in-Bay, Ohio, [email protected], Jim or Deb 419-654-1080, 419-635-2691, [email protected]
You can't beat Put-in-Bay for great sailing and tons of great and fun parties ( one or two a day )

Sept 25-27 -- Atlantic Coast Wave Championships (3 days of racing), Nor'Banks Sailing in Duck, NC (on the Outer Banks), [email protected]
This is a great venue -- sailing on the lee side of the Outer Banks with good winds and flat seas.

Nov 8-13 -- Hobie Mega Regatta, Lake Havasu, NV, Hobie Wave West Coast Championship, Waves, 17, 18, 20 and Tiger, <[email protected]>, hobieclass.com
This is going to be huge and be first West Coast Major event for the Waves. And we got this from the Gordo Bagley, Chair of the event:
“This afternoon confirmation was received from HCC via Doug Skidmore that they will bring a semi full of Waves for charter to Lake Havasu in November for the HAVAMEGA HCA Wave North American Championships. This is the minimum they will do. If we fill those charters, then an additional minimum of 5 more will come on a flatbed. Details for charter, insurance and reduced price after the event are to be forthcoming and will be posted in a few weeks on the havamega.com website, as well as sent on to you first. I am informing you first, having received this confirmation just this afternoon. This means that your sailors can be informed before any others, so they can begin the process of registering and laying claim to these boats. I feel this is necessary since many will come from your contacts and they are traveling further than most. As for used boats in our vicinity, there are not very many, but we will do our best to get any available used Waves in good repair.”
“I hope this news finds all well out your way, and that we will be able to quickly fill these 20 boats up. Also, the NOR has stated that we will be using the IWCA rules for this portion of the HCA NAC. We will have a template made for the sail pattern per those rules. Thank you for your support”. -Gordo Bagley HAVAMEGA Regatta Chairman.
To Sign up and have a charter available, Please pre-register at www.havamega.com and note that you wish to charter a Wave in the comments box.

Nov 29-Dec 6 -- 12th Annual Wave Week, Key Largo, FL, including a Rick White Sailing Seminar Sun-Wed, Practice Races Thursday, and Regatta Friday thru Sunday.
Nov 29- Dec 2-- Wave ONLY Rick White Sailing Seminar, Founders Park Watersports, Islamorada, FL, [email protected]
Dec 3-6 -- 12th Annual Hobie Wave Open, Women, Masters and Silver Fleet National Championships, Founders Park Watersports, Islamorada, FL, [email protected], tel 305-451-3287

Great job Rick, Chris, and the HCA board for making this happen!


Wave sailors: Since you're going to need this anyway to race at an HCA event...

Join the HCA now and you'll be eligible for our "Early Bird" harness raffles. We've already given one away for January, don't miss out!!!

Memberships paid online, or postmarked by 2/28/09, will be eligible for the next 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.


To join, go here: www.hcanamembers.com

Paper form is here: http://www.hcana.hobieclass.com/site/hob...ipAp08Dec08.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

Mike

EDIT: Yes, I realized the irony here last night. Waves don't have a trapeze... So, if you are a Wave sailor and win the raffle, we'll give you a choice of a harness or life jacket!

Hats off to those involved.
I see this as a major step in the right direction.

Congratulations to all. Great step in building the Wave fleet and youth participation.

Caleb Tarleton
www.sailsandpoint.org

As the Sponsoring Hobie dealer at the Havamega, I will be selling the Charter Waves on-site. I just got the pricing from Hobie and the go-ahead from Gordo to post this info. It would be good for future events if we could sell these boats and not ship them back to the factory.

Let me know if you're interested in a brand new, lightly sailed Wave for pick up at the Havamega. Call or email for pricing and details.

jeremy at surfcitycatamarans dot com

Thanks, Jeremy, for sponsoring the Havamega. Rick and I are doing our best to help promote this event among the Wave sailors in the East.

I hope you can sell most of the Waves in that area and get a fleet going in the Southwest.

See my above post for an important edit for Wave sailors...

Mike

what does a new wave cost (approximately)?

around 5k I think

that could explain part of their increase in numbers...

How's that compare to a H-16? And which one is easier to move around on the beach? They both look pretty heavy.

I bought my '07 16 (white sails, no trailer) for about $7,500 in August of '07, so they're really not that far apart in price, considering a H16 is a lot more boat than the Wave.

A 16 is not that hard to move around. Without the sails on the boat, it weighs about 270#. All up, mine weighed in at 310# at North Americans last year.

Wave is a little tougher to move on the beach (with out wheels) due to the fin things on the bottom of the hulls, but certainly not unmanageable. I tried to move this guys 21sc that was in my spot on the beach and I about crapped myself trying to get it to budge. My buddy hooked a rope to it and dragged it with his pickup, pretty damn funny.

Rick,

You can add this to the list.

The Sandy Hook Bay Catamaran Club in Atlantic Highlands NJ will be hosting the Hobie Division 11 Wave Championship on June 6/7 as part of our normal points regatta.

Greg

It is my understanding that our buddy Jeremy from Santa Cruz Catamarans has a special price for the Hobie Waves at Havasu. He is anxious to make deals on them prior to the event so they all have new homes right away (just like new puppies, only cuter!)
Contact Jeremy for more details. (shameless plug, but I owe Jeremy a favor)

The charter-purchase idea was exactly how we got the Wave Fleet growing so fast in the east. I believe for about three years in a row, Hobie would ship us boats for the Nationals.
We wanted to sell them in advance, but Hobie had some reason we were not allowed to do so.
Still a lot of them did get bought by competitors and fleets began to flourish in the east.
Hopefully, the same thing can now happen in the West.

The Wave is very, very easy to move about the beach.., duh, but you need beach wheels. No boat is easy to move around the beach without them.

Many of us use the bow spreader bar that makes moving the boat on shore easier. We also use Cat Trax with a Handle. All available at our store www.OnLineMarineStore.com

Many choose not to use the spreader bar when racing in choppy conditions -- it tends to hit the chop and slow the boat down.

Graybon, I have been hounding several people for a date for the Wave East Coast Championship. Thanks for letting folks know. I also added it to our Events Schedule herein online and in the magazine.
Rick

FYI...

2009 MSRP

Hobie Wave $ 4,799.00

Hobie 16 $ 9,599.00

We only sell boats through authorized Hobie dealers.

Thanks for unmuddying the water
Rick

Rick,

Where can I obtain a copy of the Wave Class Rules to review? I'm organizing a Hobie Points Regatta in Div11 and was ready to publish the NOR for the event at Rock Hall Yacht Club but I would like to review both sets of class rules to make sure there are no issues that should be addressed in the NOR.

Thanks
Harry Murphey

Don't pay MSRP. You can still get a brand new boat for just under 8K

class rules are www.waveclass.com and www.waveclass.org