Really nice interview with Geoff Becker in tonight's Scuttlebutt about the H16 event last month.

Not the ugly, evil, mean, nasty, father R@#per, mother stabbin, pitchpolin, death machine Hobie 16-

Great Sailing, Geoff!!!!

Had a chance to chat with Geoff at the N.A's.Very nice man,refreshing to hear a Lightening sailor speak so highly of the Hobie 16.Here in Thunder Bay there is a pretty strong Lightening Fleet that are less then enthusiastic about the 16.
With reference to Geoff's comments about over standing the port lay line.I am pretty sure most of the sailor's there were well aware of the peril's of doing so.In defense I think it had to do with a few factor's,obviously the size and quality of the fleet,the course itself and the tacking nature of the 16.

Starting with the fleet with 54 boat's starting on starboard it made it very difficult to get to the right when you wanted to.With juggling tacking to cross the windward boat and finding a clear lane on port was a real challenge.Not so bad when you get off the line like Enrigue Figueroa did in one race and port tacked the majority of the fleet after about 1 min. into the race.In that same race we were a little behind and to windward of Enrique and tried to tack and cross and ended up having a starboard boat come up and just touch our rudder(360's hurt a lot ).
With respect to the course ,on the day's when the South Westerlies blew,there seemed to be more wind the further you went left.So it made an interesting situation when and where to tack to get the most wind,avoid the lay line and have a clear lane.Often this created an over standig situation.In one race I saw one of the top N.A sailor's over standing so bad they where almost sailing back downwind to A mark.
I have not been to enough N.A's to know if this is a common trend,but certainly Geoff's obsevation's were accurate at this event.

Others here have commented that the current was a major factor in overstanding, at least on starboard. It's possible that affected the port tackers as well.

From sailing there in the past, local knowledge with their prevailing wind is to start at the pin and drive the boat hard to the island, tack and ride the glory lift (on port) to the weather mark.

Mike

It's fantastic to have Geoff and Krista out there. They are yet another talented team of sailors in the mix making the racing even better and more competitive. We’ve got some top notch racing going on in the class.