The A-cat class is working pretty hard to market themselves and continuing what has been a pretty impressive growth. I don't fault them for going to Sailing Anarchy. It is a medium that reaches a different type of audience that I believe has a significant potential for continuing the class growth.

Why Rick wasn't invited to the A-cat event, I don't know - but I can promise that there is absolutely no bad blood on part of the A-cat association toward Catsailor (magazine or website). I asked several times throughout the week of several different people "Where the heck is Rick?" and got a pretty unified response of "I don't know". I suppose they just assume that because you're so close that you would have been there anyway. Next year I'll call and or (for what it's worth - I'm just a class member) I'll extend an invitation next year. Nobody can doubt the amount of energy and effort Rick and Mary put into the sport through their magazine and this website. The fact that he lives literally up the street should make it a no-brainer for both parties.

I also do know that the class purposefully moved the event around so as to not conflict with Tradewinds several years ago.

That A-cat event is pretty unique in the site, the sailors, and the type of event. The competition is actually pretty low key with more focus on tuning experimentation through competition. Lots of sailors are sharing tuning tips and although you would think tuning one sail was easy - it's anything but. I've learned quite a lot in the two years I've attended.

Several A-catters did transition over to Tradewinds last year on their a-cats but the a-cat event last year saw one or two blown out days where we didn't get any sailing in. There was talk from several a-catters making the trip up the road this year, but after sailing four straight days out of the Islander and not having a lay day between the two events to transition everything made it a little tricky. At least a couple came over to tradewinds to sail on different boats (myself and Mike Krantz)...and my hands are really showing the wear from 7 straight days of running the mainsheet in 12 to 20knots of breeze between an A (which we do sheet very hard) and a N20!

As class president, first I must apologize to Rick for not keeping him in the loop about our Islamorada event this year. It was not meant to exclude him and in fact I had mentioned to our class officers that we need to be sure to get regatta reports and photos to Rick for use in Catsailor.

But let me set the record straight on a couple of things. The roots of the A-Class in the US are in the New Jersey area on Lake Hopatcong. The roots of A-Class winter sailing in the Keys are with Rick and Mary White. The reason we had to move away from Rick's Place after it was sold to its new owners was because our event had outgrown the facility. It had nothing to do with any negative feelings towards Rick or Mary, in fact we were telling Sailing Anarchy last week about how the event got started at Rick's Place. John Schieffer located the Islander who welcomed us and we love the facility and they like us. You stay in rooms right on the waterfront and you really do not have to leave for anything while you are there since there is a restaurant, bar, pools, hot tube, etc. It's an excellent venue for any small boat event.

Regarding Sailing Anarchy, we do believe that we tend to attract more monohull and dinghy sailors to our class than sailors from other multihull classes and that was a primary reason that we invited Alan Block to cover the event. There seems to be a continued perception by some (publicly bloviating) individuals that A-Cats are excessively expensive and fragile boats and A-Cat sailors are elitists who avoid the mainstream mulithull community. The boats are expensive yes but they are also good investments since they have healthy resale values if maintained properly. They are not fragile, they are quite strong but you can't sail them at full speed on to the beach which seems to be a criteria we must pass by some of our critics. Fragile realative to what? A 450 lb boat? Not an apples to apples comparison. Regarding our class being elitist, whatever! Come to an event and judge for yourself. I think some of the F-18 and I-20 sailors who have gotten into the class recently will squash that hogwash.

Regarding Tradewinds, we'd love to better support the event but most of us have to get back to work after our event is over. This year, we thought several sailors were going to stay and race Tradewinds but it did not pan out. Our Islamorada event is as much about fun sailing as it is racing. We typically arrive at the Islander on Saturday morning and get two days of fun sailing and tuning before racing begins on Monday. In the past we have raced Monday and Tuesday and then take Wednesday off. We'd typically wrap up the week with two more days of racing on Thursday and Friday and then get ourselves home over the weekend. This year we left out the lay day on Wednesday and raced for four days straight so some folks could race Tradewinds on Friday. We were bummed not to be able to sail this year on the preceeding Saturday and Sunday due to the weather (42 degrees and raining on Saturday, 48 degrees on Sunday with 25-30 knots of wind).

I have just appointed a class communications officer who will be Tony Arends out of the Annapolis area. Tony will be coordinating getting US A-Class news to all of the US sailing media. We think the broadest exposure possible is in our best interest especially in light of all the recent positive attention multihull sailing has been receiving in the press.

Sail fast, sail light.

Bob Hodges
USACA
USA 230

Hey hey hey wait one, RacerX is one of my resources!

Good selection btw.

Well put Bob. Through the years Rick and Mary have done more for cat sailing than anyone I know. And I've already told them about the 2010 A NA's at North Cape in September.
John Lindahl