Just wanted to let Hobie sailors know about an effort to revive Division 10 that has just begun. We are holding a fleet building seminar, as well as having a booth display at the Strictly Sail Boat Show in Chicago in order to promote the idea of fleet sailing, with a focus on Hobie sailing in particular.

The response has already been strong, with folks from all over the Midwest volunteering their time to spend a few hours in the booth building the enthusiasm for fleet membership. This is a great start in a multi-year plan to strengthen the fleets here in Division 10.

We are going to have a great weekend; getting to know each other and sharing stories of how we used to sail in fleets of 100+ boats. With some hard work from everyone, we will continue to build up the existing fleets, and plan for some Division events in the near future.

I would like to invite all Hobie sailors living within the Division 10 (Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Michigan) area to join us in Chicago, January 29 - February 1 2004. If you would like to see fleet sailing and Division events make a strong comeback in this part of the country, I challenge you to be a part of it. Best of all, Chicago is a great place to spend the weekend!

See you in Chicago!

Jeff Rabidoux
NAHCA Division 10 Chairman

Kudo's for your efforts to rebuild cat sailing in your area.

However, I will ask some hard questions (politely).

Why are you trying to rebuild a now dead structure of paper fleets (Clubs which exist in paper and have no property)? In terms of attracting new members, paper clubs are incredibly hard to find for a new sailor equally difficult to join. In fact, if you can't keep a boat at your house, a paper fleet is not of much use to you. Paper fleets (clubs) are struggling for viability around the country and have already fallen apart in your area. What's different in 04? (Sounds like your focus is on trying to get your old members active again and have a reunion.)

Why don't you identify yacht clubs in key areas, join and support their programs and have them support your program?
These club members have been supporting all sailing activities at their local level for over 75 years (in some areas). This infrastructure can be used to attract new sailors to cats and introduce kids to cat sailing.

Why do you need a new (old) structure now? What needs are not being met and you have not been able to resolve with the surivivng generic cat clubs, (OCRA CRAM and CRAW) in your area?

Whats the rational for trying to rebuild a structure that has proven to be difficult to sustain (irrespective of its mission). What's the plan for when you personally run out of energy to organize fleets and divisions? What will keep the organized sailing going in your community? It sounds like your target community is really large. How do you create a sense of community over 4 large states"

Good luck with your efforts though.

Take Care
Mark
(Annapolis, MD)

Hi Jeff

Good efforts and good on ya for getting more involvement in the sport.
Many sailed actively in div 10 through the 80s and many of us also had the opportunity to race with CRAM and in the region {Ohio -Wis . Ill -Ind .on the Great Lakes including races in Canada . Great times with a regatta every weekend if you chose to travel a bit.
Yes,- as you noted some of the regional championships had 200 or 300 boats show up , {ah the good old days }.
One main thing that drove the H classes and Div 10 was the numerous active Hobie boat dealerships and their economic involvement. ECONOMICS is the missing factor that is the catalyst for sailing clubs and really was the basis of Div 10 along with many active racing sailors that volunteered to organize and run it. Each H dealer would help organize a local fleet and races and often provide the basic venue costs ,sponsors, misc organizational costs, race organization , dinners beverages of choise and great givaways and prizes as well as have parts and supplies readily available at regattas.
The only H dealer I,m aware of now locally is Mid West sailing and they are mainly a dingy sailing club and sell 1 or 2 hobies a year as a result.
Compare this with Fortune Marine on Whitmore Lk MI that sold 500 Hobies a year for a few years straight in the mid 80s as one of 5 or 6 H dealers in MI . I used to go help assemble 4 or 5 a weekend that happy new owners drove away with ,-many of those cruising recreational sailors but came out to a race or two each year .

Nowdays the predominant catamaran dealer in the area is Mark at the Cat House who continues to do a fantastic service to the region as catamaran dealer {mainly Performance brand } with others and his long term active support and involvement with CRAM of more than 20 years. CRAM per its bi-laws has always encouraged ALL TYPES of cats to race and has a long history reflecting this as is carried on now with a great race schedule and great events like the C F on Lake MI each Aug.

CRAM also has always structured scoring and racing based on class designated fleets with fleet captains in each active category as you know serving as one , so as your progressing Div 10 can can coinside with CRAM CRAW OCRA events or be one in the same as a part of these existing clubs and established race events rather than attempting a seperate entity of H brand only events as per past .
Think this was the gist of Mark,s post -
Handicap racing however is not the answer either, A design or timed handicap system of rating boats is never as fair as class racing . All a handicap can do is AVERAGE times ,so it is inherantly always unfair to some while favoring others within its machinations .
With small groups of different boats this is sometimes the only option for racing and is needed . But many would argue that a design based rating system more compatable with design development would benifit the sport more in the longterm . Formula classes were dirived from the basics of the ISAF rating for cats. P rating uses averaged skippers times as a basis for rating . Some development is needed here as well to a more refined compatable integral universal rating system possibley by combining these existing systems to develop a design and timed rating system . -A tough challenge .
Handicap categories do not appeal to the majority of H class sailors or address the very real and good reasons why they would purchase and prefer a class oriented boat, so class racing and helping grow large racing classes again is the best solution .

The best thing about CRAM is the fleet or class oriented racing that many sailors prefer and is one reason it continues to thrive as a successfull cat racing organization.
The most interesting new development or expansion of that concept being Formula racing that includes Hobie and all brands in a {length beam weight sail area formula} type class that the NA Formula 18s currently have going that include the H-Tiger.

Many hope to partisipate in Formula racing , one less expensive way to start would be to find an older 18 or H-18 as I did recently to go along with the Inter 20 and SC 15 plus sailboard and other types of sailing craft . Like so many of us that sail a variety of boat types nowdays I,d love to sail in a 16 18 or 20 class again, but after sailing more modern types of cat designs it is difficult to go back .I think the existing H-classes are best suited to beginners type racing as intro to the sport , and think the new waves and other similar types do a great job of this also. We need a C Class start for new racing sailors and more vets to do beginners skippers meetings and chalk talks on basic racing again to encourage new sailors into the sport as well.
One other great option once beyond the basics of beginners class would be to be able to upgrade these boats that all need new sails with the options of a new sq top main and spin snuffer package and race them in a coresponding Formula category with A and B fleet designations. Perhaps a NA F-18 class and a F-18 modified B-class as example in the future as the Formula concepts become more established understood and accepted .
Hobie classes would often have an A B and C CLASS start for progressively better sailors ,-this worked well.

As for the various brands of boats competing equally ,--
note the F-18 finishes this year of N-H -N -H placing 1 thru 4 in Natl,s.

I,ve also put a spin on the SC 15 that could be raced as a F-16 just for fun for myself and the kids ,-I purchased this boat for one hundred bucks and put about 5 hundred more into it , --what a value , and a great inexpensive way to get started in racing!

Also the Inter 20 has a great active class though many would like to see it similarly expand into a Formula 20 class that would include all modified 20s with opportunity to equalize the basics of {length weight beam sail area in formula } to form the basics of class catagorization.
Supercat -Aquarious Sails has an excellent version of a 20 available that would compete with equal speed potential of the I-20 as does Hobie Mystere Nacra Prindle and several others as I think we will see in races in 04 like the TYBEE 500 .

The monopoly Hobie basically had {nearly 75% } of all cat racing in the past is gone ,-I miss the great huge class racing opportunities but other better Formula options are now becomming available -which is good long term ,-monopolies are never a good thing for consumers ,they do not encourage development and better higher quality boats that direct competition in Formula classes will and are producing now.

The thing we need is more active investment and involvement of numerous boat mfg and expanding its dealerships just as the boom in the 80s had , Many racing sailors got involved as a boat dealer or parts supplier as a smart way to defer costs and making it more affordable to get more involved in this great fun sport .
Getting this involvement without a huge existing race organizational structure in place or favoring a monopoly of one brand can be achieved by the adoptation and promotion of development and Formula type class categories for racing that numerous existing individual boat builders and dealers can promote their boats within.

Hobie only approaches of the past do not realistically address the numerous problems that lead to its decline .
The handicap racing approach does not address the preference to class racing and the realistic economic concerns as outlined .
The opportunity for boat builders and dealers to promote their products and continue to upgrade and develop better ones is achieved in the Formula categorization for racing . This achieved without causing a new dead boat class every other year as numerous brand only attempts have in the past , but rather in a fair equal spirit of the best aspects of sport.

Hope the powers that be in H and new Div 10 will help develop the intent and spirit now started with the Formula efforts to their own benifit in growing the sport as well as to the benifit of ALL cat sailors .

Have fun
Carl

FUN

Mark and Carl, your responses are well thought out and not without merit. Instead of runing through each of them and speaking to certain points that you both made, let me just make some generic statements. If CRAM and CRAW and OCRA we the perfect organizations for everyone, their memberships would be increasing in numbers...they are not. If we had to depend on dealers selling boats, we would not have fleets. Hobies are selling well in certain parts of the country, and not well in others. The same thing is true of all cats...they have success where the dealers have been successful. However, there have been many situations where fleets have made the dealer successful, and although that is not my intent, it will happen if my efforts, and the efforts of all those involved, pay off.

"Paper fleets" exist everywhere. They are filled with "t-shirt sailors." These people sign up on websites, or make verbal commitments to sail in events, and don't show up. They are fence-sitters who do not feel a strong enough pull to actually make the commitment to load the boat on the trailer, drive, camp, etc. The organizations previously mentioned do a great job of putting on events, but let's face it, they do not fill the needs of every sailor. In fact, they do not provide the one thing that is necessary for growth...fun.

For you and I, these large organizations provide everything we need...great venues, campgrounds, chase and committee boats, etc. As a competitive sailor, CRAM provides what I need...the opportunity to race some great bodies of water around the state of Michigan.

However, any racing-oriented organization will draw just that...racers. I challenge anyone to try to come up with new sailors who are wiling to put up the $ for a new boat...Hobie, NACRA, whatever, and then jump into the racing scene of these organizations. The intimidation factor is huge. Some people do not feel comfortable hitting the starting line, let alone working their way around a race course.

The rebirth of our fleet here in Detroit is based on the fact that we have something to offer to folks who don't (yet, perhaps) feel comfortable with joining an organization like CRAW or CRAM. The core group of us, who do enjoy racing, travel to CRAM and OCRA races, as well as Division 16 events because they are so well and for the most part, a short drive away. As we introduced fleet sailors to the regatta scene via crewing for us, they got a taste of what that is all about. Through some fleet fun sail events, they have been able to increase their knowledge, technique, and comfort levels. We saw some of them jump into the regatta scene at Catfight this year, and we'll see more join in at regattas next year.

One of the big draws of Hobie sailing is the access to it. Fianancially, a used Hobie is a small investment. As you promote the sport of sailing and the social aspect of fleet membership, its a lot easier to get people to participate if they can afford it. Today's recreational dollars and time get split into many parts.

The availability of affordable boats make it easy for someone interested in learning to sail to get into it. Because of this, as Hobie fleets, we will promote the heck out of fleet participation because its fun. It's going out on a Saturday and sailing around...perhaps to an island offshore. We did that a couple times this year. We had a powerboat take a barbeque grill and all the coolers of food and drink out there. We pulled our boats up on the sand and had a great social time for a few hours. Then we sailed back. This was a great draw for us.

The NAHCA and its divisions have done a great job in the last couple years coming up with ways to get people into sailing. A new program called Hobie 101 has had great success in getting new sailors out on the water. Some of these sailors may turn into racers and some will just continue to enjoy the fleet fun sail days. That's fine by me, that's what the original "Hobie Way of Life" stood for.

I will not have to carry the torch of this revival myself. I already have the support of many other folks around the Division. The mere fact that people are willing to travel to Chicago is enough prooof that there are people who share this same enthusiasm.

With the literally thousands of Hobies that have been sold here in the midwest over the years, there are literally thousands of inactive sailors. The idea is to get a small percentage of them to come out and sail, and come out and enjoy the fun that only fleet sailing can bring. They need to feel comfortable that their 70's vintage boat is welcome - no spin, no kevlar, just the same proven designs that have been around since 1970.

With the Hobie 101 program, fleets around the Midwest will implement the largest come-to-sailing promotion ever seen (not that that says much) this Spring. And then it will be done again through the year and the years to come. In the long run, it will be successful.

I have become a realist. I built our fleet from nothing in the last year. The success can be measured in one way: I have made some of the best friends that I have had all my life, and we have shared some of the greatest times on and off the water. With the continued expansion of this type of approach, Hobie fleets will grow, and new fleets will be created. In the end, all sailing groups will benefit...CRAM, CRAW, OCRA, etc.

If that is "paper fleet" sailing...I'll take a reem.

Jeff

Good point Jeff ,-let me know how to help ,-
do currently have a H-18

FUN and beginners sailing is important ,-am trying to do the same on a more local level on the small inland lake here but directed more towards kids and their parents in the lake assoc.
I have 3 cats now and more potentially donated needing some repair to use as well as 30 other existing sailing craft owned by individuals on the lake of all types.
It is a no motors lake and though small ,-it seems ideal to renew the sailing club aspect and racing .

Can,t tell you how many people I,ve given their first ride on a high speed cat ,-it is fun and should be a great amount of fun next season -

Jeff,
I think what you are doing is wonderful, and the sport needs enthusiastic leaders like you. But do you think it might help if you provide some contact information, like e-mail, phone number, postal address?

Here is some contact information for me. Anyone can feel free to call/email me with opinions and suggestions. The positive responses already received are a great source of motivation - thank you.

I've included a shot of some of the sailors in our fleet. They are the ones who really made it happen. Without them, there would be no fleet.

Jeff Rabidoux
NAHCA Division 10 Chairman
1867 Farmbrook Drive
Troy, MI 48098
248-641-7358
jeff.rabidoux@sbcglobal.net

For some reason (probably operator error) the picture didn't attach. If I am unsuccessful again, just imagine a group of smiling sailors on a nice sandy island in the middle of Lake St. Clair!

Jeff

Hi Jeff

Good luck with your plans.

Do you have a sense of your fleet sailors preferences yet?

For instance, are they interested in the good ol days model of trailering to a beach site for a fleet event OR would they be more interested in mast up storage at a yacht club and fleet events at this yacht club. Do you have a number of such clubs in your region. For instance, I know of just one club in Detroit that had a few Tornado sailors who were sort of active)

Take Care
Mark

Mark - I think that there are people on both sides of the travel vs. mast-up storage issue. For the core group of sailors, nothing beats the travel to different sites. Each regatta has an aura of its own...the venue, the people,etc.
We are lucky enough to sail on different parts of the Great Lakes in different states and in Canada. Sailing on the North side of Lake Erie is very different from the South side. We have the opportunity to both every year.

For some of our members, they would love to be able to keep their boats mast up and dump them into the lake and go. We are affiliated with the Anchor Bay Yacht Racing Association (ABYRA), and North Star Sail Club. They made it possible for us to race on Wednesday nights with the bigger monoslugs this year. Having race commmittee and courses already in place made it an easy thing for us to take part in as a fleet restarting itself. We are thankful for what they did to help us this first year.

To give you an idea of the attitudes of the core group of this fleet, we arrive at a paved state boat launch, set up our boats, hit the start line by 6:50 p.m., race one lap around a triangular course, and return back to tear down. 40 minutes assembly, 40 minutes sailing, 40 minutes tear down and pack up, and 40 + minutes for a burger and beer or two...

Its not the best scenario. but it gets us out in the middle of the week, like a golf league. Next year, we will probably participate in some of the ABYRA weekend events, depending on how they fit in with our Div. 10 and Div. 16 schedules.

Lake access is difficult for many sailors in this country, so we have little to complain about. We make our fleet work by offering something for everyone. If you want to come sail for one day...a fun sail on a Saturday for instance...then we would love to have you. If you want to pack the car and head to Buffalo with us, that would be great too.

Everyone has their preferences and we're still coming up with ideas to get to the folks who have boats, but haven't brought them out yet. Cause once we get 'em, they'll come back. This group of people have contagious personalities...for that, I am thankful.

Jeff

Personally I like both mast up and trailering the boat around. Trailering is nice for going to regattas and different lakes, but does sometimes pose a problem if you are single-handling the boat.

I am also part of the detroit fleet that is rebuilding this year. I enjoyed the races on wed. night and the fun sails out to the island in the lake. This year has been a blast when it came to sailing.

Mark
1973 H16

That is great news for the sailors in Michigan and the surronding states.!!!

Mark
1973 Hobie 16