Oct 14-16, Pensacola Beach, Florida
The Hobie Wave North American Championships, hosted by Key Sailing, experienced almost every type of wind condition. On the first day the wind was fairly light and quite shifty. As the day was ending, the wind picked up for some fun sailing. And the wind held through most of the following day. On the last day, the wind was very light and very variable. A little bit of everything for everyone.
The social life was thriving as well, with Kirk Newkirk opening his home to everyone. There was a nice dinner with music and all on Saturday night.

The Races
On the first day Rick White aced the first two races in light and fluky winds. White has been on a roll this summer – he won the East Coast Championship at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, the North Coast Championship at Put-in-Bay, Ohio and the 55-race summer series at Put-in-Bay.
But, local odds-on favorite to take the whole enchilada, Charlie Trinque, took over from there. He rattled off two bullets and a second to take a solid lead for the regatta, while White suffered with a 5th and 7th and 3rd in the last three races of the day.
Entering Saturday's racing, Trinque held a 4-point lead over White and Kirk Newkirk, who were tied for second. Not far behind them were youngster, Zach Grant and oldster, Stan Woodruff.
The wind held at around 15 mph most of the day. Trinque landed a couple more first places, but also had a couple of 5th place finishes and an 8th. Meanwhile, White never finished above 4th place and had several 2nd place finishes.
By the end of the day, Trinque still held a 3-point lead over White, who had 7 points on Newkirk and a 10-point lead over Grant.
The last day was a killer. There was very light wind, but the RC was still able to get in two more races for the day – they were slow and painful, but they were sailed.
White got off to two perfect port end starts and held the lead all the way in both races. Trinque had fallen back into the pack and could not climb out. This clinched the championship for White, who had now made a clean sweep of the Wave major championships. White will not be participating in the upcoming Nationals to be held in Key Largo, Florida on the first weekend of December, as he will be the Principal Race Officer for that event.
Meanwhile, Zach Grant beat Newkirk in both races and slid into second overall and also won the Youth Title.
Rick White won the Open and Masters trophies and Sharon Woodruff captured the Womens North American Championship.

The next event is the Wave Nationals at Key Largo, Florida on Dec 1-4 on Blackwater Sound. Also, Wave Week begins on Sunday evening, November 27 with a Rick White Sailing Seminar for Waves Only from Sunday through Wednesday, a practice race on Thursday, and racing from Friday through Sunday. For information email rick@catsailor.com or call 305-451-3287.

Congratulation, Rick!!
Nice to see one of the "old guys" winning so much—keep on rollin'
See you at Steeplechase.
John McLaughlin

Good thing it was not a 4 day race.., I was shot on Monday. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Rick

well done Rick!!

Congratulations on your win. Do you see the Wave class growing? I think it's a great racing option for those not wanting to get involved with $12,000 hot rod.

Jack

Well, I sold my 5.7 and am selling my 4.9 -- just no activity in either class.
This summer we developed a great fleet in Put-in-Bay and raced twice a week -- mid week series and Saturday Series. Got in 55 races for the summer. That really sharpened me up, I know.
We now have a good fleet of Waves in Key Largo and we are going to do the same thing here over the winter.
And our Florida fleet is growing so we can have more attendance at FL regattas this winter.
Of course, the Nationals have been great events from the very beginning.
Problem is the boat is so hard to tune!?!?!?!?! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> and set up <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
The beauty of the class is that anyone, any age, any weight, any ability can do well at a given time. The boats are all so one-design and gadget proof that in order to win you must do the proper things -- have good starts, sail in clear air, have good tacks, good mark roundings and finish at the favored end.
At the NAs, I was the 2nd oldest person there, weighing 210 and won, second was Zach Grant, 13 years old and 80 pounds, 3rd was the new rookie of the Masters Class, Kirk Newkirk.
Those who took bullets in the regatta was quite a mix:
White -- 4
Zach Grant -- 2
Kirk Newkirk -- 1
Mary Wells -- 1 (63 year old woman)
Charlie Trinque -- 4
Stan Woodruff -- 1 (oldest sailor there)
I believe the class will become the most popular 2nd boat class in existence.., and already is the only pure,one-design class.
Rick

Congrats Rick,Nice to see you still sailing extremely well. Hope you use all the benifits and racing experiences from over the years. I have some great memories from the Hobie 18 days on the Great Lakes and recall some really great close racing in huge fleets that you and mary won so often. It made the rest of us bring our games up in trying to compete as still seems to be the case.
Have fun !!

--ahh, those were the days.
take care ,all the best
Carl

Congratulations Rick! What great results! How wonderful to have such varied ages at the top!