A new regatta for 2007 will take place April 14-15 on Lake Ponchartrain at the Pontchartrain Yacht Club in Mandeville, LA. Invited classes are A-Class, I-20, F-18, and Corsair. We also welcome any class of 3 or more boats with a DPN of 70 or less. We will have an open Portsmouth class for boats with less than 3 boats in attendance who meet the DPN requirement.

This regatta has been conceived to provide more racing for the regional A-Class, F-18, I-20, and Corsair fleets. We hope to see strong A-Class and F-18 participation as part of their preparation for World and North American championships being held in the region later in 2007. We hope the F-16's will also consider coming as we'd love to make them part of this event. The location is ideal to bring together sailors from the Texas and Florida panhandle areas.

The venue offers easy launching in a protected breakwater, grass storage, and open water sailing with the potential for big breeze and waves. The host club has hosted many national level events including the A-Class North American Championship and is very excited about this event and its future on the southern multihull racing calender.

We hope many of you will consider coming to this event. You will not be disappointed.

Bob Hodges
USACA Class President
Pontchartain Yacht Club
A-Class USA 230
Corsair Sprint 750

Thanks for the invite Bob.

I've copied your invitation to the F16 forum itself, I trust you don't object to that.

For us it is indeed time to take the next step in that area. Thank for the invite again.

Wouter

WoW... something in my area... Well a little north of me. If my TheMightyHobie18 can't make it in, would anyone need a crew.

Todd Hubbell
Thibodaux LA (South of New Orleans)

While looking over the Portsmouth Ratings, I took out the boats that are in the Notice of Race and all the boats that do not fit the 70 or less parameter. Then you are down to possibly getting a class of F-16s, Tornados, Hobie 20s, F18HTs, or a portsmouth (which is not listed) There are other boats that fall into that catagory but the are not sailed (read raced) much anymore, that I know of. Including in the Performance line, Nacra 5.8, 6.0, Prindle 18.2, 19. The big class, Hobie 16s are not allowed? I thought that was a bold choice, but maybe there are not many of them in your area.

Later,
Dan

Dan,

Originally this regatta was conceived as a district event for the A-class gulf coast district. We decided to open it up to the high performance classes that are popular along the Gulf Coast because there is a desire to get more one design regattas on the calender for these fleets. These include in addition to the A-class; F-18, I-20, and F-16. We wanted to keep the door open for an open class but we wanted the open class to be comprised of boats similar in performance to the invited classes. The reason for that is to get races finished promptly as we have resources for only one race course and we want to get the maximum number of races completed for the invited classes.

Regards,

Bob Hodges