January 23, 2007

To: All Junior Sailors
Subject: Youth Multihull Championship

Hi Guys,

This year US SAILING and NACRA Catamaran have teamed together to bring an exciting new boat to the 2007 youth championship regatta called a SL 16. This boat has a spinnaker, twin traps and lots of buoyancy in the hulls so it can be driven hard both down wind and up wind. Square top main, jib and spinnaker with snuffer all combine to make this boat the newest vessel in catamaran sailing. It’s all been designed especially for youth sailors up to 18 years old.

The Class Association can be found at www.sl16.org and note in the class rules there is no weight limitations. This means you decide who and when to use the right crew weight to your best advantage. As always though, you are expected to have the ability to right the boat. So learn at the clinic how and practice this maneuver.

When you arrive at the web site above you will find an organization called the:
North American Youth Multihhull Class Association
It’s a new group forming to help youth sailors get into catamarans. We want to work with sailing organizations that teach sailing and want to include catamarans in their programs. We have plans available that will work with these groups to place new SL16’s where they will be used the most. So, if you are sailing out of a club, school or other organization, let them know about what we are doing to help put catamarans in their hands.

US SAILING has our 2007 Youth Multihull Championship Regatta NOR available at www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/multihull.

See you in Long Beach March 29th – April1st
AJS

Arthur, your attachment isn't working for me.

Or me....

I was wondering about how much a new SL16 would cost a yacht club for a youth program? My club is currently looking at boats for the advanced kids. They are really leaning toward 420's. Perhaps this could be another option?
They would probably buy 3 to start the fleet.

Mike Hill

Contact Art Stevens, because below is what he said. I don't know what it means, but it sounds like it has something to do with what you want to do -- I am very curious about this, too.

Mike:

This would be a great program to look into. Art is trying to promote the Youth Sailing programs in Multihulls. To that end he is trying to put together some really attractive pricing for Clubs to get a few of the SL16s in different areas. If you cannot find a way to contact Art, email me and I will make sure he gets the message.

Later,
Dan

Registration is now online at http://www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/multihull/

Today is day 4 of registrations and we already have 10 teams listed. We are using the on line registration system by Active .Com which is new to me. There are lots of forms to fill out and you don't complete your application until all forms are completed. Please read the instructions carefully on the web site.

Two teams on the registration list are duplicated names. So again read the instructions. We want everyone to have a chance to get in.

I am pleasantly surprised we have so much enthusiasm this year. If you really want to sail with us, get your names in now, don't wait as we can only accommodate 20 teams at ABYC and its first come first served.

**** now join the others being trained by Peter Nelson, Laura Sullivan and Jerry Valeske.

Caleb Tarleton

What boats are the Sail Sand Points kids training on?

Mary, they are training on the Sail Sand Point Hobie 16's without spin, and two Hobie Tigers owned by Jerry Valeske, and Mike Hensel. All boats are stored mast up in the compound next to the water for minimum set up time. The Seattle International 14 Fleet has also given them space to keep one of the Tigers at their compound at Shilshole Marina in West Seattle on Puget Sound. This will provide training on both Lake Washington, and the Puget Sound, which will have conditions similar to Long Beach.

On other news, Laura Sullivan has taken on the role of Youth Coordinator for Division 4 of Hobie Cat Association.

Caleb

I just wondered if they are getting any training with spinnakers.

I just thought i'd input my 2 cents on the competition at the US Youth Multihull events I attended.
In the events I attended monohull sailors did fairly well. While their boatspeed was usually not as fast as ours they had better boat handling and tactics.
I would emphasize the importance to the kids you are coaching of having good tactics, while I am on my toes in college racing, tacking on headers and etc, I admit I largley ignore them in cats and instead of taking the time to tack I bear off and go for speed. While this is great if everyone is doing the same, I feel competing against monohull sailors who are on their toes ready to tack on every header, you have to pay attention to what they are doing. If they tack up the middle on every header with only slightly less boatspeed than you then you are going to be behind them at the windward mark. Also, fast wire to wire tacks, these monohull kids are used to the fast wire to wire tacks on 420s and I suppose since it is a west coast event, on 29ers and etc.
The clearcut example of this is Anders Straume and Hunter Stunzi at the '01 youth nationals. TJ Tullo is also another good example of this. They were the first on the wire and last off, had the fastest tacks, and played the shifts.
Not to say cat sailors don't play shifts, but no where near as much as monohull sailors.
Good luck to all the youths sailing in this and please realize how lucky you are. I miss racing at a national level on supplied boats and against kids my age, once you age out it is tough to find a similar situation. You really have to thank everyone involved in organizing this... especially Mr. Arthur Stevens and Darline Hobock who have committed soo much to this event.
I'm hoping a cat sailor wins, not a crossover... sorry to all those crossovers but most don't continue on cats! There are exceptions but most are just looking for an easy ticket to the youth worlds.

Nice to see a seasoned Tornado driver in the registrant list! Ben Malcheski has been campaigning the T for a several years now with his Dad, Martin as crew. They are doing very well for an amateur team. It will be very interesting for Ben to transfer his skills to the XL 16.

Mike.