Question

How did F18 get Started in North America????

I heard a funny little fact the other day.
The reason for the F18 being 180kgs is because when the rules where being drafted Nacra where not able to built it at 150kg like all the other builders where doing.
So the next time you break your back moving it around, think of Nacra!

Sorry for the hijack , carry on.

it would be funny if it was a fact....

It was actually the frenchies that wanted the 180kg... Now who makes boats in france??

Nacra wanted 160kg (same a tornado)

Actually, at the very beginning, the North American rule had a different weight than the International F18 class - I don't recall if it was heavier or lighter (I think the NA rule was actually lighter than the F18 standard). However, that weight discrepancy between the North American and F18 rule wasn't in place very long. The same folks that ran the Nacra classes were heavily involved with the formation of NAF18 organization at the outset. A year or two later the NAF18 class fully adopted the European rules.

The Tigers at the time (which I think Tom is getting at) were in the US in force racing mostly Hobie one design and we all quickly came together to race F18.

Yves Loday had a lot ot do with the rules - He designed the Hawk - nothing to do with H

http://www.f18-international.org/history.htm

Check out this site www.sailinglouisiana.com

Your photos section is pretty depressing.

I'm pretty sure Sailing World would not be happy to know you swiped their logo, either.

Why would you give that guy clicks when he basically just spammed the forum without adding anything of value?

Apparently Sailing is your obsession and not spelling.

"Wecome to Sailing Louisiana.com, were our sologon is:

" Sailing is not just a sport, it is an obession !!".

Boy, I didn't mean for my post to start the negativity. This is probably someone (we probably know) who's new and/or enthusiastic about catsailing in Louisiana and it's a nice attempt at building a website for that purpose. Give 'em a chance.

Tom

Rob Jerry figured out a way to bring in Tigers separate from masts and this allowed him to sell the boats as Hobie Tigers with the owner putting the mast onto the platform which solved existing Hobie legal constraints. The Tiger was full F18 compliant and a very good boat, in fact the standard for years. Nacra was already marketing the Inter18 in the US and did not think that the F18 idea would fly in the US because of the light winds... They had gone the way of powering up all of their boats for the US market and that is how they introduced the Inter 18. the Inter 18 had a carbon stick and bigger sail then the EU F18 rule. Eventually, Mark Biggers and CRAM decided to change course and get inline with the F18 plan BUT the CRAM fleet had no interest in measuring boats and sails. the NAF18 group was formed with a joint decision by Hobie Nacra and Mystere to use a rule set that differed from the Internatonal rule. The idea was that Mystere and Nacra would build boats for the F18 rule... just like the Tiger but they would not measure the things because that was too much of a headache So, the agreement was that if the factory sold it... it was class legal. The minimums were lowered a bit to ensure that every boat would measure in. Basically this was irrelevent since Nacra and Mystere were builing boats for the EU market where they were measured. They grandfathered the Nacra inter 18 mast to jump start the class and they decided to exclude the N5.5 sloop or TheMightyHobie18 from being upgraded to F18 status as well.... (no measurers around.) The factories even ran a joint F18 NA's in the beginning. It looked like with both major US builders on board the F18 would really take off. Still the different rules grated on some sailors... (eg nacra was cheating and sending light boats to the US market.) Although it stomped on the F18HT class which also started at this time.. The 20 or so F18HT sailors did not migrate back to F18's... rather they moved on to A cats or other boats. Hobie brought the Tiger worlds to the west coast ... but the Tiger SMOD idea (Crew weight and sail area did not match the F18 rules) did not kill the F18 class nor did the Tiger class blossum either.

Something big happened though which seemed to stall the growth of F18 racing. What we observed was that the factories took to running manufacture only nationals. The reason given was that ISAF international class status requires these regattas and both factories needed to have the US having the proper number of boats at the nacra and hobie NA's. All the factories had an eye on Olympic status as well and full ISAF status was viewed as important.
Attendance suffered at national events because nobody could afford TWO, week long NA's.. (your SMOD regatta and the F18 NA's It became tough to get critical mass.. The Tigers were forced to cancel the NA's at St Francis Yacht club at the last minute because of a lack of interest just a few years after the Tiger worlds). The NAF18 class figured out that while dealer and manufacturer support was great.. control had problems and over a couple of years they eventually decided to dump the NAF18 rules and get in full compliance with the F18 international class rules and do the bottom up class management that most OD classes follow, they now have measurers in place.

A big help was Capricorn which entered the US market and since Nacra produced two F18's after the Inter 18. these three boats (Cap, F18 and Infusion) along with the Tiger helped to break up real US bent on strict OD racing... So the Forumla idea got more US acceptance over time slowly wining over the SMOD mindset of US sailors.

One of the big events that played into the F18 history was the beginning of the Hobie Edict about two or three years after Rob started sailing the Tiger. Supposedly spun up by the introduction of A cats and a dealer/fan at a big Hobie events in the Pacific Northwest and then driven by US dealers and the IHCA... The game was changed and sailors had to pick F18 or SMOD Tiger. Hobie decided to really push the Tiger One Design in the US and not the F18 concept. Tiger sailing had a good run on the West coast following the worlds (despite the following St Francis fubar) Yacht clubs supported F18 sailing and that seems to have worked out on the west coast as they get ready for F18 worlds in next year or so. The Hobie edict also followed Nigel Pitt's leadership of the NAHCA and the Hobie Mega. Nigel took the stand that all cat racing was good but sadly that scene ended as a huge upset after the edict and Hobie politics worked the way through the system. This caused some of those sailors to flip to Nacra's as the clubs in the south rejected the Hobie only deal.

Since all racing is local in the end... SMOD regattas stopped F18 class growth in a couple of areas of the country. Moreover, the Nacra 20 really met the needs for the big boys and the F18 could not quickly kill off the N20 class...(Still hasn't and those guys are still fighting) especially with distance racing a big part of the spinnaker boat appeal.

Canada never had these culture wars... the F18 class worked for them and they frequently have more turnout at Canadians F18's then either Hobie or Nacra SMOD events or the F18 NA's.

So... here we sit... Tiger one design sailing in Upstate New York and the Pacific Northwest. F18 sailing in the South and Southwest, growing in New England N20's going down and F18's going up .. and doing well on the Pacific coast existing with Tiger one design sailing. Oh.. and over time the CRAM sailors... moved on to nacra 17's along with an F18. CRAW has similar numbers of F18's and 20's.

The big hope is that the F18 worlds will really kick the class up a notch or so... Your stock Tiger is fully F18 compliant and perhaps the Wildcat gets some love from Hobie sailors as well to balance the number of Cap and Infusion fans.

To clarify, Nigel (creator of Spring Fever Regatta) was not in favor of the Hobie-only deal. The way that was written sounded like he was responsible for it.

+1 jake. Nigel has always supported bringing any boat to Spring Fever.

yes it could be read that way.. I changed it to reflect your point.
Mark

Your version of history is so perverted and full of errors, Mark - I don't even know where to start.

Tigers were brought into the US in 1999. I'm not sure about your Rob Jerry story, but I'll ask him the next time I see him. The first OD racing took place in Division 16 in 2000.

Nigel was elected NAHCA Chairman in 2000 - immediately following my tenure. He lost the election the following year (2001) to Rich McVeigh.

By 2002, 75 had been brought to the US (Hobie Tiger ISAF annual Report). That's when the Tiger became an ISAF International Class. That year, there were 26 at the North Americans (the Mega in Ft. Walton Beach).

The "Hobie Edict" was announced in early 2004 and went into effect in 2005. Not "two or three years after Rob started sailing his Tiger". Five years.

ISAF International Class status does not depend on National Championships. I suggest you read ISAF Regulation 26.

The Hobie 18 would never have been an F-18 because it has curved crossbars.

The 2005 Tiger Worlds in CA was a big success. Unfortunately, it's success was a contributing factor to the cancellation of the August 2006 Tiger North Americans. As was the scheduling of the 2006 Tiger Worlds in Spain a couple of weeks before the US event. People were burned out by cross-country and transatlantic travel. Peoples' boats were still in containers - on ships in the middle of the ocean.

BTW, I was there at the St. Francis YC for the 2006 Hobie 17 North Americans (run simultaneously with the cancelled Tigers). There was none of the "fubar" referenced in this and your other diatribes against that event. Disappointment, yes. Changes were made at the last minute to ensure the event was solvent - that happens at almost every major event once you have a handle on real attendance numbers. You can speculate all you want. I was there. I dealt with the people from SFYC. You weren't and didn't.



I feel much better now.

I crewed on the Tiger in 1999 - won the Area D Qualifier that year with Pitt. I was at the Hobie 20 North Americans in Tampa for the HCA meeting and first swing at the election between Pitt and McVeigh. I crewed the first Mega on a Tiger with Newsome. Mine was the very first club affected by the return of a Hobie-only policy - the Midwinters East very nearly didn't happen and there are still today some bad feelings associated with how things went down; it shouldn't be a surprise that I don't speak only for myself. I've been at all of the F18 Championships including the first one, though I was on a 6.0 at the time; I even got to help write the F18 Bylaws when the class leaders started coalescing something coherent. I crewed the 2005 Tiger Worlds with Newkirk. I had a ride for the 2006 Tiger event that was cancelled and was part of the fleet e-mails that were circulated in the couple of months prior, and then subsequent when things got bitter.

Self-aggradizement aside, my point is that I was there for all this stuff, too, and I remember things differently than both of you. There are several dozen perspectives, I suspect. We need to leave all that stuff behind and move on. Carry the baggage if you want to, but don't expect help. This thread may not have been meant to be provocative (TK, you scalawag), but it seems like the Wave thread has spilled over some.

I have given all this Wave,F18,HCA stuff some thought over the weekend. I also went back and looked at a number of old results going back to the late 80's. What we see is the steady decline in numbers(captain obvoius here).
So then when asking why, I started to think about the "Fad" of the Hobie product in the 70's and into the 80's(huge numbers). Numbers start to drop in the late 80's and continue to drop through the 90's. Many regattas open up to the X boats as a way to help get by. This went unchecked by HCA and the numbers continued to drop(HCA's fault?)
It appears to me that much of this is just a natural product cycle. The economy was in much better shape all through the 90's and some people spent money on the high tech/expensive boats. They are not doing that right now(I'm thinking about my can't miss Enron stock)
Then the HCA, in an effort to get a handle on it's fleets, sends down the enforcement policy. I didn't like how it was handled at the time and still don't.
(Where am I going with this?)
Sometimes when you need to clean the garage, you take everything out and start over. So the HCA did that and now needs to keep a close eye on what's happening everywhere( I think that is happening). What needs to be remembered is that there are bylaws and a process that can work to bring change.
The HCA is still and should be primarily focused on the Hobie product, but also consider our fellow sailors and find a way to work with them. I think the idea of having guest formula or one design boats at our events just makes sense if handled correctly.

A side note, I was talking to my father who has run the member guest tournamemnt at his golf club for many years. Normally they put up the sign up sheet and it would be full with 64 teams in days with a alternate list. This year the same sheet went up and they have 25 teams over a couple of weeks(HCA's fault)
Times are changing and looking ahead calmly seems to make the most sense to me.

I agree. I don’t think we are ever going back to the open fleet at HCA regattas but I do think we will continue to see a slow and thoughtful course correction that looks a lot like this. That's my hope anyway.

"Looking ahead calmly..."

"Thoughtful course correction..."

I like it.

To get back on topic (and I had nothing to do with forming the F18 class) I do think that maybe the HCA One Design Policy forced a consolidation in catamaran sailing that contributed to the formation and growth of the F18 class.

Pat,

I think your comments are good and don't think there is any one thing that caused the decline of cat sailing. I think it will be hard for the HCA to ever get a foot hold on having large regattas on the local level again(southeast). I also think it will hurt cat sailing in general with Hobie only regattas on a local level. Why can't the manufactures have there own nationals and championships and let the local regattas be run with mixed fleets? When I bought my first H16 (1985) it was because some one took me out on their boat and got me hooked. If Hobie's are not sailing at local regattas how are you going to get people hooked? It is up to the sailors sailing their boats to help grow their class and get their class out sailing. Most of or regattas are at yacht clubs (southeast) and I can say the mono hull sailors sure do make comments about the spin boats like "those boats sure are fast", "I did not realize the cats could point so well", " I thought the cats would only reach".When catamarans are sailing with the mono hulls we are getting noticed and we may get some sailors to come over. Having a Hobie only regatta does not get you much exposure to new sailors and makes it hard to grow your class. If I could wave my magic wand the manufactures would have their nationals and regional championships and the local regattas and distance races would be split up in OD starts and the odd boats would have to race open. The OD fleets should work on their own class to get their numbers up and sailors coming to the regattas. Just my opinion.

Spot on !

That is the play book we're running by (F16's) and it seems to work well for us.

Quite often these days the F18's/N20's are gracious enough to share the start with us at local events and I think I have heard nothing but positive comments about that.

I'm convinced this is the best solution for everybody and the catamaran sccene as a whole. We for one are certainly not seeing any hit in sales because of it. Economic meltdown or not.


Regards,

Wouter

Dave, It would appear that when the alarmist and the and sky is falling crowd get removed from the equation, that both sides are not that far apart in theory. The practice is more difficult and will take time.
I work with a guy that talks about having "maddening patience" when these type of storms hit at work. When things die down, they are never as bad as people believe them to be.

I've been through the formation of the HCA, the comp tip issue, the X boat issue, the Hobie only enforcement, the scheduling of women and youth events,the cancellation of events(we had to cancel H21's in Syracuse),other smaller items,now the Wave issues.
I'm seldom convinced of anything and don't like absolutes.
The analyze and adjust approach seems to have better outcomes.

Regardless of how I might think, we have fleet meetings and take votes on agenda items. If that vote is 10 to 9, the 10 win and that is what is passed on to the division chair. The same is done at the division level among the fleets. The division chairs vote at the AGM. Some of the hot topics have spirited debates. They can win or loose by a single vote.
The Southeast and Northeast are obviously very different at the moment, but the divisions have an equal vote. Things may or may not change. If more divisions vote against something like having guest fleets at our events than are for it, then it doesn't change. It's a good system, but like our government, it doesn't make everyone happy.

If Hobie had only done this once, I might agree. They have done it at least 3 times that I remember. Hobie forced or engineered the Hobie Fleet to split from the MSA (late 70's early 80's), the purification of the Fleets in the mid 80's, and the Hobie only. There were probably more.

If you don't know history, you will repeat it and you will not know what it means when a manufactores rep pulls you aside at a nationals and asks you to go home and orgainize a SMOD Fleet.

The HCA-NA(formally NAHCA) didn't form until around 1990.
I'm sure Mr. B can give us the exact month and year.

This has become a far more rational and enjoyable thread to discuss these things.

My view of this is that comparing Hobie fleets to YCs is where the disconnect comes in. IHCA and HCC have communicated that they do not want Hobie fleets to use their resources to promote (ie host) events for other types of boats.

In the monohull world, YCs host events. They are able to host mixed-class events without upsetting the individual class associations or manufacturers, since they probably don't rely on them as heavily to support the events.

I admit that I may be fuzzy on the details of the YC side, but it seems pretty clear where the IHCA and HCC sit on this. Further, HCA has seen the value of bringing in results from multi-class events to the scoring system, so it really is a question of "What are the IHCA/HCA and HCC resources being used to promote?" In mixed-class events, this can be difficult to manage.

Mike

November 1988. Meeting held in Corpus Christi, TX. Wick Smith was elected the first NAHCA Chairman.

Too bad the YC aren't interested in hosting a beach cat regatta (regional/national level or higher). From what you say, they could get multiple box-rule and SMOD groups together at the same venue (and possibly in the same races - scored overall and SMOD), get multiple manufacture support/sponsorship, and certainly get interest generated in possible new members for the Yacht Club.

I guess if you were say, a Tiger, you'd have to choose whether to set up to race as SMOD or F18 when you registered, but those rock stars could probably register SMOD Tiger and still beat up on the "other" F18 fleet(s) to take home two pickle dishes...

I think you mean the other way around. The real difference between the Tiger Class Rules and the Formula 18 rules is that a Tiger can sail using a big sail plan at 309 lbs crew weight with no correctors. The Formula is 330 without corrector weights.

Yes. Thank you for the clarification. Didn't study those rules closely, since racing in this class would involve me getting my fat keister out of the car-seat equipped minivan (a true chick magnet, I can assure you ) and on to someone's boat...

Just this one?

Especially this one, as it would probably require me to shed about 25 lbs of aforementioned keister to be small enough to crew for some of you dudes.

Looks like the ideal weight for the front part of the boat is 155 lbs since the drivers are all 175+ it would seem...

The rest of the classes would only involve transfer of said keister (which is a monumental task in itself - not sure how you get all that free time like a certain Mr. Mom with the Capricorn)

Whats wrong with bieng MR. Mom ? And I run 255 but my crew is 105.
I hope to be down to 225 by end of next year.

Lets open this one up, shall we? Why would we call him "Mr. Mom"? His wife works, do we call her "Mrs. Dad"? My wife is a stay at home "mom" but works harder (more) than some of you guys surfin here! I sure won't trade places with her. Especially when our kids were younger (its getting easier now). I've got a few guys I know in the same situation, its not as easy as you think!

OK, JW went to bat for ya! Not that you needed it.

>>>Now how do I get a gig that lets me sail as much as you do?<<<

Clayton

Hey I'm a stay at home dad and we only have dogs. (no Kids) Now I got to go cook dinner for the wife , and do the laundry.
Then I got to put the new parts on my Tiger.

Actually it would be best to turn that around. To have a 155 lbs skipper and a 175 lbs crew. While going downwind you need the crew on the wire in a blow so more weight out is best. Going to weather you want the strongest person as the crew so they can play the mainsheet. Having said that I think that you can have more weight on the boat than you are giving credit for. Some of the designs can carry 360 as a combined crew weight just fine.

As for Mr M. Sometimes for the benefit of job security you need to chase across the country. One or the other parent has to choose to raise one's children or you pick a stranger do it. He has put his career on hold to support the efforts of his wife who is a really dedicated worker and seems to love her chosen occupation. Though he is not punching a clock he keeps pretty darn busy. Even without being able to say I am a "fill in the blank" right now, he is always working on something for some company or other. A bonus is that he is always in contact with his child. He was part of the family's decision to move from Paradise to.....well Paradise. I say Bravo for a courageous choice!

Later,
Dan

She reads the forums here huh?

The PNW has 4 major events that are F18 events (including a PNW championship at NOODs) and we are now even beginning two weekly series that have F18 starts one in BC and one in Seattle. Combined we have 25+ Tigers and NACRAs.

With regard to the post about Yacht Clubs - All PNW F18 events are sailed in conjunction with Yacht Clubs as to not overlap or be held to Hobie Class event rules. The Yacht Clubs that are supporitng PNW F18 are Seattle Yacht Club, Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle, Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, and Bellingham Bay Yacht Club. None of these yacht clubs have ever had an issue with the F18 participating in any of the scheduled events, the fleet just has had to be proactive in communicating what we need for support and for courses. Getting into YC events has not been an issue for us. It does help to have a angel for the initial contact, fortunately our teams have been very well connected to the YC execs and they have in turn all but rolled out the red carpet - they loved the 12 F18s at the NOODs and the F18s were focal points both for SW and local press at the PNW champs. The editior of Sailing World was even scheduled to sail in our fleet but we got scrubbed for wind on day 1. The belief that we are not welcome is just plain wrong, you just need to sell the fleet and follow up with a good show.

With regard to sailing Tiger as F18 - we sail at 330lbs all year (having lost 40lbs combined) and have done well in both Tiger (308 min crew weight) and F18 (330 min crew weight) events across all wind conditions, the only thing we do differently for F18 is to change to a set of Glaser Sails - but both the Glasers and Hobie sails are F18 legal (and Max size legal).

Paul Andrepont
F18TeamBlur

I have a vague idea of what Mr. Moms out there face (I'm Mr. Mom on weekends), which is why I'm not sure how Dub gets all the free time for regattas, travel, USsailing, etc. He puts in an unbelievable amount of time (as do others)to not only sail, but to promote the sport and various classes. And his kids aren't that much older than mine....

Guess I need to work on my time management skills.

And as for putting fatty up front, I agree that the driver should be the smaller of the two crew, but most boat owners like to drive, and around here, most owners are a bit on the heavier side...

What if you're like us... two fatties. We sailed the Tybee at about 450#.

I just assumed that if the weather got really bad I could sacrifice my crew to calm the seas, for that you need big crew, little folk like jake would just piss Neptune off.

Little folk,I like that.
More like an appetizer than a meal!

From, Frenchies Run


Chesapeake Bay clubs decided a while ago to back off enforcing YC membership in order to race. They made it clear that YC's offered reciprocal racing starts to members of YC's only. Their patience paid off! Eventually, most of the sailors joined one of the five cat friendly YC's. The majority of sailors now belong to a YC.

Paul, are the F18's joining these YC's to get racing privileges and do the YC waive the standard requirement of being a YC member for the Hobie Only sailors at the F18 events as well?

In Southern California most of the Formula 18 guys are members of Yacht Clubs. There are still a few taking advantage of not being asked for an affiliation but they are the exception. There are other fleets (monos) as well that take advantage of the situation. Here you do not even need to be a YC member there are sailing associations that qualify.

Yacht Clubs here are really friendly to allowing the Formula 18s to race in their events. We have many regattas and could put more on the menu if we needed.

Later,
Dan

I am not sure what your question is asking. I especially do not understand the Hobie Only comment.

Only 4 sailors out of all the teams (roughly 36 sailors) are members of Yacht Clubs - Andy and I are members of both SYC and CYC. Two of the Tiger owners are members of SYC (and finished 1 -2 at the PNW Champs).

You do not have to be a member of a YC to race the F18 events you just pay a bit more at the Seattle Fleet Champs at CYC, there is no additional fee at any of the other events.

We specifically worked with YCs since that is the model I am use to - I can't remember ever sailing a Tornado at a beach event. I would rather pay the YC or NOODs to run the event and set the schedule so we never overlap with Hobie events - F18 and Tiger OD events are mutually exclusive. We have enough races during the season to do either or both, last year we sailed 12 multi-day events.

I do not want to derail this into a YC discussion but I belive in YCs - I grew up at CSYC and BYC in Detroit and the dinghy sailors and dinghy community were a critical component of my sailing and the primary reason that I sailed over 20 national or junior nationals by the time I was 21 - that is why I support 2 YCs and their junior programs. I have never understood the discussion that YCs do not support cats.... Without the amazing support of the CSYC Tornado, Thistle, Lightening and Snipe fleets and Doyle/Boston Sails in 90,91 and 92, we would never had had the great learning experience we did sailing the Tornado.

This is the number I was asking about..

4 out of 36 teams join the system.

It's about where we started on the Chesapeake. The YC's would gently remind me each year (since I had arranged for the start) that they loved the cat's racing at their event AND it was privilege extended to YC members to race at their event. Please join a member club and support the sailing program. We eventually got there.



The Yacht Club member waiver in the Frenchy NOR caught my eye. We never saw that system on the Chesapeake. The Clubs on the bay did not want to charge more for us non members. They felt very strongly that the volunteers who ran the events did so for the good of the whole racing scene provided by the associations Yacht Clubs. They did not want to feel like they were selling a service. The expectation was that racing sailors would reciprocate by running their club's events and members of other Yacht Clubs would be invited. (The clubs had money... the wanted participation and energy and members to keep the sport going)

When we got started having events at YC's... they still had enough cash to compete with each other for who had the best party! Cambridge's fee was 5 bucks for racing and the all you could eat steamed crabs and beer for 20 bucks and they had a band. I still miss that crab feast.

Good sailing in the PNW

I think some of you guys are clueless on the YC affiliations. Frankly they love US, in small doses. It brings attention to the Clubs, helps attact new sailors, and gives them a social event. But it takes work and participation, not just showing up and using someone's facility as a guest.
Problem is More the planning and timing so not to conflict with their vaious events, and not wear out the volunteer help we get from them.
A Bigger Problem is simply BEACH SPACE. We can fit 20-25 Cats on our beach at CSC. And many more on Trax in the parking lot. Cats on the Beach Better like each other, same way sardines do. Other Clubs I've visited have Even less Beach space.
WE all have to develop and nurture these relationships to keep the sport going. I Pay my dues even though it is easier for me to launch my cat and my Mono from my house ... I have the membership just to keep the relationships open for the catracing sport. Mebbe if more than just four of you did the same sort of thing, we could help to build it back. Hard to have a regatta launching from a trailer, and for all our whining, I don't ever remember a facility/location dedicated exclusively to beachcats ANYWHERE, And even the 900 Pound Gorilla doesn't have a test pond to host their SMOD events.
So here's the real question . . . .
WHERE ELSE YA GONNA GO????

900 pound gorilla?? you talking about Strickland??

Ha! I kid I kid.

Chris:
I'm pretty sure if Batman weighed 900# He'd never reach escape velocity . . .
You got Corrector weight in that cape or what??

I haven't looked at YC memberships lately, but last time it was something like $25,000 USD per year + monthly minimums. Oh, and you had to be sponsored by 4 members. And dress code after 18:00 is blue blazer (with emblem) and white pants (YIKES)

But, things are weird here in my area. Most likely don't represent YC sailing in general. I mean, I only see TWO masts tied up at the "Yacht Club". The rest are monster-mega-ginormous powerboats. You know, the ones with their own dual-doppler radar stacks, and hot tubs on the promenade deck?

I think the yacht club likes those better because they make $$$ on fuel sale. Sad, too, since those docks are actually wide enough for most of the larger cruising cats (docks look about 20 feet wide)

The local sailing club (no clubhouse) seems active. Probably saw about 12 boats bouy racing last Saturday... No beachcats though..

I think you are looking at the wrong kind of yacht club.

I would hope so. There are four "yacht clubs" that I know of in the area. Two of which are like I mentioned (Naples Sailing and Yacht Club, Yacth Club of Marco Island).

Two others appear to be rack boat storage facilities with a clubhouse/pool. No trailer/mast-up storage at any of the facilities.

The sailing club that looks active sounds like my best bet. No facility, membership is like $50/yr, and they could probably use some beachcats...

I don't know many yacht clubs like what Waterbug is talking about. I can probably count those clubs in the US on one hand.

The Clubs I know have Dinghy sailing and Cat sailing and Cabin sailing all at the same club. They offer membership to anyone. They are short on boats and members and need more to pay the bills.

These clubs host regattas for all different types of boats. Most require a sponsor for a regatta from a member of the club so that they have a go to person to be a liason. They like racing and wish more people would race.

I've raced out of some pretty nice clubs and they are very open. Chicago Yacht club is pretty nice. No cats there but they don't have a facility for cats.

NY Yacht club is the strangest. It's landlocked!!!

Miami Yacht club is awesome. Very open to cats and members. I love it.

Last weekend I was attending a Hobie Points regatta at SPRAY BEACH YACHT CLUB in Spray Beach NJ. A very friendly yacht club w/ a few large power boats but mostly small-med sized bower boats in the marina and an equal number of "dingy" sized sailboats, opti's, sunfish, lasers, beach cats etc.

The yacht club I'm a member of, Rock Hall Yacht Club is also a friendly yacht club geared towards small sailboats and our "Proper Dress" from Nov-March is 'Shadow Grass Camo' ... there is a duck blind 50' from the launch beach and a couple of deer tree stands in the woods. There are an additional 4 duck blinds with-in sight of the deck/patio of the clubhouse, that YC members from the "Blue Blazer" YCs rent to hunt ducks/geese out of. So the "Blue Blazers" smile when I say I'm from RHYC ....

Harry Murphey

Yes, Mike, the phrase "yacht club" here seems to carry a different meaning than what I am accustomed to.

"Sailing clubs" seems more appropriate here, although none have actual facilities. Usually just meet up at the boat ramp or start line...