Alter Cup and Americas Cup on Same Course

Got this in an email from Laura Sullivan:
America’s Cup spectators will have a special opportunity to watch additional multihull racing as the 2013 U.S. Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Trophy will race on the America’s Cup course on September 7 as a unique precursor to the opening race.
The Hobie 16, iconic to the world of multihull sailing, is ideal for this US Sailing Championship.
The Sausalito Yacht Club (Calif.) has put together an amazing team to make this an outstanding event with great competition and a special experience.
If you would like to race on San Francisco Bay during this historic sailing event please visit the event website for registration details and more information at http://championships.ussailing.org/Adult/USMHChampionship.htm.

wow that's amazing

They are going to look REALLY slow!

The Sausalito Yacht Club is really working to make this a great event. We have sailed here on a regular basis and condition can be epic. The racing City front will be early in the day before the wind normally goes really high. Hopefully it is a flood or slack tide so there is flat water too. This is not an event to miss.

Yes but what isn't next to an AC45 or AC72? Makes a lot of sense to me to showcase a class that is very much in touch with the beach goers of the world, i.e a large portion of SoCal.

This is a pretty remarkable opportunity. I'm not going to miss it. :-)

Any small cat will look slow. Mega Props to the CA Hobie 16 class for stepping up and promising to support the US championships.

I'm probably opening a big ole can of worms here, but what makes this the Alter Cup?

Could we just say that Spring Fever is the Alter Cup? or Juana's Good Time Regatta? or pick a random open event?

Not looking for a can, just trying to answer your question...

US Sailing has a committee, led by Laura Sullivan, which selects the Alter Cup events. To have an event considered, there is a formal bid process and a list of conditions.

Your best bet is to visit the US Sailing website, review the conditions, and contact Laura to submit a bid.

Hope this helps.

Mike

EDIT: Also, it's far from random (this event was not an existing regatta) and currently is one-design or formula (not handicapped).

And technically, the regatta is not the "Alter Cup" - that's the name of the trophy.

The official name is, "The U.S. Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Trophy."

It's not even the name of the trophy. Does anyone know where the term Alter Cup originated? It's also not the shape of the trophy...

Mike

perhaps Hobie Alter?

"CUP" is the word in question...

Mike

"What is, is. What was, will be. What will be, was; but will be, again."

OK, I'll bite... What does Arnold know about the etymology of the term Alter CUP?

Mike

oh oh ohhh ohhhh ohhhh

Haha, that was funny JW

Already four former Alter Cup Champions registered, in addition to multiple class champs. If you watched ITA v NZL, you saw the sailing area. Seriously. Sign up and take part in history.

Mike,

Last year marked a change in formatting due to the loss of factory sponsorship. The boats have become so expensive that the old practice of leaning on generosity from NACRA and AHPC was deep - sixed.

US Sailing owns the Deed of Gift for the Hobie Alter Trophy, and that's that.

The name 'Alter Cup' most likely came about due to ease of expression. As Matt has said, the formal name is the Hobie Alter Trophy.

The US Sailing Championship Committee is the formal governing body, and when I was booted off last year, after securing Sausalito, the regatta was intended as a "stand alone" event.

If the winds are true this year and fate has its way, the event will be sharing a time frame with the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup racing.

Look out for a PM regarding some other business brewing Zhik might be interested in.

The victors write the history? Shouldn't have poked the worms. Bert's statement is inaccurate, though I personally believe him to be well-intentioned.

OK Arnold, why is it called a cup?

Trust me, I know the recent history, but no one at US Sailing seems to be able to answer this, either.

Mike

JW, Correct my error if you will. After hours of teleconferencing that was my perception. I did not mean to poke any worms - only to explain why/how the term, Alter Cup originated and offer some reasonable explanation for the change of format for MK.

I am growing too old to keep up with you young folk, but you were correct. You know where my heart is.

Hi Mike -

Of course nobody at US SAILING (don't they still require the volunteers to write it in all caps?) knows - it was the Multihull Council that started the event with no support. After a time, we got a great Championships Manager in Lindy Christopherson for a long time - she supported all 10 qualifiers and the finals, and gave the volunteers anything they needed with a smile and a wink. She got canned, though.

I've asked the one guy that knows the whole story to make an appearance here - hope he does. In the meantime, to whet the appetite and set the stage, all of the original documentation referred to "U.S. Yacht Racing Union's Alter Cup." Even the post-conception typed "deed" isn't the original.

I have a terrific reverence for this trophy and the man that created it. In his humbleness, he named it for someone he admired, and the Council enthusiastically followed suit.

GORDON Rocks....period.

He pretty much rocks all punctuation.

Who has the napkin upon which this is written?

Mikw

Especially exclamation points!!!!

I talked with Gordon today - I'm hoping he makes it for the A Cat event here next month; I lured him with sipping rum and free lodging. I don't think he's going to post in this thread, but his knowledge is invaluable; the world will go on spinning without it, but just as with Darline, Gordie has memories that are worth preserving. I will always regret not mining Darline's memory before she was gone; I won't make the same mistake again.

Gordon Isco was leading the Council at a time when the USYRU didn't think much of multihulls. "They can't tack" and "They flip over" and "They're dangerous" and "They aren't REAL boats" were common quotes in the hallways at meetings... Hell, that was the pervasive attitude. Yet the Multihull Council was able to forge a Championship for us. Gordie said his biggest beef since 1985 has been that he always hears cat sailors talk about "them" when referring to US SAILING. "Them" can be "us" and we are "They" in Gordie's mind.

The USYRU Board started calling it the Alter Cup in about 1989 after the event started gaining traction. The Council always called it the Multihull Championship. Gordon, who does some pretty amazing metal sculptures, built the trophy himself - you'll note the boats on the trophy share design characteristics from several classes racing at the time, but aren't identifiable as a particular boat on purpose.

So, it was US SAILING (as USYRU) that coined the "Cup" terminology - it was marketing. Or maybe just a mistake that got perpetuated for it's similarity to the Americas Cup (Gordon's speculation). Regardless, the volunteers that built the event always struggled to balance the competing ideologies among cat sailors in US SAILING - the event was to be a Championship of class Champions, or it was to be a US SAILING tool to build membership by attracting sailors to a qualification ladder and an invitation to the finals. Gordon was responsible for the partnership with Bill Jolley and the Hoyt-Jolley Foundation that funded the event so successfully for over a decade. I hope Bill knows what his donation created and how many sailors he supported...

Youth sailors at Alter Cup



Women sailors at Alter Cup

John,

Is that you in the Ronstan top?

The "us" and "them" thing has bothered me for a long, long time. I too value making the event relevant to all cat sailors.

Hopefully, this has been recognizable through my words and actions over the past two years...

Mike

I remember when both JC and Gordon had hair. does that make me old?

Too tall.

The puzzle is NOT why is it referred to as the XXX Cup... rather, why is called the Alter XXX.

I started paying attention to the national organizations of sailing about 1987.. The organizing body was USYRU and my local organization was CBYRA. The first thing you notice was the commitment to sailing traditions. Yacht Clubs and by extension USYRU were the keepers of the Championships .. Their trophies were displayed in huge trophy cases in the clubs. The YC were charged with maintaining the history and tradition of Corinthian Sailing. (The blue blazer tradition that we cat sailors were/are predisposed to ridicule). Yachting traditions had all of the major awards titled as "Cups" symbolized by the their unique trophies. ... eg the "Sears Cup". Everyone new instantly what the Sears Cup was about... just as today we know what the America's cup is about.

So, the culture and tradition of Corinthian sailing would make the multihull trophy... a Cup. The real question is... Why Hobie Alter.... the Cup part is in keeping with the history of Corinthian Sailing in the US. John and Gordon hinted at the origins of the trophy as being non sectarian... (can't tell what class is on that trophy)
Why?

So, in 1987.... I joined Prindle Fleet 25 with a DART 18...and so I joined the anti establishment.... a paper catamaran club! ....When we changed the name... it was to CRAC... Catamaran Racing Association of the Chesapeake... We wanted NOTHING to do with Yacht Clubs.... Now... CRAC is suspended and the cat sailors are members of West River Sailing Association... an old Yacht Club on the Chesapeake. Annapolis Yacht Club hosted the 2012 Hobie 16 Junior North American Championships last year.... AYC is the definition of establishment in these parts AND we can go back with any championship event we would want to run here!

We have to remember that catamarans (Tornado's and Sharks) were sailing and racing at Yacht clubs well before the Hobie BEACH Revolution. The A class was also a popular class and Yacht clubs like Lake Hopatcong with 50 years of prior history had taken on the A class with a club member building A cats in his basement... and they now celebrate their role in supporting the A class (even tho the A class members feel a bit like second class citizens because the other OD fleets are OLDER.)

The history changing moment was the decision made by Hobie Alter who strategically decided to stay well clear of the Yacht Club scene. You can read the history that was generated when Hobie celebrated their 40th anniversary a few years ago. The deliberate decision to go their own way created the huge divisions and mindsets we see today. The reaction on both sides of the split (Yacht club mono hull racers who did not know of Tornado's Sharks and A Class said.. ... they can't tack.... and Hobie BEACH cat sailors.... who said... stuffy blue blazers) was extreme.

When I started this was just the way it was and from the stories told... tempers had started to cool ... a bit. We also have to remember that IYRU multihull classes and their sailors on ... A class C Class and B class were really part of the Yacht Club scene and they also had NO connection to the beach catters. These guys were not a natural fit with the Hobie World either. The B Class resolved to the Tornado and it's selection as the Olympic boat was part of the Yacht Club scene. The air of superiority between Hobie 16 sailors and Tornado sailors was a hoot to watch. This was a Mars and Venus universe! The non beach cat classes were in rapid decline in numbers and the Beach cat "Hobie" world was exploding.

In 1987... I could identify only four Yacht clubs that supported Catamarans.. Lake Hopatcong YC with A cats and Wroten Point YC in Connecticut and Sharks at Canidegua YC in NY, Tornado's at Miami YC down the road from what became known as Hobie Beach on Rickenbacker Causeway... while there were beach cat paper clubs sailing hobies, prindles, nacras, darts, isotopes all over the place. The YC world of multihulls was in decline and most YCs were very isolated from the Beach Cat world of Hobies (all catamarans in the world are called Hobies by Yacht club members.... now that is some marketing!).

This was the environment that Gordon, Darline and folks I have never met were looking at as part of the establishment (USYRU). IMO, they knew that the split between YCs/USYRU and the Beach Cat world was not a winning move.

IMO, when the establishment leaders looked out at the world and thought of whom to honor with the CUP... they probably had to consider Nate Herschorn (already honored by numerous trophies) and Hobie Alter (the innovator who created the notion of a BEACH Cat). (I doubt Gordon will take credit ... I believe John's account) They probably hoped that the Alter Cup would start the process of putting the community together... (YC's, YC catamaran Sailors, Beach Cat Sailors and Hobie Beach Cat sailors). IMO... naming the trophy the Hobie Alter Cup was a brilliant and wise move. The marketing idiots that have followed have tried to rebrand all of these traditions including the Sears Cup from time to time... so Situation Normal.

John also noted how US Sailing... USYRU's re-branded organization has attempted to view the Alter Cup... (recruit multihull sailors to join US Sailing.... the premiere US multihull championship... just one of the championships that US sailing must offer....etc. It depended on who was in charge of US Sailing and which program director was running the show and which marketing idiot was in charge for that era. This is matched by equally strong opinions on what the Alter cup should NOT have become. Rick White was (and probably still believes) that it should not have become a championship of champions.... While Dave Ingram is PO'd that it is just another BYOB championship. Times change.

So, as all of the folks who have served on the championship committee will tell you... This is NOT an easy peasy thing to pull off. The establishment is STILL the establishment. US Sailing staff and leaders orient their POV to Yacht Clubs and their organization. Beach Cat sailors orient to their paper clubs and class or brand. It is a culture mis match that is HUGE. You need a LOT OF GREASE (aka good will) to make this work... sometimes volunteers get slimed and the salt in the wounds stings. (Hey I am no longer on the committee either)

I served one year on the committee and I am pleased with the current direction. BYOB because of the economics and branding constraints. Rotating each year between Double handed Sloop, Double handed Spinnaker, and Single handed Disciplines. The future of the Multihull Championship will depend on the major One Design Classes and their elected leadership supporting the competition for the Alter Cup by working with US Sailing, a host YC who wants to be part of the system, the class OD sailors who want to compete for the championship.

Props to Sausilito YC for wanting to host and also work with the AC organization. Props to Hobie Factory and Hobie Class leadership who brought the Hobie 16's to the party ... Props to Liz Walker who is the US Sailing part of the three legged stool. Props to Laura Sullivan who closed the deal with the Hobie 16 class when she took over. THANKS to the sailors who are going to support the championship this year. ... six more boats to register and it will be the largest fleet and match the turnout of all previous Alter Cups. The international participation by PR sailors is fitting as well. It is fitting that the Alter Cup be held on the epitome of a beach cat... the Hobie 16 while the YC world is building and racing the epitome of a catamaran... the AC72.

Leaving only one question... Who is up for next year? Single handers would keep the rotation going a pace. An A Class US Multihull championship would celebrate one of the classic Yacht club catamaran classes as well.

As always... YMMV!

Good write-up, but you forgot to thank Bert for getting us an event in last year's transition, Liz for helping me set up the survey, and all of the sailors, here and elsewhere, upon whose input the changes were made. The current Council/Committee has been quiet of late, but put in a lot of work last year to make recommendations to pull this off and keep it going.

Mike

In April, I listened in while Bob Hodges and Randy Smyth were considering bundling the USMC with their Nationals/NAs.

This will not be a "Stand Alone" event which is paramount in the tradition of the US Sailing Multihull Championship as Gordo intended it to be.

The regatta should be separate from other events, and that is why we maintained course with the F 16s last year. Small as it was, the regatta sustained the original purpose, and I am most glad that Sausalito Yacht Club has continued the tradition.

The one crystal clear fact which has arisen from this dialogue is that our history as catamaran or trimaran sailors must be preserved and not compromised by one person's viewpoint.

John, ask Gordon what he knows about Dick Blanchard and his wife Betty, who organized the North American Multihull Sailing Association. Rick White has been the steward of the effort since Dick passed away. I do remember the days when Gene Vernon, Geoff Prindle, Tom Roland, and Pete Melvin struggled to find starting lines for their designs.

There are real heroes that have built the pyramid, that should not disappear in the mist of time. How many of you know Ian Farrier?

The boats on the trophy are Hobie 18s. That's what I was sailing at the time. I have already posted a few times why I started the event and the intent, so I won't go into that again.

The thing that upset me the most is my Fast and Fun program for the kids died out in California and never moved around the country like I envisioned

So, it's all about values...

If you value Gordon's original concept, return to the Qualifier-only process and limit the event to 10 boats. They do not have to be new boats if you can find a host with boats available. Few, if any, current Championships are being run this way now.

If you value the new boats and extended invitation (20-team) concept, know that no other Championship is run that way, and have a real plan to fund the event without asking the Board for money.

If you value making the event relevant in modern times, the current model is trying to do that. Minimizing costs, opening the invitations, eliminating qualifiers (which were neither being run correctly nor well-attended), rotating disciplines and locations, and adding clinics are all outcomes of sailor input, and committee meetings. US Sailing (current leadership) has provided some feedback, but are not driving this. Most Championships have moved in a similar direction.

There are pros and cons to each of these approaches. Personally, I favor letting it continue to evolve (moving away from Gordon's original concept, against his wishes, was done before), and supporting the event no matter how it is formatted; otherwise, we run the risk of losing the ability to have it, and all of the work and tradition and people that have been revered will fade into distant memory.

Mike

So why is US Sailing involved again?

It's pretty clearly laid out on Gordon's posts above...

There are funds available and used to run the event every year without Board approval.

But, you already know all of that...

Mike