Hobie partnership w/ American Sailing Association announced

DECEMBER 6TH, 2013

PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICAN SAILING ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCED

The Press Release explains Hobie Cat® Company’s new worldwide partnership with the venerable ASA. Jointly, and with the support of Oracle Corporation, we will be working to put a fresh spotlight on the exciting sport of sailing and grow our sport worldwide, targeting youth and adults alike.

The eye-catching concept boat that we are displaying at the Paris Boat Show is a Hobie® Wave with black hulls and sail, red rudders, and custom Oracle and ASA graphics, along with an American Flag decal to gain attention for the new project.



The new boat will be the first in a series of special edition ASA/Hobie catamarans designed with the dual purpose of making it easy to learn as well as appealing to those youth and young adults attracted to the speed and performance of multihulls.

Matt,

The ASA has promise and could be a viable alternative to US Sailing. Can you tell us more about how ASA plans to execute the following statement "ASA stands up for your rights & interests in your state capital & Washington D.C." This one item has been asked for many times from US Sailing only to be told that it was not something they could or would do. What is ASA's plan and scope regarding this item? If you don't know who can we ask?

I have no love for US Sailing and would have the same disdain for an organization with the same dysfunction. ASA holds promise and I'd like to know more, at the very least it’s a fresh start.

+1

I thought ASA is a trade group for the maritime sailing industry.

This is a great business move that I hope will build off of the AC action. I hope it captures some free media and sparks interest out there.

US Sailing is about sailors, classes, Yacht Clubs and the administration of the sport.. ... all non profits with a complimentary mission. I don't know about your part of the world... but I have not observed any new sailors at clubs or events attributed to the AC spectacular. Our plan of hope and pray is not working!

Props to Hobie and Oracle.

USS is about USS.

Now you are just flaunting your ignorance. The hundreds of volunteers who spend lots of their own time and money to further the sport of sailing for everyone in the country through US Sailing appreciate your support.

USS' most profound accomplishment is alienating the vast majority of sailors.

Mike, those same volunteers will donate their time and money with or without USSailing, we don't volunteer because of USSailing. USSailng as a national organization is broken. Maybe if USSailing was taken away from the employees and given back to the volunteers it could then focus on serving the needs of it's membership instead of trying to figure out ways to extract additional reveue from its membership.

I joined USYRU (now US Sail) back in the mid '90s to get my Level 1 Instructor's card. This was also around the time that USYRU "discovered" multihulls and wind surfers. They went after the alternative sailors with a vengeance claiming they would represent them and they would be treated as equals in the sailing community. My cheek was bulging from the hook that had been set.

I was also doing a lot a race management around this time. USYRU announced a PRO course to be held at the St. Francis YC. I signed up and went. It was a great day of instruction in the very impressive Flag Room. I sat next to an older SFYC member who, after discussing our race management backgrounds, offered me a job working on the SFYC race committee. All in all a really neat day. That is, until it was time to get our certificates.

I filled out the form listing YC affiliation as Hobie Fleet 20, San Jose. It was rejected because I didn't belong to a YC. When asked, the guy running the class stated USYRU rules say no YC, no nothing for you. Buu-bye.

It also became very apparent that USYRU was only trying to sign up the multihull and wind surfers for their dues money. They had no intention of doing anything for them other than some lip service.

When I received my membership renewal I returned it with a letter describing my experience in the class as the reason why I wouldn't be renewing. A few weeks later I got a call from USYRU's "West Coast Representative." He asked what the deal was and I repeated my story about the class. His reply was, "Oh."

"Oh?" I asked.

"I was the guy running the class." he replied.

Even after some further discussion he still wouldn't award me the certificate.

AMF USYRU (US Sail).

We just ordered seven more Waves for our US SAILING, center, Sail Sand Point, in Seattle. That makes twelve in our program, and part of our over 100 boats. We wish ASA well, and have association with several ASA, and Yacht Clubs in the Northwest. Sharing resources, and ideas with others is the way to grow sailing programs.

US SAILING is alive and well. The Alter Cup this year was a good example. The only way to improve your relationship with US SAILING is to take part, speak up, and changes will be made.

Great job Matt (and Hobie Cat Co.)!!!

Anything that gets exposure for the sport is a good thing.

Those of you with personal agendas and axes to grind are not as helpful as you'd like to believe...

Mike

I do like USSA but they did remove all references to multihulls out of their new small boat learn to sail book. They do good work but unfortunately I have seen their negative multihull biases over and over.

ASA I am not sure is much better because their attitude is if you want to be a good sailor you must sail a monohull first before a multihull... Look how their certification system is set up. No way to get certified on a cruising multihull unless you take a monohull class. However with this new venture maybe things are changing.

I am not defending the decision on the book, but after the change was made, I found out that one of the committee members is a good friend of mine. I asked about why that change was made, and was told that it was done to simplify the book. The committee made the assumption that not many people learn on cats first (at least not kids), so cat-specific instruction will be included in the next level up.

I don't agree with this logic, but I can tell you that this person would never blow sunshine, so I do believe the explanation, and know that this is one more example of them not thinking it through (or at least taking the minimal effort of contacting us and asking), but I attribute that to volunteers being human, not a worldwide conspiracy as some here would have you believe.

This is also a shining example of where we need to improve our communications with the rest of US Sailing, it's a two-way street. This is one of our goals for the coming year.

Mike

dang... I do love a conspiracy - especially a worldwide conspiracy

Were those Waves purchased from a dealer/factory rep.? Were they obtained from a ASA affiliate?

The ASA appears to be a network of privately owned sailing/charter businesses, nationwide. This partnership provides sailing instruction and "certification" to the guy who saw videos of the AC or saw a picture and story in a magazine.

I would not be surprised if they turned over older boats to the local yacht/sailing clubs and community sailing centers when they grow tired (tax write - off under a 501c3?)

Sarasota Sailing Squadron has a number of Waves on their property for their sailing club members to enjoy, but, when it comes racing, the ten or twelve 420s that were doing spin-drills, practicing mark rounding technique for speed will stand a much better chance of climbing up the competitive ladder in any sailing craft than those buyers of that Wave in the photo.

I know some of the ASA guys that run charter and instruction centers along the Gulf Coast. I race PHRF against a couple of them. How many of those guys are going to buy Waves for kids to turn over to a youth program? Wave racing results during the past year have revealed to me that Waves ain't for kids; Optis are.

US Sailing is a very well manned forum which provides motivated, competitive sailors the finest opportunity to build their own empire that can expand for life. Board sailors and catamaran sailors have a similar cultural background; we are "off the Beach Mutants." We enjoy Burger King too much to contribute our resources and talents; therefore, the Hobie Marketing organization will stir the winds of cultural unity with the high performance F 16, F 18, N 17, A Cat sailors until we find a true solution for the future.

The Multihull Council, as we knew it prior to 2011 was already "on the chopping bock" according to JW. The only work we were getting done was sustain the Alter Cup and establish a Safety Committee which I chair. This council has now been re - classed as a committee by the US Sailing BoD. Since the tragic flaw of cultural divide grew stronger, fueled by the catsailing prejudice for the 'new' age of production trimaran owners. Trimaran sailors are still without US Sailing representation.

In 1984 Scott Steele collaborated with Major and Sue Hall to create the original US Boardsailing Team and train for Olympic competition. My son was selected due to his performances in the ranking Division II events. They traveled internationally and by 1988 brought home two Olympic medals. They were supported by the USYRU through networking with the ISAF. Since this was a new Olympic sailing genre for the USOC, they may have been awarded considerable financial support, but Major and Sue always succeeded season by season during the journey.

Major and Sue were doing what Jill and Robbie are doing for catamaran sailing in this country. They are providing quality, high level, athletic instruction for Olympic sailing. With Taylor's container now part of the team's resources, they are inspiring (love their tent at big regattas) and training young and older sailors, alike.

I took gasp at why this topic has become an issue and then thought about the post regarding the ISAF selection for 2020.

The boardsailing faction went independent from US Sailing (USYRU) many years ago and is now represented/ supported by US Sailing, simply because they organized and set up their own business, which the USYRU - USSA tansition gladly accepted.

My brother in law said there are people who talk about it one day and brag about it the next, and then there are people who make it happen. US Sailing expects us to rule ourselves; why have we never considered this? Check out windsurfing under US Sailing, and you will discover a well - manned and dedicated team of doers, and they have done a lot.

Forgive my Monday ramble, but it's rainy, my dog can't go out, and I am growing weary of all this infighting. Are we "Freeloaders" or seamen, dedicated to spawning a new frontier?

We can still protect the future of the Alter Cup as long as the Multihull Championship Committee has a voice on the Championship Committee. Other than that there has been minimal evidence of any effort to even update the old Multihull Council on our website in the two years we have been aground, much less make any room for trimarans and show we can follow by - laws. We have become puppets of our own bad habits.

Why live in the past? Go Open Bic.

When they broke out the Open Bic at Gulfport Yacht Club, during our annual Gulf Yachting Association meeting Randy Smyth was on hand with his son, Matthew. The January day was greeted by a fresh cold front with several OBs in the yacht club pool. Randy became a kid again, and now Matthew races his OB in the Portsmouth division out of Fort Walton Yacht Club. In a couple years he might even sail on their high school sailing team in 420s.

Coaches and yacht clubs still prefer the Opti along our coast. The USODA is another example of a culture that has earned its keep and its stay.

Sorry about your certification experience. I know a few multihull sailors from your islands, and I met Gil Budar (SIC) at a US Sailing meeting. I was proud to have the commodore of the Hawaii Yacht Racing Association at our Multihull Council meeting.

The last time I saw him was in 2010. I got a chair for him to sit in his because of his leg injury. The two us sat in the back between aisles with Darline Hobock for Jobson's acceptance speech. JW and I had dinner with Darline later that evening. That was Darline's final USSA assembly.

I understand the catamaran sailing is limited to beach clubs and Hobie Fleets with minmimal outside sponsorship. If you own a tri it is best to be based out of Kaneohe or Waikiki YCs.

Excuse me here : but if "That's" the Best you can
do to copy a AC72 on a small scale, then Ya need to
wake-up from your dream, and go Back to the
drawing-board !!!

Where's the Rigid-wing sail ?
Where's the Foils ??
Where's the anything that matches the performance
of a AC72 for a Two-man cat ???

ALL i see is Hype ; and Nothing to back it up !!!

Sounds & looks like You need money for your Porshe payments
to Me ?

Bille

wow...dude....it's a Hobie Wave.

I can't believe I'm starting to run out of facepalm gifs. These will have to do.

Bille, yes of course you would use a ridged wing mast with foils as a learn to sail boat. They are so easy and cheap to sail any beginner would pick up sailing in an instance.

It is a learn to sail boat and learn to sail course learn to walk before you are sprinting hurdler.

Any effort to increase sailing mutlihulls should be applauded.

Quite the diatribe there, Bert. Too bad you missed our meeting in FL, you'd have seen that we have the full support of US Sailing.

I will agree that we are the masters of our own destiny, and that rebuilding the Alter Cup has taken a toll on our time over the past few years. We intend to leverage their support, and shift our focus to the other key parts of our charter over the coming years.

It's really sad when every day on this site, we have to see people use any and all opportunities to bash existing groups, whose sole purpose is to promote, organize or otherwise help our sport. We don't have to agree with every decision, but should at least respect the efforts being made.

Mike

Too funny... Bille? Really? You want to train beginners on an AC72? That's kinda like learning to fly on an SR-71 rather than a Cessna.



For this program... Hobie, ASA and Oracle are working to build entry level. We will leave the AC72 performance to the AC72s.

We are not trying to win the cup here.

Matt, thank you for continuing to post here and pass on interesting and relevant data.

It is sad that no good deed (or post) goes without getting a bucket load of negativity here.

I, for one, think I get it: Its a stepping stone connecting the aspirational pull of AC72 with the reality of getting people on the water.

If Hobie has some interest in helping us get some at our club, then we need to talk. Our Sailing Association is a 501c

At the moment, we have a Wave and a Tiger as club boats and would ideally like a T2 to fill the gap.

I think that black boat is ****ing awesome.

EXACTLY.....

AND..... the builders and the learn to sail organizations are much better at marketing this level of the sport to newbies then catamaran racing clubs... or yacht clubs.

Many of the learn to sail programs finish up with some kind of race... and are followed up with advanced classes where racing starts to happen... Selling these kinds of boats and teaching sailing to newbies on these kinds of boats is what you want a buisness for... the clients pay money. I sure hope ASA and Hobie cat make money on this.

The existing cat clubs full of volunteers then have to reach out and support those potential racers.

The alternative is to cut back on the racing from our activities and replace racing with learn to sail and beach parties off the public beaches. No club that I know of wants a social club for this purpose much less a business. (Did the social club thing once in my life and never never again)

That's fine if you sail a Hobie but if you don't I'm assuming you're not included. Yes?

I would contact the closest dealer and discuss it. We also offer some institutional pricing direct to clubs in certain cases, but sales is not my thing. Contact the dealer or email info@hobiecat.com to route the question to our sales department.

Couldn't be more wrong. (I belong to the same club.)

Good deal.

Pete- Our club is 95% monohulls and cruiser/racers. The multihulls have been the red-headed step-child for quite some time, but recently the senior leadership is slowly starting to see the light. Through things like AC and the activities and enthusiasm of our small F18 fleet, they are seeing the merit of a higher adrenaline solution to keep the young (and young at heart) engaged. More importantly, they are seeing some ROI in the form of growth - a rare commodity in any flavor of sailing these days.

As for manufacturers, we have a mixture of boats. We went the Hobie route (for club multihulls) for a number of reasons. One big one is that they seem to be the only one putting forth some effort at the entry level. Its easy to second-guess that effort, but at least its there.

Matt M - Understand reality - nobody can run a business like a charity for very long will talk to the local guys.

Cheers!

Bic has done a good job of getting their Open Bics into junior sailing programs by offering some very steep discounts for quantity buys for a few years and then modifying the program to offer the same discount regardless of quantity but throwing in training sails and other stuff based on quantity purchased. It also doesn't hurt that they use West Marine as their US distributor. That saved us a huge amount in shipping costs.

Another company that's doing a good job on discounts is RS. We're buying six. They're giving us the quantity 10+ discount. They're now offering a 16 foot cat.

wait... so trimarans are not included in the multihull council?

dangit.. I'm moving from one red-headed stepchild (N20) to another (trimarans).

But at least I got the depthfinder to work so the world (or at least Florida Bay) is my oyster

Screw you guys, I'm going home

Tris are technically included (it's the multihull committee, not the cat committee). Traditionally, tris have organized under existing regional groups (PHRF or other handicaps, racing from yacht clubs).

Our committee has had many tri sailors on its board. Anyone willing to help is welcome.

Mike

Bert
My head count of the big boat trimaran sailors on the MHC meetings was at least 4 people.

I always made a point to contact the CMA guys who are big boat cat and tri sailors in AREA C and ask about any issues they want action on. They participated in the Annapolis USSA national meeting.

The problem for you is that they are outspoken in not wanting to move to a national PHRF handicap system. They may hate their existing rule... but they want no part of national PHRF either.

They are also the lead on big boat safety at sea issues because this is important in their participation in the big point to point races.

Right, kick butt. Well, don't want to sound like a dick or nothin', but, ah... it says on your chart that you're fucked up. Ah, you talk like a fag, and your ****'s all retarded. What I'd do, is just like... like... you know, like, you know what I mean, like... Don't worry, scrote. There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick-butt lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.

Sorry. I meant to say it was way more better.

Mark,

I was on the organizing Comm for the original Trimaran Nationals in 1995 and served as what is now known as the 'PRO.'

Ian was onboard the committee boat, and Trey Ritter was on point with the ratings. We have used the same handicappers and discovered fresh talent since then. Our system is the most nationwide system there is for production tris, one - off PHRF vessels, and recently, we awarded a DPN for a foiler.

Do not even use your cat rhetoric or BS on me regarding production trimarans. They are coming in force to a region near you. Within three years you will see an emergence of F 22s and Wetas turning the eyes of the kids.

The youth love sailing on the boats with their parents and friends so they can learn seamanship.

You and Mike steer clear of any trimaran babble you might wish to conjour. The fact is having members on a vocal committee is not quite the same as having a committee in working hands.

Watch your waters or lose your rep with the tri guys.

That's great news Bert, more boats is better. Tris are (and always have been) welcome in this committee/council.

Mike