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NAHCA Division 7 Fall 2010

2010 Season Recap 1 - 6

Support Our Sponsors 7

Hobie Racin’ 8 - 9 LLR 39 10 - 12

Short Stories and Tall Tales 13 - 18 =

Inside this issue:

2010...The season of BIG Wind ach season rolls out a little differ-ently than the last...so over time you learn to head to events pre-

pared for every/any thing. While 2009 is remembered for the long, cool start, and an early finish to comfortable sailing, 2010 may be remembered for its warm start and events with big winds.

From early May, when a few of us first took to the water in our small boats (Hobie 14, Bravo, Wave, Getaway) right up through LLR39, the Apostle Islands and the Leukemia Cup, it seems that we were blessed (and for some, cursed) with big wind.

The Spring Tune-Up on Memorial Day weekend, offered surprising warmth and

the perfect breeze for those who had not handled a sheet in six plus months.

The Lake Pepin Two-Day offered a quiet, hot Saturday, but great hull flying, trapeze hanging breeze on Sunday, and a couple nice nights around the campfire with sail-ing friends, new and old.

The 2010 Hobie Fleet 444 Regatta, run in conjunction with LLR39, was big wind the entire weekend, and even with the related crashes, we ended up with very little boat damage, although nearly all came away with cat bites (assorted bumps and bruises).

The Apostle Islands Catamaran Rally gave us a Saturday sail to remember (for those

who decided to sail to La Pointe on Made-line Island), miles of on-the-wire fun and big bouncing waves.

The Leukemia Cup on White Bear Lake provided enough wind for a few capsizes in a couple days of great sailing for an important cause and introduced a few folks to the fun of racing.

We are blessed with terrific sailing venues and in 2010 great wind...take a look inside for stories about the season.

EEEE

Three days of big winds at LLR 39 / Hobie Fleet 444 Regatta either could not remove, or added smiles to the faces of these Hobie sailors. With sustained winds in the 20’s and gusts into the mid-30’s, the days were short but hard fought and exciting for partici-pants and spectators alike.

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hile the 2009 season had us in wetsuits into July, 2010 open with a glorious weekend for our

Spring Tune-Up Fun Sail.

Although the water was still cool, but not cold thanks to the earliest ice-out in 30 years, air temps in the 80’s had us out of our wet suits loosening up after a winter involved in other activities.

With pale, winter faces we greet each other as the boats start showing up at Ohuta Park in Lake City. I have brought along the school bus, my yellow Hobie 18SX armed with my big-ass spinnaker, Adam Bock and Dave Farmer show up with an A-Cat which is being handed off from Dave to Adam. They will switch off on the boat during the day and crew with me when not piloting the A. Lake Pepin locals, John and Jane Peterson have their Hobie 18 out, and daughter Abby is cruising on her

Wave. John Henckel is there with his boys on their Hobie 16, Greg Martin and Ed Ford comes from Wisconsin and Iowa re-spectively to join the fleet.

It is a simple day, no real plan, just sail...we head south in a wind from the south west and spend the morning working out tacks, regaining that great feeling of lifting a hull out of the water and that sense of speed that comes with cat sailing.

We sail down to the south end of the lake (about 8 miles as the crow flies) where from past experience we know there is a nice sandy beach. As everyone gathers up we have a bite to eat and soak up the sun, letting it remind us that summer is coming and we have about three months ahead of sailing fun.

When it’s time to turn north, it’s time to

unleash the monster chute, and with Adam on board we deep reach back up the lake in upper single digit winds, with the occa-sional bigger puff. I get so little use out of this big sail, that it is always a joy to sail. Some of the swirling winds along the Min-nesota side of the lake presents a chal-lenge, but it is all good...no, it’s all a great start to the season.

We work our way back to Lake City, pack up the boats and crank up the fleet grill for dinner. And a chance to sit around and talk about how nice it was to be out on the wa-ter again, and all our plans for the 2010 season.

Such fine weather can either be an indica-tion of things to come, or could set up your expectation for a big let down...fortunately the 2010 season lived up to the promise of this first sail.

or some sailors and sailing fleets, it’s all about the “racing,” the thrill of a crowded starting line

and the scattering of boats as the gun sounds, the tactical decisions made and the leverage gained or lost on different legs...then the finish and the points gained or lost.

For me and many of us in Hobie Fleet 444, it is about well, the sailing. As much as I enjoy a windward - leeward race course, I enjoy being out on a reach that much more...and the thrill of just going as fast as you can for the conditions you are given.

Solo sailing provides a unique opportunity to lighten the boat and not worry about the crews perceptions when I make the numer-ous errors I encounter on a sailing outing. Having three free sailing (no race course) solo boats out in big wind on Lake Pepin in mid-June provided a classic day for just going fast and comparing three distinctly different boats.

The skippers and boats were Adam Boch, out with his recently acquired Boyer A-Cat for his first big wind sea trials, Karl Brog-ger on his hotrod F16 Viper for its one and only MN waters appearance, and I had the school bus, my beloved Hobie 18SX (without the chute for this outing).

The winds were probably a bit above “ideal,” for soloing, with the tops being blown off the short chop, but the direction could not have been much better for Lake Pepin, right down the length of the lake from the NNW at 15 – 20.

My expectations were high that between the three boats, my over-weight Hobie would be left behind these two true speed machines...Karl had been doing lots of serious training over the past several sea-sons and this new boat was a very slick...spankin’ new rocket; and the A-Cat, well, the thing only weights about 165 lbs...and Adam not much more than that...my Hobie weights in at well over 4 bills and with me surpassing 2 bills, I was by far the heavy weight in the bunch.

After everyone was rigged up we pushed off into a solid 15 and started our way up-wind. Each of us trapped out and working to find that edge...keeping the windward hull skimming the water...Adam was foot-ing off a bit and working to get a feel for his first venture on the A-Cat in this type of a breeze. Karl is slicing through the water with his inverse bows deep in the water, and I am enjoying the view trapped out off my wings...high and relatively dry.

For the first 6 or so miles up the length of the lake the chop was not a big issue, but as we rounded the final bend, leading up the northern end where the NNW wind gets funneled down through the bluffs, the wind is now 20+ and sea state has gotten a bit more confused and choppy. Adam has footed off toward Maiden Rock on the Wisconsin side and Karl and I are neck and neck bouncing upwind...Karl pointing a bit higher so making better headway.

That was fun, but now comes the sleigh

WWWW What a way to start...Spring Tune-up 2010

FFFF

Three Blind Mice...by Reb Blanchard

...Continued on page 18

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aving back-to-back days of sail-ing just doesn’t seem to happen much outside of regattas, but the

suggestion was made that the end of last season that we expand one of our fun sails into a two-day camping event. We had a lake big enough to support two plus days on the water and we had a campground (with a beach on said lake) which had been very hospitable toward Hobie Fleet 444 in our past regattas.

So plans were laid out, show up Friday evening, set up your boat and don’t take it down until Sunday evening...two nights of camping with friends at some very flexible “overflow” space the Hok-Si-La camp-ground made available to us.

The weekend came and so did the boats… Adam Bock on his Hobie 17, Carol Robertshaw with her mini-Scow, Stuart Weist came all the way from western MN (basically South Dakota) with his Hobie 16, the Petersons were around with their Hobie 18 and Wave, Jeff Siewert with daughter and friend arrived on Saturday with his 18, the Houghs were their with their Hobie 16, Linda, Kerry and Nicolas Castiglioni came out for a day on their Getaway, Joe and Carol Shea with their Getaway and four kids, and I was driving the school bus, my yellow Hobie 18SX with new crew, Edward, my year old yel-low Lab, out for his first boating and camping experience. Not every one camped or could stay the whole weekend,

but over the three days there was a steady stream of cats running about Lake Pepin.

Friday provided us with a nice breeze, enough to fly a hull, but nothing to over-power the boats and the Shea’s cruised about the Lake City area with kids scat-tered all over their boat...out on the wings, out on the front tramp.

My new crew immediately took to sail-ing...getting his sea legs took all of about 15 minutes and then he just lay down and dozed. When the wind picked up, so did his attention...he showed no discomfort as his world went floating by, even when it was tilted on an angle...he would stick his nose in the water on the low side, or hang

out with me on the high side.

Nights at Hok-Si-La were filled with a glowing campfire, great conversation and S’mores. The overflow site Joanne (campground Manager) had provided for us was away from everyone else, so the kids could be loud and the dog could make noise...but everyone was so well behaved you’d never have know we were a bunch of sailors.

Saturday’s lighter winds required a little shuffling of crew, so I took three of the Shea kids (Natalie, Thomas and Benja-min) who enjoyed Edward’s company, and we coasted around the lake looking for

puffs of wind to keep us going. The wings on the Hobie 18 make for a ton of extra space and create a bit of jungle gym and the kids climbed all over the boat. The only time Edward jumped over board was when all three Shea kids jumped off to swim ashore. It was a bit of a lazy after-noon and Edward demonstrated his retriev-ing skills with too-many-to-count throws of sticks into the water. Edward also spent some time on shore while I gave a few of the kids a bit trap time off my wings. Not enough breeze to fly a hull, but certainly enough to send them trapped off the low side to see if they could dip their heads in the water off-the-wire...they could. The day ended with a mad dash to get some of the departing boats up the boat ramp as storms came in. A bit of wind and a

threatening sky, but the rain (and that was light) held off until late in the evening.

Sunday broke with great winds coming right down the lake…just the way you want it on Lake Pepin, and I had new crew in Jared Neilsen, coordi-nator of the Leukemia Cup Regatta, who came out to get his first taste of cat sailing and I got to introduce him to dou-ble trapping conditions. So everyone is off and having a ball blasting upwind to Fronte-

nac State Park Beach, with its nice soft, sandy beach. We then work our way up to Maiden Rock on the Wisconsin side of the lake and then make our turn for a fast downwind reach back to Lake City.

But as all weekends must, this one too came to an end...It turned out to be a great idea to set up once and sail for three days on our home waters. We had a variety of conditions which allowed us to do a bit of everything on the water. The big bonus for me of this weekend was the contribution in entertainment that the kids and dog brought to the event...it is all new to them and no matter what was happening, they were having fun, enjoying what was there...something I will keep in mind next time the wind fades.

HHHH

Sailing with kids and dogs… The Lake Pepin Two-Day Fun Sail by Reb Blanchard

Reb, Edward and Thomas (on-the-wire) take a ride on the school bus, Hobie 18SX

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here continues to be a calling near the end of each summer to “head north…” to coast through clear,

cool waters, to bask in the late summer sun and the flicker of a campfire on the shores of Lake Superior. This keeps me coming back for Hobie Fleet 444 Apostle Islands Catamaran Rally.

The 2010 edition saw a few new faces, along with familiar favorites and a variety of winds to suit all tastes.

We (Adam Boch, Carol Robertshaw and I) arrive at the Buffalo Bay Campground and Marina at nearly the same time, 12:30, on a glorious, sunny Friday afternoon. Todd and Jill Bosch pulled Dora (Catalina 25) into their slip a little earlier, following a near picture perfect week of cruising around the Apostle Islands. The wind is short of the low-mid teens forecasted, so we take a few minutes to set up camp and then head down to the ramp and the beach to set up the boats.

A couple years ago we would sport a cou-ple Hobie 18’s along with a Hobie 17 or two, but Todd has enjoyed the slow life aboard his keel boat and this year we have shown up with Adam’s feather light A-Cat, my Hobie 14 and Carol on her mini-Scow. Nowhere in the instructions for Lake Supe-rior does it specify you need a big boat, so we will likely stay a bit closer to camp and let each skipper decide what limits they are comfortable pushing.

One nice thing about smaller boats, set-up is quick and in short order we are ready to head out...the plan is a clock-wise circum-navigation of Basswood Island.

Todd and Jill take along my wife Betsy for this outing and it is her type of sailing with her camera in one hand, and a glass of wine in the other. Carol makes an early departure off the beach and heads down-wind, north up the West Channel followed by the two cats. Unless it is blowing like stink, downwind on a Hobie 14 is anything but exciting, so steering with my feet and my chin on the front beam (occasionally closing my eyes) we head in the direction of Hermit and Stockton Islands.

As we near the top of Basswood and gather up to head over toward Madeline Island the wind starts to fill in a bit and Adam scoots out on the wire for a long reach with the windward hull just out of the water. The run around the backside of Basswood provides just enough of a breeze to allow me to get out on the wire of the 14 (which is actually saying something) and we round the south end of Basswood to meet up with Carol, who stayed in the West Channel. The marina is well pro-tected in this breeze, so we muddle in through contradictory puffs and pull up onto the campgrounds nice sandy beach. A nice start to the weekend ends with a campfire and various campfire foods and drinks along with the arrival of our newest participants, Mike and Linda Menninga with their Hobie Getaway.

A windy night (a good sign) opens to a beautiful, sunny morning with campfire coffee and accurately forecasted condi-tions...15-20 out of the SW. Typically we will head to weather on these outings, pro-viding a sleigh ride, or at least a down hill run at the end of the day...today, this has us heading to Le Point on the south end of Madeline Island. A few extra hands make light work of getting the Getaway on the water and by about 10:30 we are pushing off. With this wind direction, we do not really get a sense of it’s strength until we are out near Basswood, and for those will-ing to pound the building chop, it will offer

an energetic day.

For her, Carol decides the ferry over to Madeline from Bayfield is a better bet (the mini-Scow quickly fills with water flood-ing over its low bow, and you can only bail for so long.. The Menningas decide to stay north and enjoy reaching back and forth between Red Cliff and Madeline. So Adam’s A, Todd and Jill in their leaner with two reefs and their 110 genoa, and my Hobie 14 head south into what we later find is 20-25 with reported gusts into the mid 30’s.

Now being well over “optimal” weight for a Hobie 14, my opportunities to trapeze are typically limited to puffs that I can snag, before they fade and dump me in the wa-ter...but here, with the wind coming straight up Chequamegon Bay into the islands (a clear 20 + mile fetch of uninter-rupted breeze) is a chance to get out for a slightly more extended run, and with the bumps being tossed up by this breeze, out on the wire is where you wanted to be. So with the traveler a few inches off center and the sheet tight I start with a run out toward Madeline Island...about 4 miles. A tack to starboard takes me about 6 more

♫ “The Girls on the Beach” ♫ Betsy, Carol and Jill on the shore of Lake Supe-rior’s Apostle Islands.

Adam stretches out his legs in between Madeline and Basswood Islands

TTTT 12 Miles On-The-Wire... by Reb Blanchard

...Continued on page 5

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miles...past the ferries running back and forth between Bayfield and La Point on Madeline, and then tacking back toward the beach which is our objective on the south side of Madeline, another 2 miles or so...all of this hopping off one wave into the next, receiving a few hoots, hollers and thumbs-up as I bounce my way past the big keel boats with several reefs tucked in and reduced jibs.

In a number if instances the boat noses into a wave, up past the front beam, but hang-ing off the back corner of boat, it really never threatens a pitchpole until I bear off and start surfing the waves into the beach on Madeline...when a swell picks up the sterns and accelerates me down into the trough between waves.. So I reach back and forth a bit heading downwind and with the wind right at my back I surf the 14 right up onto the soft, sandy beach of the town park. Adam has been screaming around me on

the way upwind, far out pacing me on his 18 ft, 165 lb. boat. He doesn’t surf if up on the beach, but with four hands to keep it from taking off on its own, we carry it up on the beach an promptly take down sails to wait for Todd and Jill to arrive.

They are fortunate that there is a transient slip in the marina just up the road, since a

hook holding in the now 25+ and big bouncy waves would be very question-able. Carol also arrives from the ferry, having watched Adam and me making our way over, and we are all off to soak up the northwoods Parrothead atmosphere that is Tom’s Burnt Down Bar.

We take a table up on a raised platform, which we later find is actually on top of a car and in short order are enjoying a round of rum punches. Pictures don’t really do Tom’s jus-tice...yes, rustic and casual

and appropriate, but it is counter culture, irreverent and just a plain fun place to hang out. You could spend several hours wandering around to read all the placards posted about the place…”You gotta be tough, if your gonna be stupid.”

Upon our departure from Tom’s, one les-son was learned...if you sailed a cat over, limit yourself to one rum punch.

We sail back on a fading breeze; Adam takes a few gybes on his A-Cat, but the 14

heads straight down wind for about 6 miles and then a slight reach into the camp-ground beach...not a tack or gybe required. A Mike’s Limeade waiting for me on the beach leads into a delightful evening; eve-ryone cooks up their favorites over the fire or the grill or camp stove, and we relax around the campfire chatting about the day and other topics...watching satellites make their way across the dark northern night.

Sunday’s forecast of stiff breezes out of the south (right in the teeth of Todd and Jill’s course home) have Dora pushing off early to get back to Ashland to wrap up their vacation week. As we watch them beating out toward Basswood and Made-line the rest of us finish off breakfast and start packing up the campground and pre-pare to head out to enjoy a couple more hours under sail.

Unfortunately by the time we get out the breeze has faded...there is still enough to move the boats around (the A-Cat in par-ticular), but it is less than exciting com-pared to the previous day’s rodeo.

By 1PM we are packed up and hitting the road, and I am relishing in the memories of some of the best Hobie 14 sailing I have ever experienced. No, we didn’t cover any huge distances like we have in past years...in fact we only landed on one of the islands, but the time on the water was chal-lenging and the time around the campfire with sailing friends was enjoyable. That is what it is all about.

So I will say it once again...I’ll be back to the Apostle Islands next year.

12 Miles On-The-Wire… (cont)

NOTHING beats a rum punch at Tom’s… Reb, Carol, Todd and Adam

2011 Event Schedule It is far from carved in stone, but the Ho-bie Fleet 444 event calendar for the 2011 sailing season is already coming together.

For 2011 we are bringing back a few events from past seasons...The Apostle Islands Catamaran Rally, The Spring Tune-Up and LLR 40 (Mid-west Distance

racing at it’s best). Check out the (very tentative) 2011 calendar on page 19.

We are also open to new ideas and venues. Got a favorite sailing spot you’d like to share or an event idea you think would be fun...let us know.

Come early spring we will post the final-ized events calendar on the website.

Best way to reach us is through e-mail:

info@fleet444.com

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n addition to our very generous fleet sponsors, we have been very fortu-nate to have support of our Hobie

Fleet 444 Regatta from a number of door prize sponsors.

New to the list this year was 3M Marine, who provided “goodie bags” with a variety of very useful products for folks to try out. Sponges, waxes and hull cleaners...all stuff we can make good use of. (www.3M.com)

Murray’s Marine (www.Murrays.com) has a great selection of cat stuff in their online catalog and has been with us since our first regatta 4 years ago. They pro-vided a catamaran tramp bag...which any one of us can find a place for.

Annapolis Performance Sailing - APS has a catalog filled with lots of cool sail-ing stuff to drool over, and they have supported us the past couple years with gift certificates for their site (www.APS.com).

Salty Dog Marine (www.saltydogmarine) discontinued their classic “Shackle Dog...” which I

guess makes mine a collectors item...but this year sent us a supply of safety whistles and a rigging knife.

Finally, Hobie Cat (www.Hobiecat.com) once again provide us with a box full of great catamaran odds and ends, from hats, cups and t-shirts, to sail bags, rudder cov-ers and even a harness.

Besides people just enjoying getting cool (free) sailing stuff, the support of the door prize sponsors allows Hobie Fleet 444 to

ensure that every participant in our regatta, no matter how they placed or what sailing conditions showed up, to walk away from the event with something in their hands.

We truly appreciate the support of these businesses and look forward to being able to show case their products and services at future events.

Please keep them in mind when you are getting your cat parts.

y introduction to Hobie sailing at last year’s Apostle Islands rally left me stunned (literally) by the

suddenness with which these multi-hull wonders can accelerate, (not to mention de-accelerate), when I also experienced my first “around the world” tour, Hobie style. Crewing for Reb Blanchard on his Hobie 18 was both thrilling and unforgettable, but it also gave me a deep seated respect for these finicky “cats” and their nautical “tamers.” Let’s face it, catamarans aren’t for sissies, and I, for one, am a sissy.

That all changed, however, at this year’s Apostle Island rally. As in previous year’s, I brought one of my little mono-hulls, since I don’t own a Hobie. Neither my 14’ laser, nor my 12’ mini-scow (both very fast boats for their size) can keep pace with a Hobie, so I rarely venture beyond

the reaches of Basswood and Hermit Is-lands. This year’s 15-25 mph winds kept me and my mini-scow confined to the west channel of off Basswood, nearly swamped with every wave, while Reb and the others circled Basswood on Friday and “flew” down to La Pointe (Madeline Island) Sat-urday on their Hobies.

Sunday offered lighter winds (5-10 mph), and Reb, sailing his Hobie 14 this year, offered to trade boats with me. The sissy in me demurred, but the lighter winds and diminutive size his Hobie conquered my fears. Needless to say, I got the better end of the deal. While Reb bailed his way through the waves in my soggy mini-scow, I skimmed and danced his Hobie 14 across the water, and even learned the se-cret to tacking a catamaran. Now, I

really am a convert and seriously consider-ing buying myself a Hobie!

Edging closer to the dark side...Fleet 444 Mem-ber Carol Robertshaw joins us from St Paul, MN

IIII Everyone’s a Winner...Door prize Sponsors

MMMM The Better End of the Deal by Carol Robertshaw

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Located just North of the Twin Cities, Aquarius Sail has been serv-

ing the catamaran sailing community for over 30 years. In addi-tion to building the ARC & RC catamarans, Aquarius Sail pro-vides quality parts & service including sail repair, wire/rope rigging and fiberglass/carbon fiber repair. For more information please visit www.aquarius-sail.com/ or call us at 651-462-SAIL and let us know how we can help you!

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Rick’s Adventure Sailing - From getting the mast up to getting your speed up, learn how to do it right. Trouble tacking or trouble getting around the race course? Coaching from experts with years of sailing all flavors of catamarans from Hobie 14s to 30 foot Stiletto rockets. Teach Sailing can help! Custom pro-grams or 4 hour "learn to get off the beach" lessons for $100. E-mail us at teachsailing@msn.com. Your boat or ours. Minneapolis city lakes or your favorite spot. www.teachsailing.net

Hi Tempo Sailing Center is the Midwest’s largest Ho-bie Cat catamaran and Vanguard sailboat dealer. Lo-cated in the northeast corner of the Minneapolis and St

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carries the most popular small sailboats from the lead-ers in sailing. We carry the classic monohulls like the Vanguard Sunfish and Laser as well as the world fa-mous beach boats from Hobie Cat; the Hobie Bravo, Hobie Wave, Hobie Getaway and Hobie 16. www.hitempo.com

Hobie Fleet 444 sponsors allow us to maintain our website, publish our Newsletters and sup-port our events. If you need boat parts or boat repairs, sailing instruction, custom cabinetry, or the fun of flight simulations...we ask that you look to our sponsors first...and tell them you’re with Hobie Fleet 444.

Thanks to our Fleet sponsors for 2010!

Membership Dues...supporting the cause... Do you need to pay Hobie Fleet 444 mem-bership dues to come sail with us? No, any cat sailor is encouraged to come out and join us...that’s the idea.

Is your support of Hobie Fleet 444 impor-tant...yes.

Along with the generous support of our sponsors, membership dues allow us to support our website, print and mail news-letters, provide the extras at our fun sails and bring a little additional fun to our re-gattas.

Your annual membership dues of $25 are

an important part of allowing Hobie Fleet 444 to support its mission of sharing the fun and excitement of catamaran sailing with existing cat sailors, converts from other sailing groups and new sailors.

Please help us by submitting your 2011 Membership Application (page 19).

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2010 Racing Opportunities

y experience with regattas is really pretty limited, after get-ting back into sailing while liv-ing in Massachusetts about 10

years ago, I raced in my first Hobie event down on Clear Lake, IA in 2002. Since then I have participated at most of the Di-vision 7 venues and with CRAW a few times…I even took part in Hobie 14 Na-tionals down a Clear Lake a few years back. Most of the time I finish in the latter half of whatever pack there might be...although there have been a few in-stance (typically through simple attrition) where I have shown a bit better.

Besides the actual sailing (the primary reason I go to regattas) I have become in-creasingly interested in how different fleets run their events, and as Fleet 444 has con-tinued to “refine” our regatta, I look for ideas which we can incorporate into our event.

So when my work schedule this summer putting me out in lovely Perris, CA for a month, I had the chance to participate in a couple west coast regattas (San Diego Classic and an event at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach)…”participate” in both cases was helping on chase boats, setting/moving marks and assisting in any other way I could.

What I found was that these two events, in what I would consider the cradle of Hobie sailing, is that they were very similar to our mid-west racing… You had a mix of boats...brand new Hobie WildCats along with old beat up Hobie 16’s and 18’s...you had a mix of sailors from hot shot skippers who cross the country to participate in events to those who might sail only in their local regattas, and you have a challenge of bringing enough boats to keep some classes filled.

Having a “yacht club’s” resources is a

huge benefit when putting on a regatta. The ABYC was able to provide a very impressive RC boat and five chase boats for an event with about 18 participants. The San Diego Classic was at a park south of San Diego’s industrial waterfront, with the B course I was working set right off-shore.

Both events did a nice job of organizing things...primarily driven by a group of volunteers who had the passion to pull together the regatta…and in chatting with organizers, they have struggled with main-taining boat counts in recent years as have the mid-west fleets.

Bottom-line...you had the same Hobie ca-maraderie which makes these events a pleasure to be part of….whether you are on the Pacific Coast or on a lake in the middle of the prairie

irst a disclaimer, as my results this year indicate I am not the top World, North American, Division

7 Hobie Sailor (in fact, arguably not even the best of the sailor in my family). The tips I have gotten and been practicing over the summer come from talking to (one of the benefits of interviewing top sailors for the Hotline) and observing some of the Top Guns.

One skill I have learned that has improved my tacking from the wire immensely is while in the process of tacking I hold the tiller and the sheet in my tiller hand with an over hand grip. This has a two fold benefit, when pushing the tiller to tack i also raise my tiller hand upwards. What this does is allows you to keep good sheet tension on the main sheet right until you get head to wind. The other benefit is it frees up your old sheet hand which allows you to grab the trap handle and stay out on

the wire allowing you to roll tack the boat more efficiently.

The other area where I have been concen-trating on is my down wind speed. Having sailed in the North Americans the last cou-ple of years I have found my starts and upwind speed was very comparable to the top guys, it was down wind where I was losing places. Watching (on video) and talking with Tim Shuwalow (European and Australian Champion) I found him to be very active with the main and jib sheet. He is constantly working it giving it hard pumps when surfing down a wave or when there is a increase in wind velocity. I find if you can time the pumps right and co-ordinate it with your crew the boat squirts ahead nicely. It takes practice and feel be-cause if you are getting it wrong it will just slow you down.

Also I have been attempting a new gybing

technique (Gavin Colby uses) where like gybing a Laser you face forward the whole way. This is still very much a work in pro-gress but again the benefits are obvious. The old way facing backwards with my arse in the air very much restricts your view of what is happening up front. Like I said this one still needs a lot of practice before I will attempt it under racing condi-tions. Hopefully some of this helps or at best gives you some good conversation over the camp fire.

Feel free to contact me at the-madges@shaw.ca and I can go into further detail on this or any other go fast ideas people have.

Hobie Fleet 444 member Mike Madge joins us from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Can-ada where he splits his time between his Laser and his Hobie 16. Mike also con-tributes to Hobie’s HOTLINE publication.

FFFF

MMMM

West Coast Regattas...by Reb Blanchard

Shop Talk...with Mike Madge

9

What if...What if...What if...What if... By RICK WHITE

You are getting ready for start. What is there to do?

Rick White is recognized as one of the most respected sailors and instructors in the sport of catamaran racing. Through Catamaran Racing for the 90’s, his “Catamaran Sailor Magazine” (8 issues for $20; http://catsailor.com/cs_order.html) and Rick White’s Sailing Seminars, Rick has improved several generations of sailors.

Most sailors just bob around and watch the

folks on the RC Boat in most cases. And in most cases they are guaranteeing themselves a bad start. At least, not a good one. A good starter will thoroughly know the starting line inside and out, backward and forward before the start even begins. In my Rick White’s Sailing Seminars and in our vid-eos on Great Starts and Finishes, I have sailors do homework for each and every start. The homework assignment is to know the following:

1) The favored end of the line (v. favored side of the course) 2) Time the line (knowledge of the length of the line) 3) Get a transit (know where the line actually is) 4) Check for current

No matter what, you must do that homework. Without it, you will never be a good starter. And I must also warn you, you may not use all of the homework you did. You may not use any of the homework you did. On the other hand, you may use all of the homework. Sort of reminds of when I was in school. If I had homework to do and didn’t do it, sure enough the teacher asked for it to be handed in. But, when I did the homework, the teacher never really asked for it. For you to get consistently good starts, you must do your homework and be prepared to hand it in.

Perhaps because you knew the favored end and started there, you would already have a head start over the com-petition. Even though you did not utilize the rest of your homework, one of them paid off.

Basic Tactics

10

LLR 39...Spectacular by Todd Bosch Spectacular! That sums up this year’s Leech Lake Regatta pretty well. This year’s event was worthy of many superla-tives. Racing conditions were extreme, catamaran participation was fantastic and the lake-side camping facilities were abso-lutely incredible!

The cats showed up in bigger numbers this year. A big catamaran turn out was not unusual during the early years of this event so it was great to see the increase in par-ticipation this year. We had 11 catama-rans, 3 trimarans and a laser show up for a 15 boat fleet! There were 5 Hobie 16s, enough to have their own division.

All 3 days of racing saw wind speeds in the upper teens and into the 20’s with gusts measured over 30. Let me tell you, those gusts felt like they were 100 when you were trying to gybe! Many of the boats in our fleet had a least one capsize, many of which were spectacular! Reb and I can tell you, for instance, that the narrows are

about 8 feet deep and the bottom is com-posed of silt, mud and short grassy vegeta-tion. The Kirkham’s can tell you that it isn’t very deep by the mark at the north end of the bay. And according to Annette and the Madges, it is plenty deep over by the eastern shore of the bay.

About half of our fleet participated in every race and the other half had more common sense… Fortunately there were good spots on shore for spectators and the town of Walker had a festival at the City Beach, which also had a view of the ac-tion.

Hobie Fleet 444 represented itself very well at this event. We had enough boats for 2 divisions and competed well enough to take home the coveted Shores of Leech Lake Cup. The cup recognizes the sailing club that had the best overall combination of participation and individual perform-ance. It is a real honor for Fleet 444 to have our name engraved on the cup.

The hospitality and accommodations were a big part of the success for this event. A big thank you goes to the Shores of Leech Lake and to Mitch and his folks for letting us take over their back yard for the week-end. It was truly appreciated! They could not have been more welcoming.

The word has gotten out and this is an event that is not to be missed!

The Shores of Leech Lake Cup goes to Hobie Fleet 444

Fleet 444 Webmaster Todd Bosch is from St. Paul, MN and a former Hobie 16 and 18 owner who now spends his time on his Catalina 25 (leaner).

Award winners in the multihull division...lots of flags

A backyard full of cats...and campers...

11

Leech Lake Regatta - LLR39

12

LLR39 in Pictures

13

t was a dark and stormy night....Well ,not really, the weather was beautiful all weekend

but that is the name of a new rum drink I learned to mix last weekend.

I'm standing in the Skipper's meeting and it's beginning to pick up from 10 to 15 plus mph winds. My plan was to single-hand my Hobie-16 for my first full regatta but I didn't count on heavy weather. Then like on cue a guy I don't know walks up and asks me if I'm looking for crew, that this guy was going to crew on a big scow but the guy who was sick is now sailing so this guy doesn't have a ride. I say nonchalantly sure no problem but inside I'm thanking my lucky stars, Poseidon, the big Guy upstairs etc. My goals were to fin-ish, not blow any tacks, and keep the long pointy side up. No way I was going to accomplish these with these conditions sailing solo.

Turns out this guy owns a Capri-22, races all the time and hasn't been on a multi-hull for 20 years. He's just itchin' to get sailing. I guess these things just happen at regattas-lucky for me someone was looking to crew. Yee-Ha I say and we're off.

We get out there, now it's 20-25mph and big waves bashing the hull, we blow our first tack. OK though we're just practicing pre-race nothing lost yet, then I think jeeesh I'll have to jibe sometime today, I started getting queasy thinking about that.

We hammer the start, in front of two big Scows (boats the size of school buses with a lot of unruly kids aboard) and are doing great. Windward mark, jibe no problem, two and a half times around and we are going to smoke the other Hobie-16 when....we blow a tack right before finish. Lesson learned: point higher than you think you need if you want to finish the last run on one tack.

My crew, Jim, is an excellent tactician and I learn a ton about weight distribution,

picking your spots, the favorable parts of a race course, acceleration out of turns etc. Now if I can just remember half that stuff.

Second race we struggle just to keep her upright but finish well ahead of Hobie #2, probably due in part to them unintention-

ally washing off their mast and sails in the lake. Third race cancelled-winds too strong!

That night the LLS folks had a silent auc-tion and a Hawaiian themed luau with ca-tered pulled pork and fixin's-included in your entry fee. Quite the great idea for all of us famished sailors-no need to dress up and find a restaurant-just show up as you are. The dinghy-turned bar was a nice touch. There were some great prizes to bid on-unfortunately I lost out on the unlimited Swedish massage but did get a nice gift certificate to Annapolis performance sail-ing.

Day 2 conditions sweet-15mph steady and I probably had as much fun on that boat as I have since I bought her. We finish with a

good time, and at the awards ceremony I hear the group overall raised about $75,000.00 for leukemia research. Wow, what a great weekend. Did I mention I had multiple offers to stay for free all weekend rather than sleep in some boring motel, and that I blew 2 shackles and a pin and got replacement parts on the beach within min-

utes? Catsailors are indeed a great bunch of folks, and I'm looking forward to the next time we all sail together.

RECIPE FOR DARK AND STORMY NIGHT:

1 tall glass fill with ice

Fill 3/4 full of quality ginger ale Slowly pour 2 shots dark rum over ice (the dark/stormy part)

Spritz of lime juice

IIII The Regatta, A Beginner’s Perspective by Ed Ford

This beach hosted a 60 cat regatta back in the late 1970’s...this year, 4 cats...here are 3

Hobie Fleet 444 member Ed Ford nor-mally sails his Hobie 16 in Madison, WI, but treks over to MN to mix drinks with Fleet 444.

14

s my catsailing season winds down, my thoughts turn towards a brief fling with sailing in the dirt.

Some of the boys gather annually in Octo-ber on the shores of the dry lake bed of the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon, to play on the playa. It's a 12 hour drive for me, south from Spokane, across the Great Plateau, to the very empty country just east of the magnificent Steens Mountains. I'm loaded up with two land yachts, camping gear, and enough food and libation for a week in the sun.

Approaching the lakebed from the north, I'm distressed to identify drops of water on my windsheild. "Hey, this is a DESERT! It's FALL! It's not supposed to rain!" Sure, there was a prediction for 20 to 40 percent chance of rain for Sunday and Monday, but it's been sunny and 80 all week here, and gonna be that again come Tuesday, so say the weather gurus. Hell, any rain'll probably never hit the ground! Well, no need to panic. I find Burt and a Manta sailor camped on the edge of the playa late in the afternoon, they're rigged and having a ball. I throw together the little boat, and join 'em, getting in a great 2 hr session til the sun sets.

I roll into camp to see the smiling face of my sailing buddy Dave, from San Fran-cisco, who's heard rumours of fun with wind on land, and has come to check it out. We met years ago on a 70' catamaran in Puerto Vallarta, and shared an adventure aboard Flight Risk before she came into my posession. He sails on SF Bay, and I've been trying to scam a ride with him ever since. We throw together a meal, get caught up, and retire to dream of wind. The day dawns grey and windless, so we brew up a casual breakfast, assemble Johnny's Rocket( the big boat) and eventu-ally put Dave in the Fed 5 for a 30 second ride in dying air. He's pushing it back to camp as the first drops descend. An hour later it's clear that there's not gonna be any sailing anytime soon, so he makes the call to try again another time. And a good call it is! Another hour goes by and Burt and I decide it's time to bail.

Let me tell you about a dry lake bed. This is a terminal lake, the lowest point in a 4000' mountain valley with no outlet. All the water in the drainage ends up here, and stays til it evaporates. It's this phenomena that produces this nearly dead flat surface that we landsailers require. When it's dry, it's a hard clay surface that cracks up like a giant jig saw puzzle. When it gets wet, it first gets unbelievably slick, then paradoxi-cally, incredibly sticky. So when it rains, you've got to make a decision as to when to exit. If it stops within a few hours, and you can stay off it, it drys out and all is well. But if you wait to long and try to drive off the playa, the clay cakes to the tires enough to eventually fill the wheel wells and bring you to a horribly messy halt, requiring serious , time consuming drying before anyone can get to you.

So, throw all the muddy gear in the back of the van, drag the the boats and trailer up into the sage, and gingerly creep off the lake floor. By now it's been raining hard for several hours, we're soaked and 4" taller with the mud sticking to the bottoms of our boots, as we drag the pieces of Burt's boat up to his rig. He's had his fun, so he decides to motor on home. I retire to drier clothes, and a book in the back of the van. It's still raining hard nine hours later. But rain's not so bad with a good hat, a few beers, and a hot springs. And the Alvord graciously offers two from which to choose. Sufficiently cooked, I spend a fitfull night listening to the rain drumming on the roof of the van, and pondering how I was ever gonna get my gear off the playa.

Morning arrives cool, windy, and blessedly rain free. Cresting the hill on the way back, what comes into view is not a dry lake bed, but a LAKE! Maybe only a 2" deep lake, but certainly not a sailable sur-face for these machines. So, how long does it take to dry out? I've got no experi-ence with this, and the guys from Montana and Oregon who might know, haven't shown yet. If they will at all. Maybe they've heard.......

Well, looks like a good time to evaluate my expectations. I'm on vacation in a beautiful high desert valley, it's not raining

anymore, the hiking's great, I've brought a small library and a guitar. Hanging here sounds better than going home to work. So I park the van, drag all the wet stuff out and spread it out over a multitude of sage bushes, and bag the nearest peak.

Dale shows up later that afternoon, first of the Montana contingent. It's still blowing 15 kts, and amazingly, the water is reced-ing. Phil rolls in from Portland shortly thereafter, followed by Lance and Domi-nique. We gather in Phil's motorhome for an evening repast, discuss our chances, and turn in.

It blows all night, and the sun pops up over the eastern ridge. Dale scurries down to the playa and rigs furiously, and gets a 20 minute ride on the expanding apron, before the wind vaporizes and the temperature starts to climb. Pat and Keith arrive, and soon we're all on the playa riggin' and prayin'. The wind never shows, but we all get tuned up, and the playa continues to dry.

Until evening. It starts raining again, not as hard yet. But here we are on the playa again, facing the decision as to whether to pack it all up and get to higher ground, or hope it shuts off before too long. We've got time to prepare a bit before dark, but I can't fit all this junk in the van if I wanna use it for a tent. So we commit to staying, and I spend another restless night periodi-cally peering out the door with my head-lamp, assessing the depth of the water on the lakebed. It eventually shuts off after midnight, and by morning we can at least walk around without heels. Thursday's the day! It's not a lot, maybe 5 to 8 kts, 10 kt puffs if we're lucky. But these machines are amazing! Once they're rolling, they build quickly build apparent wind, and we were seeing boatspeeds in the 30s and 40s. With skill, one can keep them rolling thru the lulls. Without it (like me!), it's easy to grind to an ignominious halt. The boys set out marks, and we spend a fair amount of the day chasing each other upwind and down. Wind is on and off, and we're like lab rats, as long as we get a good ride every once and a while,

AAAA

The Off-Season with Davie Farmer: Mud and Guts ( or Mud Wrestling on the Playa)

15

A Season to Remember...( or What you do with Lots of Boats) By Dave Farmer

I guess the season's finally come to a close. I'm driving away from Flathead Lake on a sunny, breezy October after-noon, after putting away a couple of cats, and closing up the cabin. Hard to leave with a sailable day left on the table, seems I prefer to finish off the year by breaking down the last boats in miserable weather so that I don't feel like I've quit too soon. But so be it, I've now a lovely drive home through the mountains, and time to ponder another fine sailing season.

2010 began for me with a boat project to fuel my dreaming. The F16 Stealth had a hard introductory season last year, leaving me with a few repairs to get her back in shape. So a good number of winter eve-nings and weekends were spent in the shop with the woodstove fired up, and the ep-oxy a-mixing. The boat came to me with the tramp pulling out of it's molded in C channel, a daggerboard dropped too deep into it's well mid-season, and tore things up pretty well. And late in the summer I ripped one of the rudder gudgeons off the transom, requiring some serious surgery to remedy. So I had lots of pleasant two or three hour sessions of sanding, glassing and fairing. And the bonus to all this labor was a snazzy new paint job (High Voltage) to cover all the repair work. Next, I readied the F18HT for launching, and got her wet in early April. She's spent the last 2 seasons on Lake Coeur d' Alene in northern ID, a half hour east of Spo-kane, but this year I put her on Lake Spo-

kane, 5 minutes from my home. Which worked out well this year, as spring was quite cool and wet, and even though I got the F16 over to Flathead quite early, the weather was generally more favorable here than there. So I stayed home most spring weekends, and got in short sessions be-tween the fronts passing through. The F18 is an 18 foot, two person race boat with a ridiculously long carbon mast, huge mainsail (no jib), and snuffer launched spinnaker. Very fine bows and lots of sail area add up to a boat that pow-ers up in very light air, 6 to 8 knots of wind has me flying a hull when sailing solo, and in 10 kts I'm on the wire. Which is just dandy, since Spokane is a predomi-nantly light air venue, and with the boat near me in Tum Tum I can't scare up crew as often as I could in Idaho. So I got lots of giggles early in the season close to home.

I did spend a windless sunny morning practicing my self righting skills with Ho-

biegary's famous SoloRight righting aid. It initially wasn't quite long enough for my 160 lbs to pull that 33' mast and sail out of the water, but I added 18" to it, and it worked effortlessly thereafter. Great peace of mind to know that I can self rescue whenever needed, for the days big enough to get me in trouble are the ones that scare most other boaters off the lake!

A bit of adventure was encountered in mid April, when I hitched up the newly beauti-fied High Voltage up to the del Sol and headed off for Montana. It was a beautiful sunny morning as I motored out of the Spokane Valley and into the mountains of northern Idaho. I headed up the Coeur d' Alene River drainage, and started ascend-ing Thompson Pass, oblivious to the fact that it had rained the previous night. Yeah, rained in Spokane, but as I approached the 5000' summit, I started to notice snow in the trees. And on the road. And here I am, towing a boat up a pass with big wide street tires that DO NOT like snow! As the ruts from the previous rigs get smaller and smaller, my speed decreases ever so steadily, and my apprehension increases proportionally. I know that if I run out of traction, I'll be able to stop with brakes on all 4 wheels, but starting again on the in-cline just won't happen. And the prospect of backing down a twisting, snowy moun-tain road with a trailer, is not my idea of a good time! But we crest the pass before we run out of forward motion, and disaster is held at bay another day. Come Memorial Day, Adam of Hobie Fleet 444 in Minneapolis, flies me into the cities so he can test drive the A cat to de-termine if he wants to be its next owner. We spend a morning extracting her from a garage in Deephaven, and drag her to Lake Pepin the following day to attend one of the fleet's early season events. It's a glori-ous day, with sunshine and enough wind to power up all the cats, and we blast down-river and up all day long, and finish grill-ing in the park. At the end of the weekend, I fly home, and the Boyer passes to Adam, with the caveat that he has to lend it back

...Continued on page 17

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New Guy’s Corner… Evolution of a Gear Head...by Adam Bock In 2008, I made my first appearance at a Fleet 444 event on a chilly spring day. My friend Mike and I showed up wearing what was, at that point, my idea of standard sail-ing gear: shorts and a cotton sweatshirt. In relatively short order, we had icicles form-ing on all extremities. Well, it felt like that anyway. I soon realized that I was going to make some sailing gear manufacturers really happy. I wouldn’t freeze my butt off again.

First I got spray pants and a spray jacket (from REI, I believe). These have cuffs at the arms/legs that can be closed via Velcro fasteners. The jacket also has a neck cuff – also Velcro. This simple layer made a tre-

mendous difference and, while it didn’t mean I was en-tirely dry, I was close to it. Initially I’d wear a regular T

shirt underneath but I eventually stated wearing a quick dry running shirt (ie. Un-der Armor). If I needed another layer, I’d put a fleece shirt over the running shirt (and under the spray jacket). Nice and toasty. Under the spray pants, I wear a standard bathing suit – in my case a thong. (J) . I’ve found that this gear gets me through most sailing days. If I get too hot, I can peel the spray top off.

For particularly cold days I invested in two wet suits: a regular and a shorty. But I grew to dislike the feeling of wearing a wet boa constrictor. More than my dislike of the constant squeezing feeling, I didn’t like feeling constantly wet. Even with the spray jacket/pants on over the wetsuit, water would inevitably make its way past the cuffs and to my core. This would oc-cur, in particular, when I was pushing off from a beach standing in water – the cuffs just couldn’t keep the water out.

Enter dry suit. A dry suit has the advantage of being similar to a spray suit but elimi-

nating the gap at the waist and also the gap at the ankles (there are waterproof booties that are continuously attached to the legs of the suit). When you wade out into three feet of water, you have a funny feeling of sensing the water pressure around you – but not the wetness. Exactly what I wanted. But this isn’t to say that there aren’t any trade offs.

First of all: there is a cuff around your neck. When I first tried on some dry suits at REI, I tried suits with a latex neck cuff. The neck cuffs were so tight that I thought I might black out in the fitting room. I later learned that after you buy a suit with a latex neck, you have to adjust the fit: either by trimming some latex off of the cuff (increasing the diameter of the opening) or by stretching the neck cuff over a pot for a few days. Fortunately, I came across what was, for me, a better option: a neoprene neck cuff. While this isn’t quite as water tight as the latex cuff, it is reasonably good and doesn’t have the latex feeling.

Another limita-tion of dry suits I’ve dis-covered: they’re not com-pletely dry (or mine isn’t). They’re mostly dry. I will get some mild wetness that maybe coming in from the main zipper that crosses the chest or perhaps from the neck cuff. I also found that water will pool in the base of the booties: this may be coming from slowly leaking seams at the booties (?). The bootie leak became my main ob-session and, to solve for it, I recently bought some Sealskinz waterproof socks. Haven’t tried sailing with them yet but they come up to mid shin and felt rela-tively comfortable when I tried them on.

A few last thoughts on dry suits: there are expensive ($300-900); once you get one

on, you want to get out on the water very soon: otherwise you bake. And, you can’t really take them off mid-sail: you’re kind of stuck with it for the day. Finally, you kind of look like you’re dressed to go to a Star Trek convention: 1970’s alien fashion. Nonetheless, I love my dry suit and wear it even when there is a slight chance of get-ting chilled.

A few other items I love: Tizo3 sunscreen. This is a tan colored titanium dioxide sun-screen. Its main advantage in my view is that it doesn’t seem to wash off as easily as most sunscreens. Its main disadvantage is cost: but a little goes a long way. I just use it on my face since, as I’ve mentioned, the rest of my body is generally covered. Now I look not just like a trekkie but an artifi-cially tanned trekkie.

I’m also happy that I bought sailing boots instead of just aqua socks: the boots do a better job of keeping sand out. I love the gloves I use now: only the tip of my thumbs and index fingers are exposed. Full finger for the rest of the hand. A lot fewer little cuts. I’m paranoid about safety and have a special trap harness with a quick release button on the hook of the harness so that if I’m stuck underwater and the harness hook is attached to something, I can simply pop the hook off. I carry a knife attached to my life jacket so that I can quickly cut any lines that could be holding me under. I have a Personal Loca-tor Beacon that fits in my life jacket pocket that I can activate if I’m stranded out in the middle of some body of water and need help: it sends a signal to a satellite with my GPS position and the satellite contacts local authorities. I also carry my cell phone inside my life jacket in a little water proof pouch. If I get separated from my boat and appear headed for death, I can at least call my family and wish them farewell (or, alternately call 911). In all likelihood, as part of cosmic irony, I’ll end up drowning because I was carrying too much safety equipment: but, hey, if you’re gonna die, might as well be do to too much gear!

2008

2009

Resident “new guy” Adam Bock comes to us from Edina, MN, sails a Hobie Bravo, a Hobie 17 and a Boyer A-Cat.

17

What you do with Lots of Boats (cont.)

to me one week of the summer when I'm in town visiting family, and desperate to sail on at least one of those 10,000 lakes those Minnesotans are so justly proud of!

June 1st is when Flathead Lake comes up to full pool, which is what Flight Risk is

waiting for! Season on! She goes in, and I move into the lovely routine of leaving work in Spokane on Thursday afternoons, early enough to arrive in Rollins in time to slide her in, rig, and get in an hour or two sail til dusk. Bed, then up by 7 to take her out to the main lake where it blows 10 to 15 nearly every morning. Sail (and surf!) the big lake til it shuts off around 10 or 11, and motor back for a leisurely breakfast. Climb the hill with binos, and scan for wind. Maybe it's come up out of the southwest, or maybe it's just out of the east in Dayton Bay. Jump in the car, and in 10 minutes I'm rigging the Stealth. So here I am with another fine light air machine! High Voltage is designed as either a solo boat, run with main and spin-naker, or as a two up platform adding the self tacking jib. Another lightweight sweetheart, 230 lbs all rigged, she also starts to fly a hull in ridiculously little wind. And with tall, bouyant bows and horizontal foils on the bottoms of the rud-ders, she's also unbelievably resistant to stuffing a bow, and therefore and excellent high wind blaster as well. As a result, she sees a lot of use, when it's very light and I want that thrill of riding on one hull. And when it's blowing big and I can't scrounge up crew for Flight Risk. She's not quite as

fast as Les and Pam's Nacra F18, but in terms of smiles per mile, she's hard to beat. Mid July Kathy and hit Minneapolis for 10 days of hangin' with my sister and her fun family. And take Adam up on his gener-ous offer to let me run the A again! I drag her to my buddy Doug's place on Lake Minnetonka, which is a grand place to moor her. And since keeping her there last year, Doug's got the cat bug back big, and now sports a hot Hobie 18 SX. So be-tween the two boats, I come away with 8 days of powered up sailing. Including an afternoon on the wire, on the wings, drivin' the SX hard, solo! The contrast between these machines is stunning! The Boyer is this graceful athlete, all finese and decep-tive speed. And the Hobie's like a Mack truck barrelling thru the chop! Both are great, any cat run to the limit lights my fire!

Here's a good day. Run FR in the morn-ing, lounge about til mid afternoon, and fire up High Voltage. Blast across Dayton Bay to Skeeko Bay, a lovely anchorage on Wild Horse Island, popular with cruisers. Make a pass thru the monos in search of a brave crewman. Brad, aboard a sleek Rogers 30 seems game, jumps aboard, and quickly adapts to the wire. We rip around for an hour or two, squealing joyously, and I deposit him back on his ride. Next morn-ing, wind on the main lake fills in every-where, strong. And I run Flight Risk south to Wild Horse again, pick up Brad and a buddy, and soon we're hull flying in Big Arm bay, with Brad at the helm, and me offering instruction and manning the main-sheet. After and hour or so of such fun, he comments that HE needs one of these too, and do I know of any for sale. Well, there's only one Flight Risk, but I do hap-pen to know something mighty similar, and within two weeks we're partners in an ARC 22! Which happens to be on the other side of the country, Florida to be exact. A few tribulations buying a boat sight unseen, particularly for Brad who was relying solely on MY recommendations, a guy he didn't even know a fortnight prior. But the details get worked out, the boat leaves FL on a Monday morning, Brad picks it up in Bozeman late Thursday, rolls into Dayton

at 2 am Friday morning, and by 10 am we're rigging! By late afternoon we're sailing in 8 to 10 and effortlessly flying a hull for long tacks! It's such a sweet mo-tion, so smooth and controllable. All the hassle and trepidation is forgotten, and we bask in the multihull glow. The 22's now the new kid on the block, and we're desperate to get stick time. Yet

it seems like we break something each time we take her out, so our introduction is painfully slow. But we finally get her sorted, and the good times do roll. We discover the joy of sending the crew to leeward to get the windward hull to pop free, which it'll do in as little as 6 or 8 knots of wind. And it's SO controllable, so EFFORTLESS. Of course, that kind of light air performance means she can be-come a handful in anything over 15, so there's some mastery yet to be ac-quired, ask Brad how he knows! Another big wind day hits the Flathead in mid August, and I'm all over it with HV! I'm chasing down every sailboat on the lake, the windward hull rarely staying wet. Cruise up lake to Rollins and take a break at the cabin for lunch, then out for more. Back towards Dayton Bay, drivin' hard. I finally relent as the sun looks for the horizon. I spot Kiwi Boat in Skeeko, and I circle til Brad finally invites me aboard for a cocktail. I raft up alongside, and begin dropping the main, when I no-tice something's happening. I look up just in time to watch the mast and sail drop gently into the drink! The port shroud adjuster just let go, at a wonderfully oppor-tune time, here at anchor, in the lee. It coulda happened any time during the day, when it would have been a much bigger deal! Brad jumps in to release the main

...Continued on page 18

18

from the masthead, and I drag the soggy sail aboard, gather up the mess of lines and wires, and retrieve the mast. Then accept that drink, and lounge in the spacious cockpit with Brad and his daugh-

ter, as we trade tales and watch the sun set. Finally, we hitch her up to Kiwi's stern and drag her across the bay where I pull her up on the beach to be sorted an-other day.

...then, it’s October...just the F18 left to pull, and then I'll just have to run on dreams, past and future, til the fluffy stuff starts to fall and the lakes get hard.

What you do with Lots of Boats (cont.)

we'll keep pressing the bar. I decide to explore the limits of what's sail-able, and when nicely powered up down-

wind I start to investigate how far out to-wards the center of the playa/lake I can go. At 30+ mph I enter what looks like slightly higher ground, only to be glori-ously splattered with a generous coating of milk chocolate muck, as I auger in. A small cackle of glee escapes, only to be tamped down by the 100 yard slog through the mud dragging my little toy back to

solid ground. Await a puff, and I'm back on top of the world! Later in the day I jump in the Rocket and work at getting her up to speed.

Friday brings more of the same, light air with occaisional lulls, but we're getting dialed in! Keith has mastered the art of keeping her moving. When powered up, the Rocket can hang with the big boys some of the time, which brings a big grin to MY face. Everyone is getting good rides, smiles all around. Phil gets his rig rolling strong, and finds a soft spot like mine, only it's a much bigger deal with his much larger boat. He strolls back to camp to recruit a labor force, and we jump in the pickup to head north for the extraction. Five guys in bare feet does the trick, and he's cruisin' again, just a little less shiny. The wind shuts off as the sun sets, and we have a final pot luck, storytelling, and some very fine stargazing.

Phil rolls out before dawn on Saturday, the rest of us sit on our boats and bullshit, waiting. It's warm and sunny, but it ain't windy, so by early afternoon we're break-ing 'em down. A bit of sadness that the

fun's over for a while, some promises to meet again soon, and I pull off the playa and head for home, humming. Next week-end I'll put the last catamarans to bed, and

dream of the fluffly white stuff to come.

Hobie Fleet 444 member Dave Farmer joins us from his home in Tum Tum, WA. At the end of 2009 his stable included: An HT18, “High Voltage” a Stealth F16, “Flight Risk” a 22ft carbon fiber monster, an ARC 22, along with his new Fed 5 duel use dirt / ice boat.

The Off-Season (cont.)

ride back to Lake City. As we make the turn I quickly stretch out in front of Karl...until he pops his chute. The puffs make for a challenging and very fast downhill charge, gybes are accompanied by the brief panic of the bows diving in and both rudders coming completely clear of the water...and me hanging onto the new windward stern trying not to give the boat any additional reason to go all the way over. Karl takes it over at some point, but is up quickly and back with an impressive

demonstration of how to sail a cat down-wind with a chute. Adam’s thin little sail is a gray blur as he rips past the mono-hulls...with their reefs securely tucked in and jibs and genoas partially furled up.

This was not one of those days for small children or tentative crew who might pre-fer a wine sippin’ cruise...this was a day of high speed pedal-to-the-metal, white-knuckled solo cat sailing.

It was a great day, without a racing mark in sight.

Three Blind Mice (cont)

The mice...Adam from Eagan, MN sails a Hobie 17, an A-Cat and a Hobie Bravo; Commodore Karl from Northfield, MN spends his time recently on a Viper F16; and Reb from Lakeville, MN sails a “slightly modified” Hobie 18SX and a very stock Hobie 14.

Dave and Johnny’s Rocket

Dirt and water...Not ideal sailing condi-tions

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2011 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Membership fees support Fleet activities including event promotions, website and Newsletter generation and distribution.

NAME: ______________________________________________________________ ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________________ CITY, STATE & ZIP CODE______________________________________________ PHONE: HOME CELL _________________________________________________ E-MAIL ADDRESS ___________________________________________________ BOAT TYPE (S) ______________________________________________________ CREW MEMBER’S NAME: ____________________________________________ CREW MEMBER’S E-MAIL:____________________________________________

□ FLEET 444 MEMBERSHIP $25 –

□ NON-BOAT OWNERS MEMBERSHIP $10 – For non-boat owners.

□ FLEET 444 LOGO HULL DECALS: ($3 each, or 2 for $5) _____ Decals $_______

See www.fleet444.com for hull decal details

2010 Fleet 444 Schedule (Very Tentative): May 28 (29) – “Spring Tune-Up”

Location: Ohuta Park, Lake City, MN

June 18 (19) - Lake Pepin Distance Rally Fun Sail Location: Ohuta Park, Lake City, MN

July 16 & 17 – Lake Pepin Two Day Fun Sail

Location: Hok-Si-La Campground, Lake City, MN.

August 13, 14 and 15 - Leech Lake Regatta 40 (Hobie Fleet 444 Regatta)

Location: The Shores of Leech Lake Campground and Marina, Walker, MN

August 26, 27 and 28 – “Apostle Islands Catamaran Rally” Location: Buffalo Bay Campground, 3 miles north of Bayfield WI.

September 17 (18) – “Last Hoorah” Fun Sail

Location: Ohuta Park, Lake City, MN

Complete the Application and Check off the Appropriate Membership Category and hull decals desired. Make checks payable to: Rick Adams - Hobie Fleet 444 and mail to:

Rick Adams – Hobie Fleet 444 1221 Harrison Ave. Gulf Breeze, FL 32563

20

2011 Hobie Fleet 444 (Very Tentative) Schedule

Hobie Fleet 444 3386 Sogn Valley Trail Dennison, Minneso ta 55018

We’re on th

e Web!

www.Fleet4

44.com

Mailing Address

Submit your membership application for the 2010 season today...see “Membership Info” on www.fleet444.com

May 28 (29) - Spring Tune-up Fun Sail; Lake Pepin, Lake City, MN June 18 (19) - Lake Pepin Distance Rally Fun Sail; Lake Pepin, Lake City, MN July 16 & 17 - 2-Day Fun Sail; Hok-Si-La Campground; Lake Pepin, Lake City, MN Aug 13 - 15 - Leech Lake Regatta 40; The Shores of Leech Lake; Walker, MN Aug 26 - 28 - Apostle Islands Catamaran Rally; Buffalo Bay Campground; 3 mile north of Bayfield, WI Sept 17 (18) - Last Hoorah Fun Sail; Lake Pepin, Lake City, MN

(Rain Date)

Check www.fleet444.com for update event information throughout the season

Division 7 will also have a series of Hobie Class Points Regattas scheduled throughout the summer. For the racer in you, these are a great chance to participate in some fun, competi-tive events and sail on some great lakes.

The Shores of Leech Lake Cup - Hobie Fleet 444 had it’s name added to this award at LLR 39