I met an old sail boarder and...

I met this old grey guy setting up his sail board at water's edge in Corpus Christi. He told me that back in the 70's the beach was covered with catamarans. The catamarans disappeared in the 80's when sail boards arrived. Now sail boards are all but gone since kite boarding has taken off. Before I bought my Wave I figured I would find the catamaran community and hang out with them. But, fact is, catamarans in the Corpus Christi area are rare indeed. And sure enough, kite boarders are everywhere. I am going to take up kite boarding and try to share time between my Wave and kiting. The wind was ripping at 25 mph this past weekend, but the kiters used smaller kites and played anyway. There were but few boats of any sort on the water. Another thing I discovered is that bollards line most shorelines making the water inaccessible to my catamaran in most places. It is harder than I had anticipated finding places to put my catamaran in the water.

I would be interested in the situation in other parts of the country. Do you see a lot of catamarans? What about kiters?

a very common tale.
when I started in catamarans in the mid-70's they were everywhere in NJ, and you could also rent them. that's how I got hooked. in 1979 when I started racing it was common to have upwards of 50 boats at the smaller Div. 11 regattas and 100 boats at races like Wildwood and Cape May.
and that was only with 14's, 16's, 18's. no 17's or waves yet.

as you said, over time boats fell out of favor, largely because boards were cheaper.
in recent years there has been a resurgence in the number of boats at regattas. I'm not at them enough to understand why. my schedule is occupied with big boat racing.

as an old salt friend of mine has said for years: 'it takes intelligence to sail, not so much to twist the throttle on a jet ski'.

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

In the Midwest sailboards had some impact the advent of the jet ski had was the real killer.

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2001 H18 w/SX wings & spinnaker #16740 (purchased new)
1989 H18 w/SX wings #14565 (purchased new, sold 2000)
Would buy another if Hobie would build it.

Here's a crazy one....

At the Div 11 Gunpowder regatta this year, the Hobie 14s outnumbered all other classes, including the H16s. In fact, if you don't count the one Wave that entered, the H16s were the smallest class at that regatta. Maybe things are coming around full circle.

Anyway, I think that it's pretty clear that Hobie sailing in general is down substantially from it's glory days. There are some pockets of Hobie sailors here and there, but nothing like what it used to be. Same pretty much goes for windsurfers. There are pockets of them here and there. If you go to popular beaches, you will find a lot of them on good days, but the general high numbers of them are not around anymore. I personally don't see any huge surge of kiters in my area (NJ). There are more of them than there were 10 years ago, but it's still not huge numbers. Sailing in general just does not have the number of participants that it used to have.

sm

Owning and sailing a beach cat is a PITA and I wish I wasn't addicted to it. Why can't I be like a normal person and enjoy jet skis, or kite boards, or a normal monohull, or even fishing from a kayak?

Storing a beach cat means finding either mast-up storage or trailer storage which includes, in my case, a 28 foot mast. Then we have to find a place to rig it. Then we have to find crew and wait until the wind, weather, and free time are in alignment. Hooray! We finally get to sail for a couple of mind-blowing hours. Then un-rig it. And if you sail in the ocean you have to wash your gear afterwards. So many things need to go right to sail these boats that it is no wonder they are abandoned in fields and barns. I won't take my boat out for day sailing anymore because it is not worth the effort, and prefer to wait for fleet fun sails or regattas to get my kicks.

Imagine how disheartened I was on an outing when after spending the time to get the boat out of storage, take it to the local beach (paying $10 entrance), then spend a good 1.5 hours finally getting it to the water, then while training my green crew on what to do before shoving off I watched as a kid roll up on a bike with his kite board under his arm and kite in a back pack and within 20 minutes he was skipping across the water. He was not worrying about pitchpoling, getting the mast stuck in the mud, having to be the bad guy giving commands to the crew, registration fees, insurance premiums, blah, blah, blah. . .

Then I ask myself, "How many friends and beers can I take on a kite board? Who else is there to share the thrill on a wind surfer? Where is the terror of knowing a minor mistake may lead to a lot of pain, grief, and shared stories? How many times have girls in bikinis asked a kiter or wind surfer for a ride?" The social side of beach cat sailing is an important consideration.





(I won't give up my boat for anything and continue to seek new converts, but compared to other Hobie racers my sickness is mild.)

If I had known then what I know now I don't know if I would have purchased my cat. I live alone. There are several parks on the bays around here where large groups of kiters congregate. They hang out together all day kiting, and resting and talking between kiting sessions. You can see well over a dozen kites in the water at a time. After spending my week alone I take my cat to the beach, alone, sail alone, and then go hang out at the park with the kiters. If for no other reason, the social aspect of kiting makes that sport look better and better. I still want to sail, but it is normally going to be a solo activity because the cool kids around here are into kiting. Not to say that I don't ever want to get out by myself and sail.

Baloney!


Just find a Hobie Regatta.

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www.thehobiewayoflife.com