Div 9 Hobie 16 Championship/Cat Fest, Sept 7-8, Lake Norman

Well folks, we've got ourselves an HCANA Points Regatta in Division 9. If you haven't seen the wordy announcement to everyone on the main Hobie Racing page, go take a look. I wanted to post an announcement out there so more people than just us Div 9 forum regulars would see it. The announcement also includes a bit about what I'd like for us to accomplish in Division 9.

If you've got any questions about the H16 Championship/Cat Fest, shoot me an email or we can discuss here.

So what do "Points" do for us? We'll establish a Divisional Points Championship, which will be really easy to determine this year since we only have one points regatta, but points regattas also count towards national rankings tabulated by the HCANA.

So, who's going? I am, for one. I hope that we can muster a big turnout. Please pass the word to everyone you know with a Hobie. Hopefully we'll see a good mix of experienced sailors as well as a bunch of Newbies. If you sail something other than a Hobie 16, come anyways and sail in the open class. Haven't raced much? This will be a good opportunity to learn.

And thanks to our friends at Lake Norman Yacht Club for hosting us.

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Great win MVD!

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Jonathan
'85 H16 __/) 87468 Tidal Wave

Thanks MVD!

I'm planning on it.

If anyone needs crew for this, I will gladly come and crew for whoever needs it. Let me know.

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'79 H16 "Carmelita"

If you were there on Saturday morning, I bet you'd find someone who needs a crew. Hope to see you there.

Garrett, Nick, any ideas?

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Hi all - I PM'd you Cherokee. It would be great if you could sail with me. I'll cover your entry fee.
Also - does anyone know how late the grounds will be open on Friday? I'd like to bring the boat up then and not have to hassle with it Sat morning.

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Jonathan
'85 H16 __/) 87468 Tidal Wave

I checked with the organizer:
Once the gate is open Friday, it will be open for the rest of the weekend. Gate should open some time in the mid-late afternoon.

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Jonathan
'85 H16 __/) 87468 Tidal Wave

Just wanted to say that we had a great time LNYC. Pretty light wind event but still had some good racing. This was the first race I've ever done without someone who's had years of exp. and all the Hobie people seem to know how to be great friends and help each other out! I can't wait to get back out on the water with everyone again!

+1 on the comments above - LYNC put on a great show for us with 45+ catamarans in attendance. Props to Alan, Trey and Claude for supporting the multihull community with another fantastic event at one of the best sailing facilities around.

Great seeing and meeting so many hobie sailors this weekend. Now, I've got some real names and faces to go with all these forum names! That's the most hobie 16's (and 18's!) I've seen in one place in a long time. Too bad the wind didn't hold up for a 2nd day of racing on Sunday.

Mark - Thank you for all your efforts promoting the Hobie points championship and putting Division 9 back on the map. The massive hobie turnout is certainly a result of your contagious enthusiasm for hobie sailing and tireless promotion.

Hope to see you all again soon!

Thanks to all for your participation this past weekend at the Cat Fest / Division 9 Hobie 16 Championship - and congratulations to the Champion, John Hoffman, and his crew Evan (can't remember his last name, goes by "CherokeeSailor" on the Forum). Evan is a fine young man, great sailor, and will be joining the Coast Guard soon. Hopefully we won't run into him on the bad end of a rescue.

We had 16 Hobie 16s register and 13 showed up, along with 3 Hobie 18s. The turnout is a clear indicator that there are Hobie sailors in our area that will come out to compete at regattas. Hopefully we can build on our momentum and establish additional HCA points regattas next season. With any luck, maybe we can generate more participation among the other Hobie classes. Thank you all again for supporting Hobie racing in Division 9. And thanks to our hosts at Lake Norman Yacht Club.

Like Garrett said, it's nice to put names and faces with these Forum usernames.

Nick "Stupid Pancakes" Bostic and I will be racing together on my H16 at the Outback Regatta, Sept 28-29, Lake Murray, Columbia, SC. Hope to see some of you there.

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Fun event and great turn out. Learned a ton from CherokeeSailor and he is the reason for finishing as well as we did - thanks Evan!

MVD leading an impromptu division 9 meeting prior to the Saturday races:



Last minute adjustments to a few of the boats:

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Jonathan
'85 H16 __/) 87468 Tidal Wave

I had a great time racing last weekend, very fun regatta. Hopefully the next one will have a bit more wind. Thanks for organizing so much MVD, and thanks to Jonathan, for letting me sail with you. It was good to finally meet some Hobie forum people.

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'79 H16 "Carmelita"