Let's face it, sailing is a male dominated endeavor. The America's Cup, the supposed pinnacle of sailing, has nary one female to be found racing; something I'd personally like to see change. With the Nacra 17 being chosen as the multihull for the next Olympic cycle, and the requirement for it to be sailed with a mixed male/female crew, it's definitely a step in the right direction. Last weekend the F18 fleet in The Bay had two female sailing rock stars join the racing out of the San Francisco Yacht Club. Our good friend Phillip Meredith, who has been racing F18s for almost a decade, weighs in.    

It is something you don?t see often enough in our local F18 races. Women racers.

We know the San Francisco Bay Area has a depth of talented racers, both male and female. It is the latter that always seem in short supply at the races. So it was a great boost to the SFF18 fleet to have a couple of really talented women join in the fun at this year?s San Francisco 18 Foot regatta hosted by the San Francisco Yacht Club.

Long time Bay Area Sailor Jody McCormack, who will generally sail on anything, but usually sails on the 18 Foot Skiffs, helped to rocket one of the class stalwarts to a second place finish in race 4. When Jody got off the water, she was all smiles, and obviously excited about sailing the F18, ?I was originally going to help with race committee for the F18s, and one of the crew became ill. It was 10 am, the same time as the skipper?s meeting, and I was asked to crew. I got in my car, went home, and got my skiff gear.

Everyone interested in Multihull Sailing should take a look at this message from Mike Levesque, Chair, US Sailing Multihull Council.

Dear multihull sailor:

You have been recognized as a former Alter Cup competitor, or multihull sailor with another close affiliation to US Sailing and multihull racing, and you have been invited to help guide the event into the future!  Hopefully, you will also receive this message through the normal Multihull Council channels (Area Reps, class chairs, etc.).

Please forward this to every multihull sailor in your network, class, fleet or club.  We want literally every multihull sailor in the country to participate.  Time is of the essence!!!

Here is your opportunity to weigh in on what many consider to be the most important "product" that US Sailing offers to multihull sailors, the US Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Trophy (aka the Alter Cup).  

As you may know, I became Chair of the US Sailing Multihull Council in October 2011.  Since then, lots of great things are happening.  One of them is a renewed focus on ensuring that the US Multihull Championship is a relevant event with a strong future.  The Multihull Council is working to rebuild the event with the US Multihull Championship Committee, which itself is being reconstituted.

The leadership of US Sailing wants to transform the US Multihull Championship into the most relevant multihull event in the United States, one that will attract new and upcoming sailors, who will form the nucleus of future US Olympic sailors.  

To that end, Jack Gierhart, Executive Director of US Sailing, has directly asked me, "What do the multihull sailors want?"  So, here is your opportunity to provide your opinions on the future of this championship.

Nothing is impossible, and nothing is off the table.  However, the harsh reality is that the economic environment in which we currently operate is making it increasingly difficult to hold the event within the current format and funding structure.  So, we either need to find additional revenue streams, change the format, or both.

The survey is composed of questions that are intended to get the creative juices flowing.  We have been canvassing sailors all winter, and are really taking a long, hard look at all aspects of the event.  We would like to hear from all multihull sailors around the country, even if you have never participated in this event.

As you know, there currently is no Alter Cup championship announced for 2012.  A bid is in the works, and the intent of the survey is to come up with a long-term (5-year) plan, so we can return some stability to the planning of this event. 

We are at an unprecedented moment in the history of the US Sailing Multihull Council.  We are working hard and achieving a renwed cooperative relationship with the leadership at US Sailing.  We are working on a number of things, including a revamp of our website, a new Youth multihull program, and of course, ensuring the success of the Alter Cup.  We will be announcing a Spring meeting (teleconference) shortly to discuss further business for the 2012 season and beyond.

Mike Levesque

Chair, US Sailing Multihull Council 

Important Notice!!

Gilligan's Run Postponed Till August 20th

Due to the projected path of Tropical Storm Emily, Gilligan's Run has been postponed till August 20, 2011.  

The second race in the Endurance Series is next Saturday August 6th. Gilligan's Run is about 26 miles which is the shortest race of the series. The race starts at Acapulco Hotel and Resort and runs North to a mark in front of the "Ocean Deck" then South to Ponce De Leon Inlet rounding a inlet buoy before turning back north to finish back at the hotel.

Message from Chuck Bargeron, organizer of the Tybee 500.

To the Tybee 500 Fleet, its staff and supporters: 

Judi and I would like to extend our gratitude and respect to everyone for the years of dedication and effort. On behalf of the entire Tybee 500 administrative team, THANK-YOU ALL! 

The last couple of years have been a challenge as tough economic times have required us all to tighten our belts and choose carefully where our hard earned money and vacation time is spent. With that reality in mind, I have made the decision to postpone the Tybee 500 until May 2012. I will be contacting the checkpoints to inform them of this announcement.

The Great Texas Catamaran Race is an off-shore beach catamaran race along the Texas Coast. Starting in South Padre Island and finishing in Galveston, the race covers approximately 300 miles along the Texas coast over Father's Day weekend. The race is conducted in four stages with each stage starting and ending on the beach.

http://gt300.com

The Notice of Race for the 2011 Tybee 500 has been published.

There are several changes from last year.

The date has been moved about a week later, the 2011 race will start on Monday, May 16 from Islamorada, FL and finish Saturday, May 21 at Tybee Island, GA.

The NOR has been changed to allow for the inclusion of additional classes. This doesnâ??t automatically mean that more than just the F18 and Nacra 20â??s from 2010 will be there, but it leaves the door open for new classes if they can come up with 5 entries and are acceptable to the organizer as suitable for the race. This appears to be geared towards allowing the new Nacra Predator 20x10 carbon beachcat introduced recently, but how about a class of F16â??s, could the lightweight boats and crews handle the 560 miles of open water?

The stopping place for leg two has been changed from Jupitor Beach to a little further up the coast to Jensen Beach. This was done to even out the length of legs two and three, the Jensen Beach location has a long history with both the Tybee 500 and the Worrell 1000.

Link to full NOR for the 2011 Tybee 500

Story by Lee Wicklund -- Initially I had planned on doing this race with Chris Green as we had talked about doing it for the past few years on my Nacra 20 beach catamaran, 20 feet long, 8.5 feet wide, 390 pounds with no cabin, just a trampoline between the hulls. Usually something came up and we scrapped the idea. This year, I was hell bent on doing it. Unfortunately Chris has a job and couldn't get out of some previously scheduled commitments.

I contacted Wendy Simkins of Spanish Fork, Utah since she had expressed great interest in doing more of this type of racing at Ruff Riders in South Padre. She bought a ticket and headed down Wednesday evening before the race. I stopped by the Green's for a few last minute items and picked up Wendy at the airport then headed to Galveston. The forecast wasn't looking to favorable for a beach cat doing this in the dark and I was contemplating my escape routes should it get too rough. Initially it was looking like the weather wouldn't get rough till mid day Friday, so we should be ok.

NEWPORT, RI, August 28, 2010 -- If wing technology didn?t have everyone?s attention after BMW Oracle Racing?s victorious 33rd America?s Cup, it definitely does now. The high speeds and almost instant acceleration of cambered foils had members of America?s Cup syndicates, top designers, and all sailors in awe. 

Canadian C Class Catamaran Team of Fred Eaton, Magnus Clarke, Steve Killing, Rob Paterson, and Rossi Milev have been along for the entire ride, one way or another. Clarke, Paterson, and Milev took six months off from their C Class program to manage wing protection for the largest wingmast ever built for a race-boat: BMW Oracle?s (223 foot) 68 metre-tall wing. Reunited in March, their team brought four wings to the International C Class Catamaran Championship hosted by New York Yacht Club on Narragansett Bay this past week.

?Upwind the camber is moderate, but downwind with the flap set at 40 degrees, the wing will produce almost double the force of an equal area soft sail,? explains Killing.

Eaton and Clarke raced Killing?s latest design, Canaan, to a thrilling victory today in the final day of match racing. 

NEWPORT, RI, August 27 -- The wind was light and patchy on this first day of match-racing in the International C-Class Catamaran Championship. Canaan, the black cat raced by the Canadian defenders Fred Eaton and Magnus Clarke, was in her element yesterday, winning three of three races. 

Today, was not so smooth. After a significant shift to the south the seabreeze filled in at 12 knots and the third attempt to run a race was a success. More of a success for Alpha however, sailed by Australians, Glenn Ashby and James Spithill.

At the approach to the line Canaan stalled, losing the start and six legs later the first match-race. 1-0 for Australia. In the fleet race designed for the French, British and second Canadian entry, Orion retired. Invictus, of England, crossed the finish line first, and despite powering around the course, just milliseconds after crossing the line Patient Lady VI?s wing tumbled.

NEWPORT, RI, August 26, 2010 -- What a difference a day makes. Today was all Canaan all the time at the International C-Class Catamaran Championship at the New York Yacht Club?s Harbour Court. The stars today were the Canadian defenders Fred Eaton and Magnus Clarke, who won all three races, while Alpha, yesterday?s leader, sailed by Australians Glenn Ashby and James Spithill, finished second in all three races. In point of fact, Canaan has won four straight races, winning the last one on Wednesday.

These two teams will match-race tomorrow and Saturday to determine the winner of the International C-Class Catamaran Trophy in play since 1961. This is the 25th iteration of this regatta.

Missing from today?s racing ? indeed the competition ? was Aethon, sailed by Steve Clark and his nephew, Oliver Moore. Seconds into yesterday's first start, Moore fell overboard and Clark crash landed into the wing, which unfortunately suffered significant damage. They had to drop out of this much anticipated regatta.

Before today's first race Patient Lady VI had some rigging failure, they were towed in to shore and the crew headed back to the race course to observe in an effort to build their knowledge base of the C Class cats. Orion and Invictus  completed all races, often sailing close, but Orion punctured their wing just before reaching shore.

Yesterday the C-Class Catamaran Aethon capsized after the start of race one of the International C Class Catamaran Championship (long nicknamed the ?Little America?s Cup?) and her wing was destroyed. The team hit a patch of turbulence left by a freighter for which they were not prepared and were unable to react in time. Crew Oliver Moore lost his footing and was washed off the boat with the mainsheet wrapped around his leg. As the wing rapidly trimmed in, the boat capsized and helmsman Steve Clark, unable to get out of his trapeze in time, fell through the wing, breaking the mast in the process. Both crew members would be fine, and the platform would suffer only minor damages, but what was left of the wing was all but disintegrated in the three-mile tow back to New York Yacht Club?s Harbor Court.

Click to see horrifying video of the crash!

?The thing I would like to stress here,? said Clark, ?is that this was not a product of the conditions. It was a freak accident that could have happened at any time, at any wind speed. If the wing is trimmed all the way to windward and can?t be eased the boat will tip over, and these boats are not designed to do that. It?s a tough end to the last 18 months of work Oliver and I put in, but sometimes these things happen.?

NEWPORT, RI, August 25, 2010 -- The nor?easter departed New England today ? more or less ? and is off to ruin Canada for a couple of days. Its departure ? better late than never ? gave the half-dozen winged multihulls sailing in the International C-Class Catamaran Championship at the New York Yacht Club?s Harbour Court a chance to stop talking and start performing. As if they needed any other encouragement.  

Wednesday?s racing took place near Half Way Rock, north of the Pell Bridge, to minimize the remnants of the seas and breeze from the northeast. The wind at the start of the first race was 16 to 20 with puffs pushing it a bit higher. In the first race, Alpha, sailed by Australians Glenn Ashby and James Spithill, had a brilliant port-tack start. It was a shot over the bow. Ashby is an Olympic Silver Medalist and nine-time A-Class, world champion; Spithill was helmsman on BMW Oracle?s wing-sailed trimaran that won the recent 33rd America?s Cup.

Certainly a major story line was the first-leg capsize of Aethon, Steve Clark's and Oliver Moore?s C-Class Cat. This was a new boat for Clark, an American, the absolute prime-mover in the class, who held the International C-Class Catamaran trophy for 11 years, from 1996-2007. Clark has been as important to the class as Tony DiMauro was to the previous generation. These boats motor ? on the sunny side of 20 knots ? and the disturbed air off a freighter set off a chain reaction that resulted in a capsize and the loss of the wing.

NEWPORT, RI (August 25, 2010) ? Six boats and wings are ready to fly, on day two of the 2010 Little America's Cup, aka the International C-Class Catamaran Championship. Instead of racing as planned yesterday, internationally accomplished sailors from five countries played show and tell under the tent at New York Yacht Club. A collection of designers, America?s Cup evaluators and multihull pioneers weren?t too upset that a blustery weather system delayed day one.

One of the most prestigious titles in the world of ultra-high performance sailing, the Championship was last raced in 2007, at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto. There, Canadian challenger Fred Eaton and crew Magnus Clarke sailed Alpha to a 5-0 victory over the previously undefeated Steve Clark?s Cogito.

Of the four catamaran divisions, the C-Class is governed by a simple set of rules that reward outside-the-box thinking in aero and hydrodynamics to create the lightest, fastest course-racing boats on the planet.

?All wings under the C-Class rule are the same area of 300 square feet but it can be distributed in any fashion,? shares Steve Killing, the designer for Fred Eaton?s C-Class program. They are propelled not by traditional fabric sails, but by elegant wings, rigid but with twist capability.

WingZ Sailboats announces a brand new line of performance and cruising sailboats.

La Costa, CA ? August 20, 2010 ? The amazing and affordable Z-21 is truly a unique value proposition.  WingZ purchased the original hull and deck tooling of the R21 catamaran designed by Randy Reynolds.  Then John Slattebo, the design engineer at WingZ, went to work on updating and re-designing many aspect of the Reynolds 21.  The new Z-21 is now faster and simply a better all-around boat.

?We have designed the Z-21 to be affordable for the average family,? said Arthur Kelly, President of WingZ Sailboats.  ?The Z-21 includes a host of standard features including the trailer and sails.? ?In fact, the last time I checked, we only had seven options and none were necessary to enjoy using the boat the day it is purchased.?

The Z-21 is hands down the best value on the market at a price point of just $17,495.00  WingZ didn?t cut any corners either.  She comes standard with Ronstan deck hardware, Schaefer furling systems, Z-Spars spar mast and boom, Loos standing rigging and New England Ropes Sta-Set and Sta-Set X running rigging.  These companies are known for producing top shelf products with innovative designs.  WingZ is offering an additional buyer incentive of $500 if a Z-21 is purchased from inventory or ordered by December 31, 2010.

Newport, R.I. (August 5, 2010) ? Steve Clark has been dreaming of winning back the Little America?s Cup for the USA ever since he lost it to Canada in 2007. In 1996, Clark?s 25- foot C-Class Catamaran Cogito (pronounced with a soft g) had blown away designers and engineers with its mammoth wing sail and unmatchable speed, and with helmsman Duncan MacLane and crew Erich Chase it handily defeated Australia?s defender Edge IV on Port Phillip Bay to win the International C-Class Catamaran Championship, fondly referred to as the Little America?s Cup.

Cogito became and remained the gold standard of C-Class Catamarans for the next eleven years, a place in C-Class cat history to which Clark wishes to return by entering his new boat, Aethon, launched earlier this year, in the 2010 Little America?s Cup, set for August 22-28 off Newport. Clark?s goals for this Cup are oddly reminiscent of what they were for the 1996 event. Clark?s first experience in the C-Class had been in 1985 when he was involved in Patient Lady VI?s unsuccessful defense of the Cup, losing to Australia?s Victoria 150. It was largely this defeat that drove Clark to develop Cogito. Now, his ?Cogito Project? is back where it started: testing a new boat and taking aim at winning the Cup back again.

After a tough weekend at the Islander Reef Run, the second race of the Endurance Series hopes to be an easier day on the water with a much shorter course. Gilligan's Run is the shortest course on the Endurance Series schedule. At just under 30 miles, the race starts and ends at the Acapulco Hotel and Resort in Daytona Beach Shores. The course usually runs North to a mark just offshore from the Ocean Deck Restaurant, then South to round a Ponce De Leon Inlet ocean marker buoy, then back north to the start. The weekend is topped off by awards presentation and fish fry at Steve and Cindy Caron's house within walking distance from the Finish line which is always attended by most participants.

Texel/Netherlands, June 11 2010 - A week prior to the start of the 2010 Zwitserleven Round Texel Race on Saturday June 19, the organization received 448 pre-entries. The high quality fleet represents fifteen countries. World's biggest cat race is part of the Zwitserleven Sailing Week, and so is the 2010 Grand Prix/Europeans Slalom Windsurfing. This event takes place under the auspices of the International Funboard Class Association. More than fifty surfers from eight different nationalities have subscribed so far.

The Zwitserleven Round Texel Race is about two different competitions. It includes the battle for the line honours and for the overall victory on handicap. The equipment plays an important role in the first case and development assumes large proportions. Xander Pols (NED) won the line honours twice before, but lost them in 2009 to William Sunnucks and Simon Farren. This British duo brought out new big guns by introducing an extra wide M20, which has meanwhile been copied by many competitors, like Pols. Also the curved dagger boards will finally enter the infamous cat race. John Moret and Danny Radelaar from the Netherlands, third over the line in 2009, will use the same set-up as Pols.