If you are not a subsciber you may want to go out and find the new March issue of Sailing World (USA mag.) They devoted the entire issue (well, most of it) to multihulls, from the 40th Hobie Anniversary Regatta article by Matt Bounds, to the VX 40 cats, to Fboats to the huge Tri's. Lots of great pictures and articles in there to keep you northern guys busy while you wait for the lakes to melt.

My only fear is that the editor, Dave Reed, who raced on a Hobie 16, may get some blowback from the monohull regulars. To offset that, I have already sent him a quick note to tell him I appreciated the coverage. Here's the email address if you would like to thank him as well. Oh, for Rick and Mary, I also included this website address for him, I hope he will publish it in the next issue.

The Sailing World Editor is Dave Reed,

[email protected]

Shameless bump. Anyone else see this issue yet?

Thoughts on the only US mainstream monohull racing magazine finally doing a Multihull issue?

It's not the first time - once upon a time, they used to regularly have articles about multihulls. I was just about to let my subscription expire because I was sick and tired of seeing monoslugs month after month.

Sailing World use to have a Multihull colume in every issue back in the 80's.

Well can't we drop Dave Reed a line at [email protected] and let him know we would like to see another monthly column on multihulls? I already did, but have not heard back from him yet. I'll let you know if I do.

Part of it goes back to what Mary often reminds us - someone has to write the stories and take the pics and send them in. SW pays a little, but we all get Catsailor and they're always looking for content. Matt made the commitment to get a story in - good job. We can get as much coverage as we want, really. Seahorse, Latitude, etc., etc... take a camera to your next event, make some notes, listen at the bar - bet you get a story idea. :-)

I've been talking to Dave about doing updates on their website and an article afterwards for the Tybee this year. He is psyched about it and is totally supportive of articles about multihulls. I asked him why I haven't seen anything on the Tybee in the past few years and he said simply because they haven't been approached to cover it since the first year.
JW has it spot on, I'm sure we could have a monthly multihull column again... who's going to send them the material? I'm gung ho about doing it for the Tybee but don't want the responsibility of doing it all year!

Maybe we could tag team it, with all the good writers scattered all over the world we have here on Catsailor, should be easy enough to spread the work load.

Todd, if you're serious and Dave is willing to give us a monthly column, we should have no problem getting that done. We can put together a schedule to give different writers "assignments" and deadlines.

I'd be willing to do an article. You're doing Tybee. Matt just did one. I think Bob Merrick has done them before and probably would again.

That takes us through four issues within an hour of your posting. I'm pretty confident that we could pull this off with some decent coordination.

Mike

HavaMega in November, I can contribute to that. Also I can do some write ups throughout the year on the Nor-Cal sailing scene.

We can do something on Spring Fever if you're gonna do the T500 Todd.

I especially liked the "centerfold" (glamor shot of 131' trimaran Banque Populaire).

I was a little disappointed to not see any real coverage of the more active and "accessible" classes like F-18s.

Sailing World seems to be on a bit of an elitist kick lately with $500K boats being described as "affordable". Sorry, I'm not getting huge bonuses for running a bank into the ground. That's way out of my price range.

I think the discussion of setting up a team to contribute articles is fantastic.

Just throwing out some ideas here but I think we should send them at least one article from every major cat regatta, and from every major class. Obviously the growth of the F18 class here in the States, tie it in to Europe, etc. should draw some interest from some of the mono guys.

The big A cat regattas, the Wave Nationals, the upcoming (in Nov.) F16 Global Challenge, the Tybee of course, there is lots of opportunity to showcase each class, and also draw some of that rail meat off the big leaners and onto a more affordable ride. Be sure to stress the affordability of a good beach cat (vs. a new $60,000 Melges 20.)

Now, I understand Sailing World has to make ends meet too, and they have to cover the boats who advertise in their issues, which is why you see so much ink on any new J boat, or new Melges, or any other new leaner, right next to a big full page add for the same boat. Hobie always buys a full page add for the 16 and F18, but I almost never see an add from Performance Cats or the others.

I don't know what SW gets for a full page add but maybe regatta organizers should consider that when trying to promote a big regatta.

hmmmm collectively we could contribute about the NASS Race to Oxford....