Mate of mine wanted to get into sailing but had limited funds and I was restoring an old 16ft mosquito catamaran when we spoke. Two days later I purchased another 16ft mosquito, finished the resto on the first boat and sold it to my mate incuring a heavy loss.
We now have a extra boat on the water and another sailor that is bitten by the sailing bug.
Motto: Sailing, once bitten you never recover.

I finally put my old Nacra 5.2 back in the water after two years of sitting unused in my front garden in various state of refurbishment.

It now proudly sits on the beach at the club and is available free of charge to anyone who want to participate in one of the racing series. It's been sailed quite a bit in the last two weeks, hopefully some will bite and join the fleet in some way or another.

very nice and generous (both Wannabe and Pepin)

My sailing club had an open house on Saturday. 10-15 mph winds kept the small one-design monohulls off the water for guest rides. Just me on my Wave and the big keelboats taking visitors out. I took 7 groups out, including a mom with 2 kids, a dad with 3 kids, and another mom with 2 kids. Everyone got wet on a really hot day and had a blast! I know I recruited at least two families to the club, and imprinted the fun of sailing on a bunch of kids.

This week, got our seven Waves and six H-16's ready for Classes and Open Sailing. www.sailsandpoint.org

I'm going crazy trying to think of and address the details of RHYC's Junior Olympics Regatta next weekend ....

See Ya soon Caleb ....

Harry

The Junior Olympics at RHYC was a resounding success ... 148 boats attending ... over 200 Youth competitors ... Optis, Lasers, 420's , H16's and Sailboards competing!!!!

All due to RHYC volunteers, Hobie Div11, Fun-in-the-Sun/Red Gear Racing, the HCA-NA, US Sailing, and countless other volunteers.

Thanks Everyone
Harry

Shark rounding Statue ofLiberty

On July fourth, we took our Shark on the road to Sandy Hook Catamaran Club in New Jersey. We arrived at what I can only describe as Catamaran Heaven.
We had a lot of interest in the Shark while setting it up- a lot of "I've heard about Sharks but never seen one before" also, one gentleman came up, with a melancolic tear in his eye, and said " I haven't seen one of those in thirty years!"
We then set off to join 45 other assorted catamarans for a 40 mile race to the Statue of Liberty and back. To put things in perspective, at most races we sail around little inflatable yellow triangles. At Sandy Hook, they sail around THE STATUE OF LIBERTY! A very cool and patriotic way to spend the 4th of July.
On the start line, I joked to other boats asking what the rounding mark looked like. They told me to look for a tall statue that speaks with a French accent.
The race was wonderful. The Shark was perceived as a novelty, but once we got sailing, many realized we had a contending boat! Five miles into it a Hobie Tiger caught up to us, gave us a shout that we were really screaming along- they were paying a little too much attention to us as the next wave knocked them both off the trapeeze!
I could not have been more proud as we brought the boat on shore and waited for the rest of the fleet. In the next hour or two I kept hearing people say they thought the Shark won!
I knew better, as a couple of H16s finished close to us, but it felt great earning their respect. 4th place for us this year- 23 seconds from third place- that's about the time we spent taking photos of the Statue. We will definitely be back to try again.

Rob and Dawn Turbett

The Rock Hall Junior Olympics, in Maryland was one of the best Regattas we have attended. Harry and Mark did an outstanding job to bring the Hobie 16's to take part in this Event. Special thanks to Jim Glanden who made the new Trophy, and loaned his H-16 to my grandson to race. The participation by the racers and their parents and friends was excellent.

For full details, pictures and results see http://www.rockhallyachtclub.org/jo/

Thanks to all.

Caleb and Dan Tarleton

http://calusablueway.com/

I signed up as a volunteer today. This is intened for canoes and kayaks but most of it is accessible by catamaran.

Access is a problem, for cats, but as I get into the job I'll mention our needs. You just never know...

Funny you should ask. I just finished the last bit of fiberglass work on a pair of Hobie 16's that my daughter and I have been restoring for quite some time. I hope to get her on the water before the Ohio summer fades and the snow plows ruin the roads again. I plan to hand one cat down to her and sell the other next spring. I want to make sure that I dont do anything to either that would keep them from being "class legal" in case the next owner wants to race. Any tips?? Do's / Dont's...?

best to start a new topic for the restoration

Last weekend, the "Wet Kitty Catamaran Club" took a local Girl Scout troop out for a day on the water. Winds were low so the kids had a great time just hanging out on the traps and swimming. Most said they had a great time and would love to make it a yearly event. Were working on that.

Last week: ressearched, bargained and indicated where to buy six new sails for the MNAs sailing school Optimists. Brought four new kids to the beginers course that started with spring.

Last month: donated rudder, daggerboard, sail, lines, etc. plus work to restaure the sailing school Laser.

Ongoing: restauring a SC15.

Future: build or buy youth cat for daughter, Opti for son and convince friends to build a wide winged cat with curved foils, about 72ft long...

Our sailing club stumbled into the greatest promotion (and money maker) this summer, that I thought I'd share here.

There's an internet coupon service called "Groupon" which offers drastically discounted deals for one day only, emailed to their subscribers. Our membership chairman came up with the idea of selling "An Introduction to Sailing" 3-hour sailing lesson/experience, at "normally $100, discounted to ONLY $35" (the club to get $20 of that). He figured it might get 50 or 60 folks through the door. OVER 530 people bought it!

We've been scrambling all summer to get those folks on the water. I just took a couple out last night on my Wave, as the high winds were too much for the monohulls.

The format we use is: spend 1/2 hour rigging and describing the boat, 2 hours on the water (alternating skippers), then 1/2 hr putting the boat away. Simple enough?

It's pretty much the same thing we do for free at our open houses; but if you put a dollar value on it, and "sell" it at a discount, people will flock to it!

We made over $10,000 on the promotion, and have had over 50 "Groupers" then join the club to take the full two-week training class, about a dozen have bought boats, and more say they'll do it next year!

I'm not pushing Groupon, there are other similar companies out there, but if we can use an agency like that to promote sailing in an unexpected way, so can you!

I've been posting on forums trying to get a fleet started on the Eastern Bay and Miles River (Maryland). If anyone can suggest places to look/post to likely connect with local sailors, definitely let me know.

Thanks to the over 30 volunteers that braved the cold weather and high winds to help put away the boats for the winter at Sail Sand Point in Seattle today.

-1

I think that the coolest prize I have ever seen was in a golf tournament. The last place team all got a free lesson.

Eric

Ladies, Gentlemen and most importantly Junior Sailors,

I have just recieved an E-Mail from Ms Marilyn Lennon/Commodore of Seaside Park Yacht Club ... SPYC has graciously offered their lovely facility as a launch point so a Junior Multihull Class (on H16's) can be included and compete in the Barneget Bay Yacht Racing Assoc's Junior Olympic Festival host by Island Hieghts Yacht Club and chaired by Mr Buzz Reynolds of IHYC, who has already agreed to include a Junior Multihull Class if a suitable launch site could be found. Now we have some details to work out ... but to borrow a familar phase ... "we are a go for launch!!!!!"

Harry