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Minutes From The

Annual Hobie Wave Association

Meeting

December 4, 2008

The meeting was opened by Rick White, President of the Hobie Wave Association at 5:45 PM. 

The first order of business was to retire Barb Short as Association Secretary.  Steve Abbey made a motion to nominate Skip Kaub.  Skip Kaub made a motion to second Steve Abbey’s motion.  There was a brief discussion and Rick White took a vote.  After the votes were tallied Rick passed the motion.  Skip Kaub is now the new Association Secretary.

The second order of business was to discuss recent communication between the Hobie Class Association and Rick White from the Hobie Wave Association.  The highpoints were Rick White reciting a the story of how both Rick and his wife Mary Wells bought the first Wave and made the decision to contact Hobie with the proposition to start a competitive Wave racing.  As the story continued, we learned that Hobie supported Rick and Mary by shipping 30 boats to the Keys and the first Wave regatta was birthed.   After the event Sailing World did a two-page article with pictures of the boats on the beach and the Hobie Wave racing was kicked off as a legitimate event.  As time went on Hobie wanted the newly formed class to be sailed with Hobie stock product.  Rick explained how he disagreed and Hobie went their way and Rick started the Hobie Wave Association.  Years went by and the Hobie Wave Class now is one of the, if not the largest growing Hobie fleets in the nation to include organized fleets of 10 to 15 in Put-in bay, Indianapolis, Pensacola Fla., Nor’ Banks NC., Melbourne Fla., Tampa Bay Fla., Houston Texas, Sandy Hook NJ., and Key Largo Fla. Now the Hobie Cat Association has asked Rick to consider being a part of their national events.  These events would include the 2009 North American Championship November 8 – 13 at Lake Havasu, AZ., Midwinters East Are Championships held in Panama City, Florida March 27 – 29.  Rick is planning on putting an area on the Catsailor.com website to help promote this and give information for those that are interested in participating.

Patrick Green brought up a new idea to develop interest in Wave racing.  One of his ideas was to somehow trade boats during a regatta weekend to allow sailors to try other boats besides those they came with to sail namely the Wave.  Another idea was to promote some sort of special regatta maybe supported in part or in whole by the Hobie Class Association.  Rick said he thought there may be an opportunity there similar to the champion of champions and would check into it. 

The third order of business was changing the age of the masters up from the current age 55.  Last year the age of 70 was proposed but voted down.   Skip Kaub proposed a motion to raise the age to 65 and Steve Abbey seconded the motion.  Afterwards during the discussion Nelson suggested 70 but no motion was proposed.  Mark Scarpelli proposed to raise the age to 60 and Steve Abbey seconded the motion.  Rick White asked for a vote for 70 and then he asked for a vote for 60.  Raising the age of 60 won the vote.  Rick White then asked for a vote to raise the age to 60 years of age and the motion was approved.  This year’s Masters Class will be age 55 years of age and older.  Next year the Masters Class will be age 60 years of age and older. 

In the last discussion of the meeting Rick White announced a new racing fleet within the Wave Class Regattas.  The newly formed fleet is going to be called the Silver Fleet.  This newly formed fleet has been formed to promote new sailors and to give new sailors a fun and fighting chance to compete within the current class regattas.  They will still be able to win awards for places won in the overall regatta as the master’s and women’s fleet currently do as well as win awards for places won in the silver fleet.

Meeting adjourned.