White Paints Over Green in Wave Nationals
Key Largo Woman Wins Wave National Championship

Leah White of Key Largo won the 11th Annual Hogsbreath Hobie Wave National Championship over the past weekend of December 5-7 held at Founders Park Watersports at Founders Park in Islamorada, Florida.

Leah White rounds the weather mark with a commanding lead of all the boats in the fleet in the 12th race
She is the only the second woman to ever win the title in this fastest-growing class of sailboats is North America. The first woman was Kathy Kulkoski of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Her husband Dave White had been running in second place through most of the regatta, but slipped to third place.

Leah kept the big lead, focusing on the mainsail telltales.

There was some very aggressive starts for this fleet

The regatta was a real nail biter. Leah started off poorly on the first day but really got it in another gear after that. On the final day, she started off 12 points behind the leader, Patrick Green from Put-in-Bay, Ohio, who is a past National Champ and was the odds-on favorite to again take the big perpetual trophy back north. But White rattled off three bullets in three races, while Green got caught back in the pack.
With only one race to go the two sailors were tied for first. The winner of the last race would take all the marbles. Green had a very good start, while White was forced off to the unfavored side of the course. Going around the first mark Green was in 8th place while White was in 13th. During the next two legs of the course White passed all the boats except Green and was right behind him with two more legs to go.

Patrick Green has won almost every regatta this year, and had a double figure lead going into the last day of racing.
It was then that Green had a bad mark rounding, allowing White to take the lead and she went on to take second in the race, while Green slipped to 7th. She won by five points in the final standings.

Dave White has been a strong contender in the class for several years. Here is is focusing on the beat to the weather mark. He took only one bullet for the regatta, but had a lot of second and third place finishes to end up going away in third.

Leah White narrows in on husband, Dave White during the first day in light air.

Jim Glanden is a past Masters National Champ and finished 7th overall, but was only 4th in the Master Class.

Just before the start of the port-favored line Dave White (66) got to the mark a bit too soon. Meanwhile, Jim Glanden was charging down the line, carrying lots of speed. White's start was ruined. See the next photo.

Dave White (66) was forced to tack over to port with the entire fleet coming down at him. A very bad scene, indeed.

Mark Scarpelli from Put-in-Bay, Ohio fleet, was 4th overall and won the Masters Championship in a tie with Ray Matuszak of Put-in-Bay. Matuszak was 5th overall and 2nd in the Masters.

The White family gets a lot of practice and a lot of tips as they usually sail a lot with Dave’s Father, Rick White, who is the Wave Masters World Champ, is in the Sailing Hall of Fame, and runs Rick White’s Sailing Seminars.
The Wave Fleet in Key Largo sails about 90 series races every winter season at the Upper Keys Sailing Club where there is a fleet of over a dozen boats that usually race regularly.
The Wave Class was formed about eleven years ago when the boat design first came out. It is a thirteen foot beach catamaran and is roto-molded by the Hobie Cat Company – nearly bullet proof to damage. It was one of the least expensive boats to purchase and requires very little maintenance.
There are now very active fleets in:

• Indianapolis, IN
• Put-in-Bay, OH
• Sandy Hook, NJ
• Duck, NC
• Pensacola Beach, FL
• Melbourne, FL
• Key Largo, FL
  
  

There are major stirrings of interest in many spots west of the Mississippi as well. At the class meeting this year most of the sailors were very interested in going to the Mega Regatta at Lake Havasu this coming fall of 2009.
The next Nationals will be held the first weekend in December of 2009 again at Founders Park Watersports. For more information on the Hobie Wave contact Rick@catsailor.com or www.Catsailor.com, or www.WaveClass.com

The Mark Roundings were plenty active. Check out the photos below:

CABB (Catamaran Association of Biscayne Bay) Commodore, John McKnight, got back on a Wave after a few years off, and started off rather poorly, but finished well. He said, "I did not do too well overall in the regatta, but I started out with an 18th place finish and steadily worked my way up to take a first place finish in the last race."

The wind shifted just before the start to make it a boat-favored line -- it became really crowded at that end

Overall

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