Our Dagger-Board members have been hard at work getting everything ready for the 2010 sailing season. Dates have been set for this year’s events, so check out the Event section to make sure you have the most up-to-date information. A membership party will be announced soon; check back for the date and time.
We have recently moved the website to a faster server, so performance should be better. It has affected the photo gallery slightly but we’re working on the bugs and it should be better than ever, if you run into any other problems let us know and we’ll get it fixed.
Nacra continues to be innovative in the world of racing catamarans with the announcement of their new 20′ racing catamaran. The ‘F-20 Carbon’ features a new carbon fiber hull design by Melvin and Morrelli rumored to have similar lines to the two-time F-18 Worlds champion, the F-18 infusion. Most interestingly it has curved dagger boards that act as lifting foils. It will have a wing mast like the infusion, only 3 feet taller. The sails will also be made with carbon fiber. The whole boat is supposed to weigh less than 375 lbs. There are only two downsides to what will be an incredibly fast futuristic boat: 1) its 10.5 ft wide so will require a tilt trailer, and 2) it will probably set you back at least as much as a very nice new car
This week-end is the last of 6 races from the iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series. You can view race results as well as a lot of video footage from the iShare Cup website, many of which have great collisions, capsizes and pitch-poling action. The video below is from last year’s races but it gives you an idea of the sailing action that will be taking place Oct. 10th – 12th.
I’m sitting here very grateful for the new addition to our family and excited to be the father of a brand new baby boy. At the same time I’m thinking how we could have timed it a bit better so we could be in long beach right now learning from some of the best F-18 sailors in the world! The nationals this year are probably as close as they’ll ever get to Utah with the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach California hosting this year’s event. This is the same place that Coty and I travelled to last summer to compete in the western area F-18 championship. We had a great time getting to know some of the sailors out there and were very thankful for their sailing tips and hospitality. I debated heading out there again this year, but after leaving Erin and the new baby for only two days for our annual Le Beau’s grand prix 20, I realized that there was NO way this would be possible. So here I am, following the results and cheering on our Long Beach friends from 700 miles away. I was happy to see that Dan Delave, a long time Hobie Tiger sailor, and former NAF-18 chairman is now sailing a Nacra Infusion. He has been doing very well and is now in 13th place over all as of the end of day 3. Ian Sammis who was kind enough to let us stay at his place when we were there is performing very strongly as well on his custom Infusion with a current position of 7th. The local favorite to win the race out there is Pete Melvin, the very one who designed the Nacra F-18 Infusion. He and his son James (14-15 years old I think) are sailing a custom baby blue Infusion with a purple spinny and are currently in 3rd place only trailing behind Coen de Koning, 2 time F-18 world champ, and Gunnar Larsen of Nacra Europe, both from the Netherlands. Just behind these top 3 Nacra Infusions are Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier on their new Hobie Wildcat. So at least half of the top 10 right now are sailing Infusions, with a couple Capricorns, and Hobies taking the other spots. We send our best wishes to our southern california friends! Check out the cool video above that these guys made recently of some great F-18 sailing in Long Beach! Also check out the results here.
The annual Fremont Lake Regatta (aka Little America’s Cup) was an absolute blast this year with some of the best wind we’ve had up there in years! The weather looked a little daunting Saturday morning which scared some of the catamaran sailors away, but overall there was a decent turnout, esp. for the big boats. There was a little rain during the set up time, but soon the sun came out and brought some great wind with it! Saturday and Sunday included two races each of hull flying action. Brett and Ben on their 5.8 led the pack for each race with Devon and I on the F-18 close behind them. We even passed them on a spinnaker run and got a good lead but lost it due to overshooting the leeward mark and having our jib fall down on us. Kelly Winters from Pinedale closely trailed us on his 5.0 and managed to sneak into 2nd place on corrected time with Brett taking 1st and me taking 3rd. As for the big boats, the Utah Sailing Association was well represented as well with Randy on his Hunter, Jonathan on his McGregor, and Wade on his boat. Randy ended up taking 3rd overall. As usual, we had a great dinner party saturday night followed by a rippin early evening sail. Check out the photos already posted and watch for more to come. Don’t forget about the Le Beau’s Le Mans Grand Prix 20 race coming up this Labor Day weekend at Bear Lake!
Go check out the new photos Randy uploaded of the summer games. There are a few good shots of the races, carnage, and awards. Thanks Randy! The slide show option at the bottom left is a great way to check them out. You can also download them by using the “add item to cart” button on the left hand side. Click here to go directly to the album.
Michael Falk, the Race Chairman of the Bear Lake Yacht Club has kindly extended an invitation to their Huntsman Cup Regatta taking place this Saturday, May 23. The race is a fundraiser for the Pece House / Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Friday Night: Prime rib and Karoke at the Bear Lake West Club House
Saturday 11am: Skippers Meeting at the Garden City / Bear Lake Marina Pavaillion at the North end of the parking lot
Saturday 1-1:30pm: The race begins
Saturday night at the Marina. Cocktail hour 5-6, Dinner 6-7, Karoke 7-10. BYOB and dish to pass. All welcome, members and non-members.
For those of you that are interested in distance racing, tomorrow is the last of a 6 day, 550 mile catamaran race up the coast of Florida and Georgia. The Tybee 500 is now one of the most popular distance races in the world of catamaran sailing and has pretty much taken over for the Worrell 1000 that not longer exists. This year was a very unique year for the race in that there were more than double the usual 10 or so teams that compete every year with 24 boats. Also unique this year is the number of Formula 18s competing (7 total, looks like 3 Hobie Tigers and 4 Nacra Infusions). » Read more after the jump →
The USA icebreaker was a great success last weekend with REALLY good consistent wind coming from the north-west that picked up at 3:00 sharp on saturday. There were more boats than people to operate them and so a couple never made it off the trailers. Overall it was a great first sailing weekend of the season with lots of setting up for the year and some really good sailing. Coty and I took his 5.8 out and flew all over the lake, shaking off the dust from the winter and breaking in all his new lines. There were some pretty massive waves that were a BLAST to ride and reminded me of sailing last summer off the coast of Long Beach. Coty’s boat seemed to ride very smooth, with those 19′ hulls handling the rough water really well. By the way, Coty showed up this year to impress everyone with his newly completed MOTHER off all sailing boxes on his trailer. This thing is big enough to store/transport all this sailing gear with room enough for him to sleep in the thing! Very technical engineering and craftsmanship on his part! We’re looking forward to a great season, and hope to you on the water soon!
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the use of the southern area of Fremont Lake.
Having studied the Environmental Assessment, I would like to offer my perspective on the immediate impact this assessment has on the usage of the lake by catamaran and dinghy sailors, while addressing their needs.
for more information.
