More to Read:
Piñata 2009 NOR
Letter to Hobie for Multihull Start
Response to the Letter
Tucson Hobie Fleet 514
As the new commodore for the Tucson Hobie Fleet 514 starting this year, I am late in creating the first newsletter. So, here it is.
The fleet participated in the Hobie Fleet 66 Cinco de Mayo regatta. Due to the Swine Flu scare and Recession and Drug Cartel issues and the aging of the HCA membership, the turn out was very low, only 17 boats participated. The H-18 Fleet was particularly affected since Kevin Walker and John Knipp appear to be switching to Hobie 16s (easier to raise the mast and push the boat around the beach) and John and Linda Mulay may be retiring from active racing (but still participating in the event) and Barb and Rick Buchanan retired last year due to health problems. The regatta was still a large success, however. The weather was perfect and the Saturday Night party at Pete and Sandy favorite restaurant, La Curva, was great.
Due to the low turnout at Mid Winters West at San Filipe and Cinco de Mayo, the Hobie Fleet 514 board decided to pursue, once again, to opening up the regatta to non Hobie boats. If the attendance at the “Full Service” Piñata Regatta also falls to less that 25 boats, the fleet will start losing money since we do provide goodie bags, raffle prizes, T-Shirts, 65 trophies, free breakfast, hot dogs and soda after the regatta, 2 chase boats and a good committee boat, etc, etc. Barb with the help of the entire board put together a letter requesting that our fleet be allowed to have an “open” regatta in which we could invite the Multihull Fleet 42 to participate in the Piñata Regatta (letter attached). The response to the letter was quick and thorough (see attachment). Chris Wessell, chairperson of HCA, rejected the request, citing many reasons including the “one design” philosophy of the Hobie Cat Association. We made the request anyway's since all fleets are experiencing the same issue of reduced participation due to our aging membership.
Our monthly meetings have been combined with the Tucson Sailing Club’s meetings at O’Malleys on 4th Street the 4th Wednesday of each month. Our turnout at these meetings is low unfortunately. I have pushed to restart our own monthly meetings but have faced resistance from the board. I would like to hear from the fleet members concerning the monthly meeting. If we start to have just a dinner get-together once a month at a centrally located restaurant, would more members attend. I am concerned that without our own monthly meeting and no volunteer to put out a comprehensive newsletter like Barb has done for the last few years, our participation in the fleet will slowly decline.
The board is actively preparing for the Piñata Regatta. We hopefully will have a good turnout the 2nd weekend of October. It will again be a full service regatta with T-Shirts, Goodie Bags, Raffle, Dinner Party, Salsa Contest, etc, etc. Kevin Walker and John Knipp have volunteered to be the race committee, Diane has volunteered once again to organize the dinner, and Dean once again is personally making up the trophies. Please fill out the Registration form and return it to me my September 8 to allow us to order the correct number of trophies and T-Shirts
Commodore John