Category: Uncategorized

Tuesday-Friday, August 1-5, 2023
Lake Quinault, WA
Rain Forest Resort Village

On the southeast shore of Washington State’s Lake Quinault, in the far southeast corner of the Olympic National Park, one of the most quiet places on earth, a motley crew of sailors mingled Monday evening under and around the log cabana in the center of the Rain Forest Resort Village, marking the beginning of the four-day 2023 Hobie H17/H18 North American Championship Regatta, host to 38 boats: 13 Hobie 17s and 25 Hobie 18s, second largest number of 18s and just two boat shy of the current NA record. 

They arrived from four countries: US, Canada, Australia and Spain. 
They took trains, planes and automobiles from twelve states and provinces: British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa and Mississippi. 
For some it is their first North American Championships. Others are more seasoned, such as Lonnie Byers, who holds the ridiculously low (i.e. old) HCA number of 1289. This feat is as impressive as holding a four-digit REI membership card. 
Champions from near and far, including three-time Olympic medalist Australian John Forbes, plus Phil Collins, Will Nelson, Peter Nelson, Jim Sohn, and current NA champs John & Della Hoag and Bart Beck, looking to defend their titles.
Competitors rang in age from 14 to over 70. Students, dentists, truckers, musicians, CEOs, retirees, lay people. On the water they are all equal.
Organized by a powerhouse District 4 team consisting of Al Jones, Della Hoag, John Hoag, Paul Carter, Bob Combie, Don Atchley and J Rosenbach, the regatta promises stellar racing, mind boggling vistas, wind, sun, lawn games, camping, and delicious meals thanks to Dino’s, home to crunchy and melty hand tossed pizzas and walls covered with indigenous art, and The Salmon House, which serves up more than salmon, but also probably the tastiest Pacific salmon you’ll find anywhere on earth.
Monday’s (gourmet) bratwurst and hot dogs were accompanied by singer Ben Fagerstedt, young, impeccably dressed, ocean blue eyes, serenading the sailors clad in t-shirts, cargo shorts and flipflops, with ratpack era tunes, crooning hits from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the recently departed Tony Bennet. (For some it is hoped their sailing skills exceed their dancing moves.)
The next day the racing begun. Tuesday dawned with sunshine, blue skies—and a light breeze. A change from the near 20-knot winds for the previous weekend’sregatta. 
Once the oscillating breeze settled in, Race 1 started in a 6-knot westerly, though the 17s in the rear found themselves struggling to emerge from a hole at the west end. Two 18 sailors, Dan Tarleton and Chris Kujiper, took advantage of the lull by going for a dip, trusting their vessel to take a slow walkabout before rejoining its skipper and crew. Four races and several capsizes filled out the day. 
Race 2 saw a building breeze, with the beat for the 18s to the windward mark taking a mere 7 minutes.
But boat racing is about more that just sailing to a mark before your competitors. It’s about resiliency, perseverance, and a hefty dose of MacGyverism. 
In Race 2, the 18 sailed by skipper Arden Rathkopf and crew JJ Hoag broke apart. That’s right. Without warning, and like a knife through butter (but with a distinctly louder and teeth grinding noise) the left hull severed off. 
Neither Arden or JJ is a stranger to the water or boating, both being raised in racing families and sailing since birth. Arden’s folks run regattas, his father is the PRO for this year’s NAs. Arden is heading to Hawaii in a few weeks to begin his pursuit of a marine biology degree. JJ is a certified ER nurse and traveled to Spain’s Costa Brava last fall to represent the US at the Hobie 16 World Championships. 
So with the fortitude and intelligence ingrained in them through upbringing, genetics, and education, the pair sprung into action to salvage their boat—and finish out the regatta. Truck rides, borrowed trailers, phone calls and with the help of friends, family and strangers in the sailing community, their substitute boattravelled hundreds of miles overnight from near the Canadian border and was delivered by 8am, ready for the first of Tuesday’s races. Oh, and the pair were on time for Tuesday night’s pizza dinner at Dino’s, taking time to pose on their spectacularly broken craft for the assembling paparazzi.

Day One Results link

We would like to thank our sponsors of this week’s North Americans!

Rain Forest Resort Village for hosting and feeding us!

CSR Marine full service boatyards in Seattle and Des Moines WA!

Hobie Sailboats, manufactured by Zim Sailing, a part of the Starting Line Sailing family of companies!

Starting Line Sailing, Inc. Zim Sailing  |  West Coast Sailing  |  Dwyer Mast & Rigging  | Hobie Sailboats

Murrays Sports! Sailing, Kiteboarding, Paddling, Windsurfing Products & Accessories

We have created a new Facebook Event page for the North Americans:
Hobie 17/18 North American Championships

We’ll do some posting on the blog hobiediv4.org, Twitter/X @hobiediv4 and the Facebook page Hobie Division 4.

Saturday & Sunday, July 29 & 30, 2023
Lake Quinault, WA
Rain Forest Village Resort
by Liza Tewell

Deep in the interior of the Olympic National Park rainforest, though not far from the rugged northwest Pacific coast, lies Lake Quinault, tribal owned and surrounded by towering hills of old growth evergreens as far as the eye can see. Dolly Varden trout are plentiful. Boats with motors aren’t allowed without tribal approval.
The Rain Forest Resort Village has hosted the Hobie Division 4 Northwest Area Championships for nearly three decades. Owned by the Morrison families, the resort consists of an RV park (no tents allowed, except for Hobie week, when tents of all sizes pop up like mushrooms), half a dozen wood cabins, and on the one-and-only road, a laundromat and a small “Inn”. Thanks to manager Ian, the general store carries anything a camper might need, and stocks an astonishing assortment of local IPAs, Kolsch-style ales, and pilsners from several microbreweries in nearby Aberdeen, birthplace of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. You’ll be welcomed by Ian’s petite Shih Tzu-Pekingese, Ella, and his stock greeting, “Looking for something local”? There is limited, if any, cell reception or internet connection. The historic Lake Quinault Lodge is a short 15-minute stroll to the west. The campground sits 20 feet from the largest Sitka Spruce in the world.
Saturday, the weekend’s first day of racing, dawned a bit cloudy as Canada Geese honked overhead, summoning the racers to get a move on. Sailors from Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Oregon, British Columbia Canada and beyond gathered under the campground’s log cabana for the skipper’s meeting. Informed that the wind had yet to fill in, they milled around and futzed with their boats until race PRO Charley Rathkopf finally sounded the horn for a 1:30 start. 
The doctor was fickle in arriving, shifting right then left. Eventually the marks were set to the committee’s satisfaction and the racing was on. First out of the gate was the 17-strong Hobie 18s, followed by 9 17s and 9 16s. The wind began to build. And build. One by one Hobies flipped, turtled and pitchpoled. The Hunger Games were on. Zooming mark boats zigzagged the course, helping to right vessels. The final race included a “screaming reach mark” and culminated in the grand finale of a near perfect pitch pole by a Canadian Hobie 18, the rescue of which included the skipper swimming to the mark boat in order to be deposited back onto his boat to then help haul his crew out of the drink. By day’s end, thirty percent of the fleet had retired. Only 3 16s remained on the water.
After three races in what Seattle-based John and Della Hoag, 2022 Hobie 18 National Champions, said was the windiest conditions they’d sailed in their almost thirty years of racing Lake Quinault, the fleet was spent. An on-the-water poll said enough was enough (though PRO Rathkopf was itching to pull off a fourth race in the late afternoon 20-knot breeze). 
Heading into Sunday’s racing, the Hoags stood in first with 3 points, thanks in part to a nail-biting horse race where they trailed the entire way then punched around the boat-end of the finish line, besting rivals J Rosenbach and Eric Bramlet by mere inches, who finished the day second in the 18s with 6 points. Third with 9 points was Paul Evenden and Elianna Sutcliffe. 
The 16s ended Saturday with Matthew Lambert and Shale Paget in first with 4 points, Peter Nelson and Emily Jennerich a close second with 5 points and Bryan Simpson and Bridgette O’Brien in third with 9 points.
The 17s ended Saturday with Oklahoman Phil Collins in first with 4 points, Oregonian Lonnie Byers in second with 7 points, and Coloradoan Bart Beck in third with 10 points.
The fleet dinner of Sloppy Joes, beans, slaw and plenty of cookies, hosted by Division 4, was held back at the cabana. Afterward the tired sailors wandered off under the almost-full moon and star-carpeted sky to their beckoning sleeping bags, while some gathered around a propane campfire (a burn ban was in effect for all of Grays County), serenaded by singer/songwriter and Canadian racer (and NRO, RMCC and CJ), Paul Evenden, accompanied by fellow Hobie racer, camper and Canadian, Charlene Sutcliffe on flute. Check out Paul’s CDs or live shows. You won’t be disappointed. 

Final Results