A total of 34 boats attended the combined Hobie 17 and Hobie 18 North American Championship held on Keystone Lake, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
John Forbes from Australia returned to the USA as defending North American champion in the Hobie 18 class. This year John sailed with Rose Cookson, a skilled Hobie 16 and Hobie 18 young gun from Sydney. Together they scored six 1st places a 2nd place and dropped a 3rd to beat their Colorado based training partners Richard and Liam Freer. Both teams sported the new H18 updates approved by the IHCA in April this year. Whilst this sounds like a walk in park for Forbes/Cookson and Freer, the photos tell a different story with bustling starts and tight racing on the course.
Wind over the four days was generally light and the Race Committee did a fantastic job to get the maximum number of races in during the challenging conditions. The final day provided the strongest wind for the series with lots of double trap upwinds putting smiles on everyones faces.
The Hobie 18 class continues to remain vibrant in both the USA and Canada with pockets of fleets spread around the North American continent allowing the championship to be held in vastly different locations each year. At this years event females accounted for 32% of the fleet with that number continuing to grow year on year. The youngest sailor was 12 years old and the oldest was 72.
The average combined team weight across the fleet was 359 lbs (163 kgs) which is well above the class rule minimum of 295 lbs (134 kgs). The lightest team was 305 lbs and the heaviest team was 449 lbs.
Whilst we don’t see a fleet of Hobie 17’s racing in Australia, it is certainly a hotly contested fleet in North America with 20 boats competing. The big upset this year was the defeat of Phil Collins (not the drummer) who has won the North American title a staggering twelve times. Phil’s arch rival Bart Beck from Denver, Colorado pipped him by just one point after a mixed bag of results by both Phil and Bart on the final day. Bart also broke the ‘curse’ by winning the Tulsa Cat Fight Regatta the weekend prior. It was believed that whoever won the warm up regatta never won the major North American Championship so Bart was super happy to break that curse by winning both events.
Next years Hobie 17 and Hobie 18 North American Championship will be held at Carlyle Sailing Association in Carlyle, Illinois in October 2025. Local sailors in Carlyle will have charter boats available for any Australian teams wishing to attend.
The 2026 event is expected to be held in Harrison Springs in Canada.
