20th Hobie 16 World Championships Jervis Bay 2014

The securing of the 20th Hobie 16 World Championships is big news for the South Coast of NSW, and is a great chance to showcase the region to the rest of Australia and indeed the world.

This event has been held at some of the most beautiful places on the planet including Fiji, New Caledonia, French West Indies, Dubai, Florida USA, Tahiti, US Virgin Islands and Honolulu just to name a few.

Race venue and headquarters for the 2014 event will be Jervis Bay, one of the top tourist destinations in regional NSW thanks to its stunning white sands, grand cliffs and a myriad of uniquely beautiful landscapes and waterways.

It’s fitting that Jervis Bay is also the headquarters of Hobie Cat Australasia, a company that employs a good number of locals and has helped many Australians realize that kayaking and sailing in small crafts is an affordable and unique way to take in the natural beauty of our waterways.

I recently spoke with Hobie Cat Australasia CEO Steve Fields who had some updates and insights into the event:

“With over four months to go before the first competition day of the Hobie® 16 World Championships on Jervis Bay.  The Huskisson Hobie Cat factory team are ahead of the production schedule for the 60 Hobie 16 catamarans that are being built for the international sailing regatta.”

“Registration numbers are growing and 16 different nations are already represented in the championships, with a total of 103 crews coming from countries outside of Australia.  The largest international contingents are currently from Brazil, the USA and New Caledonia with competitors from all 6 populated continents competing in the 15 day regatta.”

Interest within the Australian sailing community is exceptional and sailors from all mainland states, as well as the ACT, now make up the 150 Australian teams that have registered.

Five different categories will be contested during the regatta, an Open, a Women’s and a Youth World Championship, as well as, Masters and Grand Masters International Cups.

The number of entries for two of the divisions, the Masters and the Open events, are nearing capacity and a cut off number has now been set.  Once this number of entrants is achieved no further teams will be accepted in these categories.

Open Qualifier entries for the world championships are the most popular category.  These sailors have registered to race over 3 days from the February 8-10 with the aim of making the cut for the world championship semi-finals.  Semi-final competitors will consist of the crews that make the cut in the qualifying rounds and teams who have won direct entry into the world championship semis by pre-qualifying through national championships.

Steve Fields has been instrumental in securing the event, and has been a big part of the event at other venues around the world and as such the region is in good hands when it comes to having an extremely well run event that the region will be proud of.  The media generated from the event will attract great attention to the region.  Viewers can find out more about the event at http://hobieworlds.com/


See you on the water
Rob Paxevanos