The Hobie Memorial Foundation is raising funds to construct a memorial honoring Hobie Alter’s life and his many contributions to the surfing, boating, and skateboarding industries. The Hobie Memorial Foundation Newsletter publishes fascinating historical accounts such as this one in every issue.
Three years after R. Paul Allen won the inaugural Hobie Cat 14 Nationals in Del Mar, California, 18-year old Jeff Canepa took first place in Surfside, Texas. Following in the wake of former champions—Allen, Cappy Sheeley, and Richard Loufek—the one thing Canepa had in common with his predecessors was that racing a Hobie 14 had everything to do with their skills as sailors, which was the foundation for One-Design.
There are two primary methods of competition in sailboat racing: One-Design and Handicap. The former refers to a racing class that consists of just one model or design, where the first boat to finish wins the race. Handicapping adjusts each competitor’s elapsed time over the course by a factor based on the handicap figure for their boat.
The One-Design idea goes back one and a half centuries to 1887 when it was created by Thomas Middleton of the Shankill Corinthian Club located south of Dublin, Ireland, proposing a class of double-ended open dinghy called the Water Wag. The idea was quickly adopted by sailors in Ireland, England, India and South America.
The following is Jeff’s story in his own words.
The Beginning
By 1970, the Hobie 14 was just hitting the Northern California scene and ideal for my 145-pound frame. In Santa Cruz, long time surfers and local watermen, Jim Foley, Don Snyder, Howard Spruit, and small boat racers Jack Halterman, Rob Wade, and Don Radcliff all started racing Hobie 14’s.
I soon started getting a lot of exposure in California, winning local races and traveling to regattas with my Dad, Angelo. It was a pretty great time to race small boats and no other boat builder had that focus or vision.
Regionals
At one of my first regattas, the Division 2A Regional Championships at South Lake Tahoe, I had an advantage. I was competing against experienced sailors 10 years older than I was. Fortunately for me, even with all of their experience, they didn’t take into account the high altitude conditions in Lake Tahoe. They went from the worst; 25 to 30 knots of wind and wind swells to light air drift conditions.
In Tahoe’s high altitude, the thinner air produced a real wind velocity closer to 10-15 knots making it difficult to understand. Then, when the wind shut off, Tahoe’s light air made it a drifting event. Thanks to my inexperience, I wasn’t thrown off by the unexpected weather change and ended up winning, which qualified me for the Hobie 14 Nationals in Hawaii.
Another advantage I had over most of my competitors was that I rarely modified my boat between regattas. Within the rules of One-Design, you were allowed certain modifications. In the beginning at all of the nationals, Hobie provided the boats, so I got into the practice of sailing boats right out of the box.
Instead, my secret to sailing faster than the other guys was to sail with a loose rig. I slacked the side wires-stays as far as they would go. That way the mast raked back upwind and downwind, the boom swung out wide so I could carry lower sailing angles. This minor wire tensioning took no more than five minutes to change, and made a huge performance difference in all wind conditions.
It took fellow racers and experienced competitors some time to figure out what I was doing, which was basically tensioning the wires to my racing skills and sailing style. I sailed at the minimum Hobie 14 class weight of 150 pounds. I also spent much of the winter months skiing, became an active cyclist, runner, and sailed regularly to stay in good shape.
The first Hobie 14 World Championship was held in the winter of 1972 on the beach at the Kaimana Hotel, next door to the Outrigger Canoe Club. Airfare with hotel at the Kaimana cost $275; alone airfare was $190 round trip. Arriving early to acclimate myself, I helped assemble the new Hobie 14’s sent over for the race at McWayne Marine Supply.
I dominated the regatta throughout, up to the last two races, and was virtually a shoe-in for the first World Champion title. However, in the last minute drive, Richard Loufek won the last of the nine-race series, taking the crown from my hands by a heartbreaking close margin of only 3/4 of a point.
Regaining my momentum, I went on to win back to back World Championships; the first in 1974 at Matavai Bay, Tahiti, with Loufek in second place, and Phil Berman in third, then again in 1975 in Palmas Del Mar, Puerto Rico, winning over Randy Hatfield and Keith Baxter. I followed that victory up with a second place trophy at the first Hobie 16 World in Honolulu in 1976. Teaming up with Richard Loufek, I mistakenly gave the wrong directions, and we lost to Dean Froome and John Driscoll.
Racing a Hobie 18 in the 1977 Hobie Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, my partner, Bob Gassie and I came across the finish line in first place.
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