April 28, 1999, Portsmouth (R.I.) - When top multihull sailors from around the country gathered on the northwest coast of Florida to compete for the 1998/99 US SAILING Multihull Championship for the Alter Cup-hosted April 20-24 by the Blue Water Bay Sailing Club of Niceville and sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A.-no one skipper could dominate this fleet of Who's-Who talent. "In the end," said second-place crew Jacques Bernier of Clearwater (Fla.), "it all came down to the last race."

But according to winner Randy Smythe of Fort Walton Beach (Fla.), it was more dramatic than that: The title came down to "the last two feet of the final race," he said.

Clearwater (Fla.) sailors Robbie Daniel and crew Jacques Bernier entered the final race in the lead. Florida skipper Brian Lambert and Juliano Vianda were only 1.5 points behind Daniel, and Smythe was in third. As long as they covered their points on Lambert and Smythe did not finish in the top two, Daniel had the series locked. When Smythe had a hardware failure at the start and rounded the first weather mark in last place, Daniel's chances looked even better. He shifted his focus to covering Lambert, and ended up tenth in the last race.

But what Daniel wasn't counting on was Smythe and crew Keith Notary's comeback, which they made in the final feet of the last leg in an extremely close finish: After 8 miles of racing, the top 3 boats crossed within 5 seconds of each other. Smythe's second place put him in a points tie with Daniel. Smythe captured the title on an unexpected eventuality, with Smythe's eighth-place discard beating Daniel's tenth-place throwout in the tie-breaker. (Up until the last race, Daniel's worst race was a fifth.) "You can't get any closer than that!" said Smythe.

Third place overall went to Lambert and Vianda, only 1.5 points behind the leaders.

Winds on the practice day piped up to 20 knots, but the conditions during the championship ranged from light, shifty breeze to winds of 16/17 knots. The final day of racing saw "two winds," as one competitor said, with a light, shifty wind of approximately 5-8 knots in the morning, and a new,

stiffer afternoon breeze approximately 16 knots filling in for the final races. Races were held on the Choctawhatchee Bay.

Twenty skippers competed for the Alter Cup. The selection process of this championship is designed to pull the country's top multihull sailors to the starting line. Elimination trials are sailed in the ten US SAILING regions of the country the preceding year. The defending champion and champions from one-design multihull classes are invited to compete. There are also three spots for sailors who can petition to contend, with selection based on their sailing resume. According to Smythe, who won his fourth Alter Cup this year, the system worked especially well and the toughest competitors from around the country were on the racecourse.

The 20 skippers also rotated through a round-robin in the 10 new Nacra 6.0s. After eight races, the fleet was split into Silver and Gold fleets for the final two races. According to Steve Leo, Chairman of the Alter Cup Committee, this guarantees that the top skippers in contention will race against each other in the final rounds.

For the second year, according to Leo, elimination trials were held the previous year and the championship was run the following spring. The change of splitting trials and the championship has made it easier for sailors to get time off to attend two major regattas in two different years. This also allows the manufacturer-supplied boats used in the series to be put on the market early in the season.

This national multihull championship was conceived by the US SAILING Multihull Council in the spring of 1985. The championship is sailed in different locations each year. Local dealer Key Sailing purchased the ten new Nacra 6.0s used this year from Performance Catamaran. Key Sailing chartered the boats to the event, and supplied staff on-site to fulfill maintenance duties.

The perpetual trophy of the series, the Alter Cup, was named in honor of Hobie Alter, Sr. and his extraordinary promotion of one-design multihull sailing and racing programs. In addition to Smythe, several other 1999 competitors were past winners of the Alter Cup, including Bob Curry (1994) Pete Melvin (1997, 1998).

The 1999/2000 US Sailing Multihull Championship for the Alter Cup will be held at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, Calif.

Rolex Watch U.S.A. is sponsor of US SAILING's 1999 adult championships. In addition to direct regatta subsidies and enhancements, the sponsorship supports a national poster program and grants for clinics at four of the events. The Hoyt/Jolley Foundation set up a fund for the Alter Cup to assure its continuing presence as a major US SAILING championship.

For more information about this or any of the US SAILING national championships events, contact Karen O'Neil, Championship Manager, at 401/683-0800, visit our web site at www.ussailing.org/race/main.html or call our toll-free InfoFax line at 888 US SAIL-6.