If you've ever been home on a Tuesday night in the summertime, you have probably noticed multi coloredsailboats on the lake. It looks like chaos on the water, but it is really a sailboat race organized by the Austin Lake Catamaran Association. Please take a look below for some history and information on our fleet.

The Austin Lake Catamaran Association / Hobie Fleet 519 [simply shortened to ALCA] was created in 1984 with 8 members. We were formed with the goal of advancing the sport of catamaran sailboat racing in general and Hobie Cat racing in particular.

2011 is our 27th consecutive year of racing on Austin Lake in Portage. Our fleet races 2 weekly series with the first 8-week spring series beginning on the first Tuesday in May. We then take a 1-week break and then begin our 10-week summer series.

Fleet members consist of social members, racing sailors and volunteers. Anyone with an interest in sailing, at any age level, is welcome. The skill level ranges from beginning sailors to sailors who have sailed in National and World Championship events. We get together after racing to announce the night's results and to socialize. In the past we've used these gatherings to discuss a different sailing topic each week. We might discuss racing rules, tactics, boat tuning or even specific sailing situations that may have occurred that evening. Or we may discuss more important topics such as what the theme should be at the next fleet party! In that regard, we are as much a social club as we are a sailing club. We organize several parties during the year that may or may not be sailing related.

As important as the social aspects of the club are, it always comes back to sailing. We all have a common interest that we find fun and educational. There is always something to learn. We make a concertedeffort to help the newer sailors to learn how to sail or to improve their skills. We put on seminars and our most experienced sailors even offer to crew for the more inexperienced skippers. We realize that it can be very intimidating to a new sailor to come out and race with us. You need to understand how the races are managed, you need to know the basic right-of-way rules and have the nerve to mix it up with 15-20 other boats in pretty close proximity to each other.  Heck, we all get a little nervous even after all these years! That's why we do whatever we can to make the experience a pleasant one. After all, we're not in it for the money! You might do well enough to win a trophy at the end of the season and get bragging rights over some of your fellow sailors. Some of the top sailors realize and take solace when they lose a race, that they may have made someone's entire season just because they got beat in 1 race!

ALCA would like to invite anyone interested in learning more about us and our love for sailing to give us a call, email or even Facebook. We typically have room on our committee boat for a guest or two to see racing from this perspective first hand. There is also potential to get your feet wet as a crew for an up and close experience of racing catamarans on Austin Lake.

Please feel free to contact Jerry Mohney, this year's commodore at jmohney@sbcglobal.net.