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For the Media: Colgate 26 News
Steve Colgate
Chairman
Colgate 26 - Offshore Sailing School
866-842-4355 toll free
239-985-7505
Colgate 26 Continues as Boat of Choice for International Match Racing Event
FORT MYERS, FL (August 2, 2009) — Steve Colgate, founder of Offshore Sailing design keelboat announced earlier this month that the 2009 Knickerbocker Cup, where the world’s best match racing teams compete for prize money, will once again be held on Colgate 26 sailboats. This will be the fourth year that the Colgate 26 is the boat of choice for this prestigious international competition, part of the International Sailing Federation match race championships. The winner of this regatta is automatically invited to one of the top match racing regattas in Bermuda.
The Regatta will be held August 26-30, 2009 at Manhasset Bay Yacht Club, in Manhasset, Long Island. Once again, Offshore Sailing School, which Steve Colgate founded in 1964, is providing four Colgate 26s, augmented by private owners donating enough boats to accommodate 12 professional international match racing teams.
In the first regatta on Colgate 26 sailboats in 2006 at the Knickerbocker Yacht Club, Steve watched and talked to competitors in awe as they put the Colgate 26s through maneuvers that might disable boats not built to Colgate 26 specifications.
Eleven teams from all over the world, as far away as Sweden and New Zealand, competed. “Though they are professionals sailing for monetary prizes, I never realized how costly these regattas are to them,” he reported. They must pay for a crew of four to fly to the Regatta (in that case it was in Port Washington, Long Island); an entry fee and a damage deposit of $2000 per boat – all on the chance of winning about $5000.
Steve feels that one of the reasons they like racing on Colgate 26s, is not only because of the boats performance characteristics, but because they are so well built and almost all of the damage deposit has been returned to them each year. In the three past regattas, the worst damage cost of about $200 was divided between eleven crews. Part of this was a bent spreader from putting the mast in the water on a spinnaker broach in 30 knot winds. One competitor told Colgate that was a blessing for poor sailors.
Competitors in the past three Regattas all had great praise for the Colgate 26. They said they liked that the stern swings up as you turn the bow down, which makes it very tactical at the starts. Colgate is constantly amazed at how well the boats are sailed by these professionals. He urges Colgate 26 owners to continue to loan their boats for future Knickerbocker Cups, if only to be on the spectator boats and watch such fine racing.
The specifications for the Colgate 26 came from Colgate who worked with noted naval architect Jim Taylor inputting these into the design. “After teaching on Olympic class Solings for more than 20 years, I wanted a stable, safe, high performance, beautiful one-design boat that wouldn’t sink and was a blast to sail,” explains Colgate. The Colgate 26 – built by Precision Boat Works in Palmetto, Florida – debuted at the October United States Sailboat Show in 1996 with quite a lot of buzz. It was chosen immediately by the U.S. Naval Academy as the boat to replace their aging fleet of Knockabouts, and awarded the prestigious 1997 Cruising World magazine “Boat of the Year Award” in the “Pocket Cruiser Division.” Colgate expects to sell hull #350 in the next few months.
For more information on the Knickerbocker Cup or the Colgate 26, call Steve Colgate at 866-842-4355 toll free in the United States and Canada, or 239-454-1700. His email is steve@Colgate26.com.
Editor’s Note: For high resolution images to accompany this article contact doris@offshoresailing.com.
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