8th annual Kite Crossing is Still On!

The 8th annual Kite Crossing is still on and will be held over the weekend of March 2-4. This absurd winter definitely threatened the future of this event as well as others. We had open water on Mille Lacs going into the middle of January. Since then, we have secured enough ice to maintain safety/rescue vehicles for a limited but yet still challenging endurance race. Only a few of us remember the first year which now seems like the perfect event, but since then we have come to recognize that the challenge may be more than burning thighs and frozen fingers, but more like getting enough wind down on a surface with good traction and adequate visibility.

While we may be dealing with some restrictions and limitations, we can still be assured of a weekend of competition and comradery. Just last Thursday, the Hennepin County Sheriff closed Minnetonka as well as all other county accesses to all cars and trucks. The spotlight will be on us, so now is the time to show our respect for the conditions and responsibility to our community. We will be providing regular updates right up to the event.

Registration: Contact us at fleet-8@juno.com for a Notice of Challenge in a PDF format. It should provide all the necessary information. We will be accepting electronic registration by e-mail. If you have registered for a Fleet 8 event in the past two years and nothing has changed, just provide your name, category, shirt size and preferred e-mail address for receiving Updates. The PayPal button is a Donate button and has a fixed amount of $30 until midnite Wednesday, February 29th. Guest banquet fees can be paid at the site.

Kona North Americans

Fleet 8 is proud to announce that we will be hosting the 2012 Kona North American Championships on Lake Waconia, August 24-26. In our 35th year, we have come full circle. In 1978, we hosted the District 5 Championships for the original Windsurfer One-design on Lake Waconia. Since then, we have been fortunate to play a major role in propelling our local race scene to being the most active in the western hemisphere, with the Tonka Crossing drawing over 200 participants for several years and the Mille Lacs Crossing enduring 28 years as the most popular and longest-running event in the history of our sport. Of course, we did shift off course a bit with the first International snowkite competition, the Kite Freeze and the only kiting event to surpass 100 registrants, the Kite Crossing, now in its eighth year. But now Kona brings us back to our roots.

Kona One-design was developed by enthusiasts of the original Windsurfer competition and has become the strongest one-design program since the 80’s. As one World Class sailor stated this last year, I believe the Kona One is the fairest sailing class today, including all dinghy classes. Last season, Fleet 8 and Kona Midwest helped introduce one-design racing back into the Midwest racing scene with great success. This coming season, we are preparing to offer programs for Midwest sailors to redevelop their sailing skills on the Kona, in preparation for the North Americans. We hope to see our local, as well as Midwest sailors make a statement competing against some of the best International competition. More info to follow as we release the Notice of Race and open on-line registration.