Keep an eye on the first Wildcat in the UK
by Hazel Beard, Hobie Cat Centre 11 Jun 2009 14:42 PDT
11 June 2009
The first Wildcat in the UK has been bought by Luke Yeates an ex-instructor of the Hobie Cat Centre who has been sailing cats since he was 15. Luke now 24 and his crew Matt Humphries 27 ( a serial National skiff champion) met last year whilst racing Farr 52 Racing Yachts, between them they put together a plan to buy and campaign a Hobie Wildcat, they managed to secure sponsorship from companies such as Harken UK and Towergate Marden insurance 4 dinghies and the boat has “Gold Cover”.
Luke is not one to shy away from a challenge and in 2006 he won sponsorship from Cobalt Corporate Finance and planned and executed an ambitious sail round Britain on his Hobie Tiger termed the 'Britcat Challenge,' not only did he successfully complete this trip Luke and his then crew Mark Angell managed to set an unbeaten record completing the challenge in just 28 days 5 hours 5 mins and 11 secs, raising £13k for the charity Childline.
They certainly have a lot planned for the Wildcat in the forthcoming season. They have already kicked off their sailing season with the first of their planned Long Distance races the Fastcat Round the Island Race. Next on the long distance list is the famously gruelling Archipelago raid which Ellen MacArthur competed in, followed by Whitstable Forts Race, and the East Coast Piers.
They will also be doing as many of the opens as possible. Luke and Matt have also agreed to get involved in some Wildcat demo days which will take place at various clubs on the south coast this summer ( dates yet to be confirmed.) If you are interested in visiting one of these demo days call or email the Hobie Cat Centre to register your interest and we will get back to you with the dates. Phone 01202 671661 or email
Luke gave us this update on the Fastcat Round the Island Race last weekend:
Good first race for Wildcat. We were off the line first and first to the windward mark by a country mile. The boat was faster on a twin trapeze 3 sail reach. We had a decent lead on the F18s at Lepe Spit, then made some bad tactical decisions being too cautious with the tide, down to Hurst. We couldn’t push hard enough downwind because we still haven’t fitted toe straps or ‘chicken lines’ (big mistake).
Very rough at Hurst so we cruised round the corner. Then overtook four F18s upwind on the way to St. Cats including a decent Nacra mk II and the fastest UK Capricorn. It was extremely fast to windward thanks in part to its high ratio long daggerboards.
The boat felt very fast and capable of winning the race, we just need to sort a couple of things with the boat and then go the right way, but it is as fast as the mark II Nacra on all points of sail, it shows moments of much higher speed so we are trying to learn how to make that more consistent. Every time we sail the boat gets slightly faster which is great.