Pensacola Beach, Fla. (March 23, 2006) - On the final day of racing, Robbie Daniel (Clearwater, Fla.) and Hunter Stunzi (Marblehead, Mass.) have won the 2006 U.S. Multihull Championship for US SAILING’s Hobie Alter Cup. Competition was close throughout the five-day event and the team fought vigorously for its win. With the top three finishers posting consistently solid results, second place finishers Nigel Pitt (Harwell, Ga.) and Alex Shafer (Eustis, Fla.) had been in contention for the top spot from the beginning of the regatta. Last year’s winners Greg Thomas and Jacques Bernier finished third overall.

After 18 heats in varying weather conditions, new champions Robbie Daniel and Hunter Stunzi showed conclusively that consistency is the key to getting to the podium. “We were careful not to be tricked into going for the big gains when we found ourselves behind,” said Daniel, who has been competing in the Olympic Tornado class for the over a decade. “The key was to go for the small gains to avoid the risk of big losses.”

The winners clearly enjoyed sailing the Nacra 20, a powerful jib, main and spinnaker platform they felt was similar to the Tornado in many respects. Like the rest of the fleet, they also expressed an appreciation for the rotation format that has been developed to self-seed the competitors from heat to heat. This modified round-robin keeps the top sailors sailing head to head as they rotate through each one of the provided boats.

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