An interview with Joe Tobin ahead of the 51st anniversary Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta
by David Schmidt 20 Oct 15:00 UTC
October 20-25, 2026
Hobie 16 World Championships in Spain - Day 1 (Masters) © IHCA
A half-century anniversary is a long time for most things, but in regatta terms, it's the kind of historical currency that portends a cool event. Enter the 51st anniversary Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta (October 21-25), which is hosted by the South Carolina Yacht Club, and which will take place on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean Beaches and/or Port Royal Sound.
The event is open to all multihulls that can be beach launched (and retrieved). A glance at the registration list reveals the usual suspects (F18s, Hobie 14s, Hobie 16s), plus some less commonly seen cats (Hobie 21SEs, Nacra 5.2s, Nacra 5.7s). One-design boats will compete against other cats of their kind, while boats competing in handicap classes will be divided into spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes.
All told, the Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta is expected to attract 40-50 teams from across the country.
I talked with Joe Tobin, who serves as regatta chair for the 51st edition of the annual Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta, to learn more about this warm-water regatta.
Can you please give us a bit of history on the South Carolina Yacht Club's Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta?
This year is the event's 51st anniversary, but that is not to say that we didn't go many, many years without any events at all. It's the 51st anniversary, but technically it's not the 51st annual regatta.
Hilton Head used to be a very popular sailing spot back in the day. In 1975, Hobie Alter had the Hobie 16 Nationals here and there were 133 boats.
But I think that—like everywhere else—sailing kind of slowed down a little bit.
Then, in 2016, Hurricane Matthew hit Hilton Head, and so there were virtually no boats left on the beach at all.
So, the first event was in 1975, and I recognized that 2025 was its 50th anniversary. So I brought back catamaran sailing to Hilton Head as best I could, and we've revitalized and reinvented having catamaran regattas here.
In 2024, we had 27 boats in a regatta, in 2025 we had a 75-boat regatta. And then this year we've had three regattas.
We had a circumnavigation of the island. We had the 2026 F18 North American Championship here just a couple weeks ago with 30 boats. And then in another couple weeks, we're going to have our annual Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta, and that's going to have probably close to 50 boats.
What's the overall scene like at the regatta?
So the folks that have been around here the longest, one of our captains, Captain Jim Harkins, he helps run the committee boat, is on the power boats out in the ocean, and he was here back in the day, and he says at any given day, we'd have 10, 15 boats just out on the water, and he says it's just, it's a throwback to that time, and he just loves seeing it.
It's a revitalized reenactment of what we used to do here, and a lot of the boats we have have the old World Championship sails on them. You know, the 1976 red, white, and blue sail, and a lot of the old-time Hobie people can tell you what the names of the different sails are... they say, oh, that's, the Sunrise, or that's the Purple Smash, and they know that the different years from when the sails came out.
So the event is kind of a celebration of the history of Hobie cat sailing, and we, of course, have got Nacras and all sorts of other boats here.
We'll probably have four or five classes in this upcoming event with spin, non-spin, Hobie 20s, Hobie 16s, and all sorts of different boats.
Generally speaking, what kinds of conditions can sailors expect to encounter off the Atlantic Ocean beaches and/or Port Royal Sound in mid-to-late October?
In October, the air temperature will be in the mid 70s, with highs in the high-70s, and the water temperature will be 72 degrees. So it'll be very, very tolerable and really, the spring and the fall is the ideal time to be in Hilton Head.
We have pretty steady breezes. I mean, right here on the Atlantic Ocean, it's not always predictable, but in the F 18 event earlier this year, there was a big nor'easter up in New York, and so [down here] we had gusts to 27 and 5-to-6-foot seas pretty much the whole week.
And so that that kept everybody's attention, but as I said, we're not running a kindergarten class here, we're running an F18 North American championship. And the sailors absolutely loved it.
The NOR describes courses as "medium-distance races". Can you please describe what shapes the courses will be, what points of sail can competitors expect to be tested on, and a rough idea of how long each course is?
I think are they all the different sailors have different things that they like or they don't like.
I claim the world's record for circumnavigation of Hilton Head on a catamaran, both solo and with a crew. And so this past spring, we circumnavigated the island, and I did it in just under 4.5 hours, and it was about 48 nautical miles.
And so the people that love long distance racing, they were challenged by being out in the ocean, by being in the intercoastal, there's tides to consider, there's tacking back in the intercoastal. Then we come out of the Port Royal Sound. There are huge seas where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Port Royal Sound.
The long-distance racers love the circumnavigation event
And then when we run the events off the beach, we just have typical windward-leeward buoy racing, and we've thrown in some long distance and medium distance courses.
When we do the medium distance, courses, our beachfront is 14 miles long, so we'll sail up to one end of the island, sail back to the other end of the island, around some buoys, and then what that does is it exposes the entire beachfront to the [regatta].
So, we're not going way out in the ocean, but we're just showcasing our event to everybody on the island. So, people kind of enjoy that as well.
Do you see local knowledge playing a big or small role in the regatta's outcome?
When you go around the back of the island [one the long-distance race], there's a lot of little inlets and outlets where you could easily get lost too far, and but with today's, GPS and smartphones, people aren't going to get too lost.
Hilton Head is not an uninhabited island. If worst comes to worst, you can crash into somebody's backyard. But, you know, you're not going to get lost at sea for sure.
One of the hardest parts [of the course] is going underneath the bridge. There can be virtually zero wind. And so, if the current's running 3 or 4 knots in one direction, it's kind of a good idea to be going in the right direction. Otherwise, you'd have trouble getting under the bridge.
And then the other problem is that we have an awful lot or motorboats around the back of the island, and another challenge are the old jet skis. Those are kind of moving obstacles as well.
Local knowledge definitely helps. It gives you a little bit more confidence, and I think [the long-distance course] definitely generates a little bit more consternation to somebody who's done typical buoy racing forever, but now they have to navigate around an island that's close to 50 miles of sailing.
Do you have any entries that you're eyeing for podium finishes?
One of our most famous attendees is Joe Bennett of Joyrider TV, and he's a big YouTube personality, has 50,000 followers, and he's making two trips to Hilton Head this year. He's always one of the top guys.
And the Hobie 16 guys, they know who the best guys are.
The Hobie 16 is always the biggest fleet, and we'll have 20-plus boats in the Hobie 16 fleet, and that's very close racing, and every little minuscule adjustment of the boat matters.
But certainly, Joe Bennett and his crew, Laura Baron, I think they got a second place last year, and I'm sure they'd love to come back and get a first-place trophy this year.
What kind of evening entertainment do you and the other event organizers have planned, once each day's racing concludes?
One of the things we're very proud of here in Hilton Head is that we are a tourist destination. I consider us a world-class sailing destination, and one of the attractions here is that when you come to Coligny, which is the kind of the downtown tourist central of Hilton Head, you can park your car for the week, and you don't have to get back in your car all week long. And I think that's a huge attraction to sailors. It is not frequent that they can do that. Everything you want is within walking distance of where we're sailing.
And every night we have entertainment, we have bands, we have different venues we go to.
Our major sponsor, the people who help us put all this together, is the South Carolina Yacht Club. And so one night we'll get on a trolley. The yacht club's on the north end of the island, and we'll get on a, a trolley, ride up to the yacht club and have a big event up there.
Traditionally, what we always do is have a Halloween party. People love to get dressed up and have all sorts of different themes. Last year, my family was here and we were Gilligan's Island. We had the professor, Mary Ann, and the whole crew.
So generally, sailing- or boating-related themes at the Halloween party are always big hits. There'll be 12 pirates there for sure.
Is there anything else about this year's South CarolinaYacht Club's Hilton Head Island Multihull Regatta that you'd like to add, for the record?
We're gaining momentum. We're looking at the 2029 F18 Worlds to come to Hilton Head. We're talking to the Hobie 16 class association about the 2027 Hobie 16 Nationals.
I think what we've done here in the last few years has regenerated and brought attention back to Hilton Head, and as I said, it is a world-class sailing destination, we have a beautiful beach, we have the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, and we have the infrastructure of a tourist destination with hotels, and restaurants, and grocery stores—all within walking distance of where you're sailing.
I don't know if you can find a better place to go sailing.