Christian Schaumloffel's Hobie 33 MIRAGE, class winner at 2002, 07 and 08 St. Petersburg NOOD regatta
Born and raised in Germany, Christian has been actively racing since 1962. Beginning in dinghies, and on offshore 40- to 57-foot yachts since 1968, in 1978 he began skippering some of those offshore yachts.
He has been responsible for campaigns in the tidal waters of southern England, the English Channel, North Sea, Skagerak and off the Atlantic coast of Florida (Ft. Lauderdale to Key West), as well as the Mediterranean, the Baltic and the Great Lakes. He has participated in eight Mackinac and seven Fastnet races, including the infamous 1979 storm off Fastnet.
From his current home in the southern Chesapeake Bay in 1998, he began campaigning his Hobie 33 wherever that ULDB one-design class has been racing. A couple of times he won the Hobie 33 Midwinters at the St. Petersburg NOOD regattas (incl. this year). A big overall win was the Lauderdale Key West Race in 2005 against star studded crews in a wild sleigh ride, breaking only records in that race.
With sailing, he says, "Some interests were initially forced upon me, but I grew to like them -- such as aero- and hydrodynamics, astronomical and celestial navigation, weather, tide current prediction, developing race-tactical software, rating questions, race rules, boat maintenance in all areas and, above all, seamanship. In another hundred years I may have it all figured out, but I am not quite 100 yet." He is proud to report that his teenage daughters have shown interest in some of his activities
