The U.S. Multihull Championship is one of several prestigious championships hosted by US Sailing and sailed in selected one-design class boats. The perpetual trophy was presented and named the Alter Trophy in 1986 in honor of Hobie Alter, Sr. and his extraordinary promotion of one-design multihull sailing and racing programs.

The U.S. Multihull Championship for the Hobie Alter Trophy has become one of the nation’s major sailing championships, having featured world champions from numerous classes, Olympic medalists and several national champions from the multihull ranks.

The U.S. Multihull Championship was conceived by the Multihull Council in the spring of 1985 as a service to multihull racing sailors. It is intended to determine a U.S. national multihull champion and is sailed annually in various types of multihulls.

Originally the championship had the good fortune of having manufacturers provide new boats including Hobie, Inter, Nacra, Prindle, Mystere and Bimare classes but in 2013, the decision was made to rotate it each year through the various classes of catamarans to better represent the depth of multihull sailing in the United States.