Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Hobie Cats

I'm in the market for ideally a used 16' Hobie Cat.
Sharon and I are looking for something to buzz around the bay in and get over to the beach a little quicker than our kayaks when we feel like it. I'm thinking this would be perfect as much of the water off my property is very shallow until you get out a good ways. So not having a center board is ideal plus being able to sail right up to the beach will be nice as well.

I've been around boats of all types long enough that I can give just about anything a good look over for soft spots and judge it's general shape but since this board is always a surprising wealth of knowledge I thought I'd mention it here. I've sailed on one a few times but never owned a Hobie or any other catamaran for that matter so I'm sure there are some good things to know that are specific to the craft.

Thanks for all comments and suggestions.

Cat Hobbies?




Oh, you didn't mean HOBBIES, you meant HOBBES...



No, no, no.... Hobie Cat....

Nice work, Nick!

Good luck, Murph.

Oooh, those things are fun! Maybe I should plan another trip east.

Murph:

I went for a walk today around Comox Harhour & saw a whole fleet of these craft out on the water. It was a sailing class & the Cats were being piloted by four 10 to 12 year olds on each one who were obviously having fun in a safe manner under the watchful eye of their instructor in a powered Zodiac. These craft seem to be a great vessel that are fast, safe & well designed.

If the kids can do it, I'm sure that you can...

TAM

Murph,

Hobie 16 is a performance craft. It will submarine and pitchpole regularly if you push it and or don't really know what you're doing. If you want a cat/hobie to get from a to b of that size you might want to consider a hobie getaway. No daggers or centerboard and pretty quick. I've owned many mono's and cats and the getaway is probably the easiest boat to rig, sail and maintain of all of them.

Shhhhhh! We wanna hear stories about how Murph submarined his Hobie.

Thanks IBmack. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

I should have probably added that I can be a bit of an adrenaline junkie at times. Certainly not movie material or anything. Although, I probably would have been worse if I actually had any money growing up. In any case, the performance piece is part of the reason I'm looking at that model.

My wife.... Definitely not so much at first but she does tend to work her way up to thrill seeker over time. It just takes longer. You just won't get her to admit it, but you can see it in her eyes as she eventually gets almost as bad as me. She just has to expand her limits at a much more conservative rate.

A slower, mono hull boat with a picnic basket would probably be the right choice for her in season one. However, she will get bored of that by the end of the year. By season two, she will be exited for the first week, then probably not bother with it for the rest of the summer. By season three, I'll realize I should have bought a more exiting boat and have to go through the whole sell/buy process again.

I've learned from things like Sea kayaking, that it is better to get her gear where she can learn and slowly push her limits as far as she wants to go. Sailing in faster winds is a choice she can make and work up to. She can, and will, easily just choose to not participate on the windy days at first but over time, I will get to watch her smile every time she gets a little more daring. This will sound sappy, but her "I can't believe I'm doing this smile", is by far my favourite.

Wow. I think I finally stumped the collective mass of knowledge here. Only one reply with some advice in it.

Well, unless you count ExLab's comment that I should be OK cause 12 year old's can do it. hahah!! Nice Burn! Oh wait, it was me who got burned, Doh!!! Worst is, Both posters are probably right. I see a lot of swimming in my future if I get this thing.

Well, from my numerous observations of the dozen or so Cats with 4 kids on each, I have never seen any of them have to swim for their lives.

They do wear PFDs though.

TAM

Used to see lots of Hobie Cats around here but seems like most of those folks must have taken up windsurfing by the number of people doing that now. We've never owned a Hobie Cat but have used our friends a time or two, they are pretty stable and can haul the mail with a good breeze and are fairly easy to maneuver with a little experience.

Hi Murph,

I've sailed since I was 9 years old and have owned various dinghies and monohulls, never a Hobie. However I've sailed Hobies and they're fast and exciting but in gusty winds, they can flip easily if you're a novice. My nephew flipped in one and had to be towed to shore. A Hobie is impossible to right by one or two people once it's flipped. If you dump in a monohull, you can lean on the centerboard and gradually right the craft and bail it out. I've never flipped in a Hobie, or in a Laser (I owned one of the latter for years and it's fast and fun but awkward for two people).

New sailors often make the mistake of putting up too much sail (I did that years ago with an Albacore) and a sudden gust of wind can cause upset if you don't react quickly enough.

You might be better off with a monohull dinghy that's not as "nervous" (as sailors say) in changeable winds.

Alan

Hi Alan. Thanks for sharing.

I have to disagree with you on the "impossible to right by one or two people". As I mentioned, I've never owned one but I have sailed on one a few times when I lived with an Aunt for a couple of summers on a small lake in Nova Scotia. My cousin and I did flip it one day in some faster winds. OK, they weren't all that fast. I still maintain he did it on purpose for fun as although he was really pushing our angles, he was handling the mainsail by hand, not cleated, so 'maybe' he could have just let go.

He had righted the boat many times before and quickly showed me what to do. It was actually surprisingly easy with two people. He said it can be done with one person if they have enough body weight, something I wouldn't have had back then and maybe not now either as I'm not sure how much is required.

He had two lines rigged up just for this purpose. Once untied, they could be thrown over either side of the boat. He then put his weight on the bow of the boat and it swung itself so that it was sideways to the wind. We then stood on the leeward hull and pulled on the lines. It slowly but steadily pulled the boat over and I don't recall a whole lot of effort. It was actually surprisingly easy as long as you were comfortable leaning backwards knowing the other hull was eventually going to try and fall on top of you.

Again, I'm no expert but I think maybe the big difference was that he had a float at the top of the mast. This kept the boat from turtling so it was never totally inverted. I will definitely have one of these on my Hobie if I end up buying one. Both to have to work less hard to right it and also because of the shallow water I mentioned. If it turtles in some areas, it would undoubtedly bend the mast.

Any time you need 200+ pounds / 90+ kilos, just let me know.

And he'll send me right up there....

You guys are always welcome. I can't promise I'll have the boat for sure but I always need help righting my mother-in-law after a ceilidh.

Oh, SNAP!

Murph,

Interesting, and yes, having the float on the top of the mast would prevent it from turtling. The latter is what happened when my nephew was sailing one. I can't remember if he was sailing alone or not.

I now sail a fairly large monohull almost always alone, and it has 2,500 pounds of lead in the keel, so it won't go over. I also don't make the mistake of putting up too much sail--it has a furling genoa so I can adjust it from the helm if things start to blow. Frankly, it's exciting enough for me at my age, but there's nothing quite like the speed and excitement of a Hobie or Laser in a 15-knot wind. You really never get that on a large yacht, except maybe on those big racing catamarans.

Have fun. It's a great sport.

Alan

Are you guys proud of me for not once mentioning I have a little dinghy?

Bathtub toy?

Mmm.. salami.

Bren R.

LOL, Bren!

Alan

I have nothing more to add, except I love Hobie Cats! Get one Murph!

I agree murph, hobbies in general are quite easy to right and incredibly fun to sail and they are even fun when you go over - as long as you know how to right them. What is not fun and downright dangerous is pitch poling or sudden stops when the bow digs in and submarines. Hobie 16s are prone to this, more so than other cats, even with experts at the helm. The link here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80mBnkAVyG8&feature=youtube_gdata_player opens with a very famous shot of a hobie 18 wave jumping and then pitch poling - I used to own one of those babies - the next series of shots show 16s doing their thing. Lots of fun ahead for you! Sorry not sure how to do links here.

The Cats that I see around Comox Harbour that belong to the sailing school all have floats on their masts...

TAM

Andy, I think it's great that you want to provide a new home for a Hobo Cat. With the population problems that cats (and dogs) face, your alternative to euthanasia is a noble one!

Thanks all. I appreciate all your experience.

Choices now are pretty much now down to between two 16s and a new option, a Hobie Cat Bravo. demo boat I spotted for sale.

The Bravo is not as fast or as exiting as the 16. So at first I didn't really consider it but after watching some videos, it still can move really well when put to task and has the advantage of some real deck space to throw a couple of folding beach chairs into and a small hatch for 'beverages'. It's beginner friendly so my wife might actually learn to sail it herself. Yet, it still is fast enough I can scare my nephews and friends, which is always fun.

Side note.
I'm well versed in the art of pitch-poling from surfing in my sea kayaks and yes, I know the danger. About 4 years ago I suffered a hairline fracture in my fore arm when the bow of my Quest (really too long to sanely surf in big waves) submarined so far I went straight over. It had to be pretty spectacular for the folks on the nearby breakwater watching us. I don't actually remember even hitting or jamming my arm on anything, but obviously I did.

Luckily it was a very minor crack and didn't require a cast. My ego was hurt a lot worse, but that is often a good thing when you learn your crafts limits without getting seriously hurt.

On my harbour walk today I watched the kids taking their Cats out of the water. The sailing school here uses the Hobie Cat 'Wave' model...

TAM

Exitement!!!
This got delivered yesterday! This is a promo pic, of course, not mine.



It's small but fast and fun. I still want a 16 someday but I think this was the right choice for our bay. It's super easy for my wife to learn on but yet it can still go 15 knots or more if you feel crazy. It has no center or dagger boards so it only needs 9 inches of water (important for the very large shallow area we launch from.) It's hull is a tough polymer so we can just sail it right up to the beach and most importantly, it has beer holders.

Another neat feature is that the mast rotates in order to super easily reef in the sail so that you can make it more manageable in stronger winds. This will be a nice feature to build up my wife's confidence as she learns to sail it herself.

It would be a better promo shot if they shot it from the other side...allowing the logo to read correctly.

Here, it looks Arabic.

Murph, the Terrorists Won because you want to enjoy a small watercraft. You selfish bastard!

Edit: Oh, and congratulations!

Here's one for the Islamophobes.

I'm not convinced.

I still think Murph is letting the terrorists win.

That was all extremely interesting to me. Now are you gonna tell us about the boat?

So, how long until you're JIFLing that bad-boy?

I'll handle the objectifications around here, Peter!

Your first comment was hilarious Bob.
Peter, Goggle doesn't come up with anything to help me figure out what "jifling" is. However, since you followed up one of Bob's posts with it, I'm thinking I don't want to know.

Mark, I'm not letting the terrorists win. It's just a propaganda tactic to keep them confused until we work out the bugs in our Celine Dion Fembot. Then we will have an audio-based weapon that will terrorize all terrorists into submission.

It could have been worse. We looked at a Hobie 16 that came up from Florida with a jib done up after the Spirit of 76 flag, blue with a circle of 13 stars. To me that is the nautical inequivalent of putting the Confederate flag on an Orange Dodge Charger.

So, in other words, AWESOME!

The School of Southern White Trash dies hard, eh, Reb?

Sorry, I guess my sailing lessons weren't like anyone else's. JIFL is the acronym (pronounced "jiffle") my instructor used to teach us where to trim the sail. It stands for "Just In From Luffing". If your sail is currently flapping, pull it in until it just stops. If it isn't flapping, let it out until it just starts, then pull it back in a bit.

Lemme put it like this, ya Yankee:

Here's my last family reunion:



Every doctor needs a nice car. Nothing too fancy to reflect vanity, or inspire jealousy or envy, but nothing so cheap that it'd make people wonder if the doctor was worth his salt and thus unable to afford a reasonable car. That said, here is my personal vehicle:



Now, I can hear you wishin' you could get your hands on a fine piece of machinery like that, but thinkin' that it'd be tough to corner and park that thing in the big city. Well, shoot, have I got the car for YOU:



Back here at the farm, Medic8r Jr. was such a good boy for his birthday that we done got him his own personal vehicle:



He's all proud 'cause it matches his school bus:



For those short trips to the bait shop, I use my scooter:



Course, I can't go fishin' unlest I'm done with my chores, including mowing the lawn. Sometimes my wife helps:



We head to our favorite fishin' hole in our recreational vehicle:



Of course, none of these freedoms with be possible without the sacrifices made by my cousins, PFC Otis Medic8r and CPL Bubba Medic8r:



Have a nice day now, ya hear?

Slow patient day, eh? Maybe they got freaked out by your wheels and went back home. "Hello, Rebel Psychiatric Services. How may I hep [sic] y'all?"

The Vanagon paint job wins!

I saw the "city car" photo on Facebook where it was titled "The General Wee".

Excellent, JP!!

Thanks Peter. My sailing lessons certainly were not like yours as I was pretty much family and self taught. I grew up in a seaside town where fishing was a major industry. Even if your family didn't fish, pretty much every kid learns to swim, row, paddle, sail, bait a trap and how to power drift a 40' plus lobster boat into the dock, all by the age of 10-12 years and usually in that order. Some kids learn to row before learning to swim but I don't recommend it, for obvious reasons.

The theory I'm familiar with but that was not a term I ever learned.

Not sure if anyone is even interested in hearing any more about this but if there is anyone out there who will be looking for a small, recreational sail boat that gets you out in the water with as little effort as possible, then here are my impressions after a few weeks with the Bravo. A friend in Ontario wanted a summary of my thoughts on it as they are looking for a boat for their lakeside cottage, so I'm actually just sharing what I wrote for them.

What makes this perfect for my particular needs...

-- You don't need to 'plan' to take this boat out. It's always ready to sail in under 10 minutes.

One of the biggest advantages of this boat is that unlike other beach boats that can take 30 to 60 minutes to get rigged and launched, you can get this in the water, by yourself, in 5 to 10 minutes.

Just because I can, I keep the mast and sail in my garage. When the sail is already furled around the mast, then you simply place the base of the mast on the mounting ball, straighten it, lock it into the a-frame base and your done. I also take the rudder/till assembly up to my house when I'm done but it takes less than 30 seconds to remove or attach. Connect the main sheet to the sail and you are ready to put it in the water.

It is light enough that one person can drag it short distances into the water and with the poly hull, you can drag it through the sand guilt free.

-- Adjustable sail size, on the fly
Once you're in the water, pull out the sail via the rotating mast and your under way. If there is more wind than you are comfortable with, you can wind the sail back in to a smaller, more manageable size just by pulling on a line on the rotating mast. This can be done on the fly, no need to go back to shore to change sails or make adjustments.

-- No center board = no need for deep water.
The asymmetrical, double hulls keep it going straight without the need for a center board or dagger boards. It floats nicely in just 9 inches of water and the rudder can be raised by lifting the tiller handle to accommodate a shallow spot or a beach landing. Perfect for getting near my shore that is shallow for a very large area.

-- Beaching it is a good thing.
With the light weight and the tough poly hull, you can literally sail it right up onto the sand. As you approach the shore, pull the line that wraps the sail in around the rotating mast and you are powered down with no sail flapping in the wind to worry about.

-- Race or Relax
When all the way out, the sail is large enough vs. the boat's size to go stupid fast and get that adrenaline rush. I've had one hull flying in the air a couple of times now. Although, admittedly only for short periods of times as I'm still getting used to controlling it at that pace.

This leads me to another positive. Like any small & fast sail boat, if you do decide to have fun and push the limit's, you can flip it. The positive is that it can easily be righted again by just one person. A bob on the top of the mast keeps it from turtling, which helps a lot and protects the mast from being bent in shallow waters.

Alternatively, the big sail vs. weight lets you also have the option go out in very little wind and relax at a slower pace.

--It's very easy to sail.
Sharon has never sailed before but this boat is perfect for beginners. I think she will be comfortable at the helm a lot faster in this than if we had gone for the more complicated 16.

It's also very forgiving. The square top mast with no head-banging boom required (can be bought as an option) will dump the wind out of the top if you get a sudden gust. Also, if you are 'flying a hull'... because the rudder is in the center (not two rudders, one on each hull,) if it starts to tip to far, the rudder comes out of the water, it naturally turns back into the wind and you come back down. All that being said, you can definitely still tip it. I have not pushed my luck that far yet, but the risk is part of the thrill.

-- A built in cooler and cup holders built into the hull.
Nuff said.


The negatives....

-- Learning to Tack a Catamaran.
This is actually easy once you get some practice. With the double hull, it doesn't turn on a dime like a single hulled boat and you can run out of steam if you try to turn too sharp and then you are stuck there with your sail flapping. Easy to just try again but very embarrassing, if nothing else. The correct technique just takes practice.

-- Small size
The only real drawback of this boat is that it is not a boat you can take all your friends out on. Two people truly max it out. Maybe a third if they are a small child.

I think for Sharon and I, who mainly just wanted a new leisure activity for the summer evenings, and a faster way to get to the beach across our bay... the ease and versatility of the Bravo is absolutely perfect for us. For others, it will simply be too small.

Anywhooo,
I've pretty much lived on the water all my life in both motorized and self powered boats and so I just wanted to share my impressions in case anyone else is ever interested in a boat for a similar scenario. I think this is truly the perfect, easy to sail, low maintenance, fast when you want it to be, sail boat for a cottage or someone who wants to go from trailer to water in a jiffy.

For someone who doesn't mind trading just a little more set up time for being able to get 4 people on board, then the next model up, The Wave, is a very similar design.

I didn't realize the true value of the quick set up time until now. It is so much easier to make that choice to go sailing when it is so little effort to get ready.

I am very impressed, as you can tell.

Nope.


Wait. You're still talking. Why ask if you don't intend to wait for an answer.


Not only don't you listen, but you're also lazy?


That's nothing special. Pretty average for a refractory period.


Guilt-free? But I'm a Jainist! I couldn't possibly walk on the sand, let alone drag a boat across it, killing Lord Bahubali knows how many organisms in the process.


Finally. He's done!


Damn. I should have known.


Great. There go my summer vacation plans. Thanks a lot, Andrew!


I'll be the one doing the telling around here.

Android: That's the second time someone has dissected, then slapped around each chunk of your "the little sailboat that could" missives. We are ingrates, for certain! All that R & D, all that thinking, all that writing; pearls before swine I tell you. PBS!

Ignore those hosers murph, I'm boating vicariously through your posts.

Ha,

I regularly have my work go before a design governance committee. It's much more boring stuff than this. The members of this committee of 'experts' also project their apathy for own career state by exercising their frontal lobe and producing as much sarcasm as possible.

Peter is good, but he doesn't have the guns to 'slap around my chunks' enough to actually get me upset. (Nice analogy Bob. With any luck, many members are having nightmares after visualizing Peter slapping my chunks.)

Well played to both, I say!

[quote=Murph]Exitement!!!
This got delivered yesterday! This is a promo pic, of course, not mine.




See, ya had my full attention way back here, but you had to go spoil everything with words.

Ya but you were not looking at the boat.

Get out! There's a boat in that picture?!

Nice Murph. When does the one for your guests arrive?

Edit: The boat Bob, the boat.

Six pages about a teensy plastic "boat" with an Islamic sail. Yup, THAT's the kind of excitment I signed up for! That little beef tart who's captaining it would have to show up at my door naked, with all of this thread's posts glued to his flesh (low-tack glue, please---don't wanna damage the merchie) for me to read anymore. I'd read it as he's dancing for me, while pretending to be an Afghan warlord.

Come to think of it, most threads here are about the acquisition of something expensive that no one really needs. Wait! It's even more than that! It's the entire premise, isn't it? Well, then, I guess I don't really NEED a dancing beef tart, do I? No, no, that's wrong. I'm supposed to acquire one, then write about it with pics. OK, now I think I've got it.

Edit: Hold the phone! I want to renegotiate my Hobie Cat fantasy. Can you send him to my door wearing a Pirates of Penzance costume? He can be carrying a period-appropriate little leather satchel. You can stuff the thread posts in there. I'll get to them, eventually.