Improve the performance of a HC18

Greetings to all of you hobiecatter
To improve the performance of my hc 18 I decided to make two changes.
1. equip me with a more performing mainsail;
2. Set up a jennaker circuit on my HC18.
With regard to point 1, I have recently had a "new" mainsail. Below is a photo. You have any news of when this mainsail was used. Maybe in some world championship?
Regarding point 2, I wanted to know if it is possible to mount a jennaker circuit on the Hobie cat 18.

I’d be very cautious putting a spinnaker or gennaker on a Hobie 18. The hulls have no bulkheads or subdecks inside so they will probably not handle the inward loads created by the bowsprit lines.

Rigging it is no issue. Just copy a modern Formula 18. Furl the jib downwind. But I still wouldn’t do it because of the lack of hull strength.

_________________
John Forbes
Hobie 18 Reimagined
Sail # 490
Boat name: 18@heart
http://www.hobie18.fun
https://www.facebook.com/Hobie18catamaran/

fun !!

Thanks for the advice John. It is better to continue using my HC 18 without jennaker.
Alternatively I will take a HC Tiger F18.

Nah they handle it just fine with a 12ft pole.

There were for a time third party spinnaker kits sold in the US for the Hobie 18, rigged similar to an F18, and I never heard about any failures, though I had heard that it was critical to keep the mainsheet tight to avoid snapping the mast. This is also an important principle to follow on an actual F18 boat.

There was a topic on these forums maybe a year ago where a few H18 sailors decided to create a working instruction manual on how to set up and rig the H18 for a spinnaker, I'm sure you could find it if you searched for it. Very detailed on how to set up the pole, additional blocks & rigging, snuffer system, where to get the sail, etc. They were trying to get a deal on a batch of spinnakers made specifically for the H18. Not sure if they every got it fully worked out though.

For a mainsail, Whirlwind sails sells custom made high aspect ratio sails (dacron or mylar) built specifically for the H18 if you want to go that route, and the owner used to work for a Hobie sail shop. I looked into it, but decided that there likely isn't enough of a performance increase to make it "worth it" to me, and I'd rather keep my boat as close to class legal as I can, so that I can still race boat for boat against other Hobie 18's or Sharks and be confident that my boat meets the ratings. In the long run, however, I'm probably looking at moving to a H16 or an F18, sadly, because races with other H18's are so few and far between.

_________________
Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238

It doesn't have to be an either/or proposition, Rocketman. I still have my H18 for my fun/sport sailing and the F18 for racing. I love them both for different reasons.

To the original topic, I think the basic question would be 'why'. If you consider the amount of time, labor, and cost involved in creating a new system that may or may not have long-term reliability issues just to gain a couple knots downwind, you should just get an older used F18 that has this all sorted out. Some can be had for less than $5k.

If it's simply for the challenge, then I can somewhat understand. If you have the energy and time to put into it, then Godspeed. Have a blast

_________________
Jeff R
'88 H18 Jolly Mon
'10 F18 Closely Called
cramsailing.com

I was one of the guys who added a spinnaker from Whirlwind. It actually amazed me on how much more power it added down wind. Made the boat very lively. Great fun and I think well worth the effort.

As to the boats strength, the Hobie hulls are very strong as built. I used to run spinakers off of a Prindle 19 too. I would have no worries doing it again. In my opinion the P19 was much weaker in the hulls than a Hobie 18. The hull failures that I have been involved with have to do with the glue failing to hold the deck to the hull. If that happen the hull will fail, which has nothing to do with spinakers.

My advice is have fun and go for it. If money is no object than get a F18.

If you plan to race other Hobie 18's than I would say, stay with the stock boat and get good at sailing down wind without a spinnaker. However if you are the only Hobie 18 around, than definitely go for it as it will make it a different boat. All good stuff.

Cheers,

Kaos, thanks for chiming in! Very good feedback, and I've heard the same thing from the F18 sailors that I've talked to; they said it completely changes how you sail. The way they put it was "On a Hobie 16/18, you sail downwind to race upwind. On a spinnaker boat, we sail upwind to race downwind." I thought that was pretty poignant, that the downwind sailing actually becomes much more competitive than even the upwind sailing, once you add a spinnaker. I'd love to try a boat with one! I think I'd rather get a used F18 than go to the work of modifying my H18, but I'm sure the thrills are pretty similar.

_________________
Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238