Just bought an 18

Been out of Hobie sailing for 10 years and found a great deal on a 81 H18. Needs a little work which I should have done in 2 weeks. Where is the best place to sail in Jacksonville? Would an 81 be at all competitive racing?

>>Would an 81 be at all competitive racing? <<

In my opinion, an 81 could definitely still be competetive. It will be heavier than the newer boats due to a change in the construction in the mid '80s, but I don't know how much the weight difference is. Our area has 18's built from the early 80s up to present and each boat can do well.

If the sails are original, then they will not be competetive- sorry no way around it for 25 year old sails unless they were never used.

Assuming the hulls and frame are stiff and don't leak bad (dry them out too), you just need good sails, good rudders, and make sure the hulls are fair. It's 95% sailing after that.

sm

The sails are by Super Sailmakers so they aren't original. Also, since the boat came disassembled, could anyone point out some kind of rigging guide as well as the proper way to rig the traps and righting lines?

The assembly manual is on the Hobie Cat support pages:

http://www.hobiecat.com/support

http://www.hobiecat.com/support/pdfs/H18&SX_Manual.pdf

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Not to burst the bubble, but if you are going to race class, you will have to replace the sails as the class rules require factory sails be used. If you race out of class, you take a penalty for the after market sails which would probably result in you not racing against other 18's unless they are not racing one design.

Hey there,

I sail a 1984 H18 out of the Rudderclub Northwest of the Buckman. I'm always looking for H18s to race against. Give me a jingle. bgolum"at"ais.net.

Brian

I don't understand the "race class requirement" on a boat that is no longer produced. If the sails are cut to Hobie specs what difference does it make? Comptip, no comptip, total BS. Theres no money involved in racing so why be so concerned about a 20+ yr old boat that has some non-hobie parts on it. Go race it and enjoy, if you win and someone complains, you should consider conforming. If no one complains then don't worry about it.

Off topic but:

You're in jacksonville? I'm over in Lake City (about 1hr away). IMO the best place over there would be the St. Johns near Orange Park (where it is more lake than river) or just outside the outlet (near mayport) in the surf. There is a lake called Kingsley on Camp Blanding (USarmy reserve base) that is about 3mi wide and perfectly round that is great for sailing when the morons on their fishing boats arent whipping around doing 65mph paying no attention to a sailboat's right of way. That is about 40min from jacksonville. If you are military a great place to store and launch your boat is on NAS Jax.

Hit me up if you ever want to have a lil 14 follow you around. CBFryman AT hotmail DOT com.

What assurance do you have that the sails are made using the same patterns? On any one-design class, sails must be measured, marked as class legal (usually with a button pressed on to the sail) and a fee paid to the class for certifying the sail.

The IHCA bypasses all this by requiring that the sails come from Hobie Cat, who uses patterns approved by ISAF and the IHCA.

On a practical matter, if nobody cares that you're racing with aftermarket (non-class legal) sails, then by all means, race with them. I'd make sure to get the other competitors' agreement in advance - before some jerk decides that you're doing too well and protests you out.

welcome to the hobie way - where we sail its mostly a hodge podge of cats - Hobie held a dagerless regatta last year and would not let the rest of us play - to bad Hobie's loss.

Find an open class and go have fun and don't worry about making your 20 year old boat meet hobie's requirements - next year ours will be thirty years old.

_________________
Gordon & Kathy
Nacra 5.5sl - "Blue Bayou"
Macgregor 22 - "Tranquility"

Hey Gordon,

Guess you missed the highly discrimenatory "Daggerboard" regatta last fall
although it wasn't in your backyard (Dallas).
It's coming up again this fall at Lake Maumelle (Little Rock), H17's, H18's and H20's ONLY.

Check out the Hobie regattas in the area, i.e. Tulsa Cat Fight, here http://www.div14.hobieclass.com/default.asp?MenuID=Racing_Schedule/c10853/3277

_________________
hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

I have a set of very good original hobie 18 sails
that I might trade for nonclass legal sails
as my boat has a dammaged hull and many other missing parts
so is unlikely to race again
but I plan to fix her as a daysailor if I can find a desent port/left hull
as my port hull broke in 1/2 and the front part was lost

main sail would need minor repair to the rear of some batten pockets
but no major work and is rainbow colored as is the very good shape jib

sails are in miami fl

_________________
QUESTION WONDER AND BE WEIRD

Looks like my main may be class legal, at least it has the H and a circle. Don't know how old it is though or how competitive. How old is yours?

I have been to 3 cat regattas in my life. 1 Hobie, 1 Performance (I raced a Hobie), and 1 "open".

At the Hobie Regatta-
No one weighed my boat or checked every piece of hardware to make sure it was class legal. I think when they saw the crew weight was pushing 440# and then we added a cooler on the tramp, they figured I wasn't a threat without an Evinrude.

At the Performance Regatta, I was the only Hobie at the race as you might expect, but I called ahead and told them this was my first year racing cats and I wanted a chance to get some starts and mark roundings in traffic. I felt more welcome at this race than I did at the Hobie race and it was way more fun than the Hobie Regatta. Key Sailing in Pensacola was the host and they are great. I'll be back to that one next year if I can borrow a Nacra and maybe if I can't.

At the Open regatta, it didn't matter what you sailed or how it was rigged, within reason.

I did not see one single protest during any of these races for any reason.

If you are just starting to race, let some folks know at the regatta and I would hope they will cut you some slack. If you start getting serious, you'll want to change sails anyway. If someone protests you, keep racing. You'll build the experience and the only difference is your scores won't count.
Of course, if you start showing up at National Championships, you might expect to be checked out, weighed, and protested.