Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 3:15 pm Posts: 611 Location: Buffalo, NY
To be sailed most effectively, the Hobie 18 is a two person boat. However, in light to moderate winds (say 7-15mph), 3-4 people is easily manageable and can still be a great time! The boat is a little slower, but still handles reasonably well and makes an excellent day sailor. If you have wings, you might get up to 5 people in moderate winds, but I wouldn't go much beyond that. When the windward hull lifts out of the water, the leeward hull will be pretty dangerously low in the water, and it will be very easy to accidentally stuff the bow and pitchpole the boat.
I'm considering each person to weight roughly 150 lbs. The boat was designed for a two person crew with a combined weight of roughly 300 lbs. So I'm advising that 590 lbs is the upper bounds of what I would reasonably sail with (wings add ~30-40 lbs).
As Matt said, Hobie says 500 lbs, and I think that's reasonably accurate (if a little conservative).
Note also that wings have a total weight limit of 400 lbs, I believe. So no more than 2-3 people (depending on their weight).
I have had four people onboard before, averaging close to 150 lbs each. The boat sailed great, but the trampoline/windward hull was a bit crowded.
At a Fun Day at my old SC, we put myself, another adult, and eight 10 year olds on a H18 Magnum. It was sunny, warm, with light winds and no chop. The kids ended up using it as a swim platform, and a good time was had by all. How was the sailing? Ever sailed a barge?
On weekends, with social sailing, we have often sailed with 4 adults on board, again in very "controlled" conditions. We can get reasonable performance, but not 'race' performance out of the H18SX. We are always mindful of 'what can happen', and we plan accordingly.
hope this helps
_________________ 2015 H16, with spin, SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..." 'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2015 8:27 pm Posts: 140 Location: FL
In this video we are carrying 620lbs of crew and another 40-50 lbs of gear on the forward cargo net in about a 10mph of wind. It isn't sitting too low. We actually launched with another 100lbs of tent, food, water, and firewood up on the cargo area and it still took the weight.
Even when the main sail clew rips off the boom in that video the weight of everyone on one side of the boat still didnt pull it over... It can take quite a bit more than most people run and still rock and roll. Only when we come up on other cats do you notice you are slightly slower than you should be.
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