Our new 1986 Hobie 16, we are sailing! kind of!

Playing with a Hobie tandem island for few years got us hooked on sailing. A craigslist add and $800 later, I found myself towing a H16 that I had no idea what condition it was in, except for what I learned on this forum: how to check the hulls for delamination, and they looked solid to me. I spent hours on this forum reading about raising the mast and sailing a cat. I got the book "Catamaran Racing for the 90's" and started the online shopping. I replaced practically everything with the exception of the hulls, frame, mast, rudders and block. The trailer is in good shape but the cat trax tires are dry and they will be replaced. It was like Christmas in April when the boxes started showing up at our front door from Murrays! To top it off the weather forecast was showing light wind on the weekend, around 8 mph. We launched the boat from the surf without drama and we started sailing!!! The wind picked up a little and what an awesome feeling! It lasted for about 20 minutes before the stern went up in the air on a failed tack attempt and we found ourselves swimming in the Gulf of Mexico with the boat completely turtled. We got over the initial shock and I grabbed one of the hulls and tried to flip the boat on it's side. It was easier than what I thought, it took couple of tries and now the mast is floating thanks to all the instructions on this forum on how to seal it properly. That gave us hope that we might be able to right it back, but it was harder than what we thought. We had to use both our body weight and hang in there for what seemed to be eternity before the boat started turning and finally it happened. We sailed back to the beach where we parked the truck wondering what we did wrong. We were unable to tack, not even once! I remembered how to get the boat out of irons from the book I read and we were happy it worked. After checking some pictures that night we found that we had the jib on the wrong side the whole time among other mistakes that kept us from tacking properly. So back to watching youtube videos on tacking and it happened! we went this past Saturday and we were tacking without a problem. We still need to practice and learn as it was only our second time sailing. we want to thank this forum and the people who posted all the useful information that made it easier for us. Here's a video of our second trip and a picture of our cat that we wanted to share.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF7XD8YArkk[/youtube]

Nice job! Welcome to the Hobie Way of Life! Nice looking boat.

One thing I noticed that might make sailing the boat a little easier. You have your mainsheet rigged upside down compared to the way most of us do it. The set of blocks with the cleat attaches to the traveler and the other one gets attached to the boom.

Jim

South Padre Island... if you're in Texas send me a message if you like. I race my hobie 16 out of Austin and am making a Corpus Christi trip this weekend to meet up with a few other H16 sailors. I also sail on the catamaran racing circuit here and it would be nice to get another H16 racing with us!

Yeah, takes a good while to learn how to tack the boat. My friends get pretty frustrated when I hand them the tiller for the first time and they try to tack it.

We're in McAllen Texas and a trip to Corpus or Austin to meet up with other H16 sailors will be awesome. We just need some more practice to build up our confidence after capsizing the first trip. When we feel ready we would love to join you guys. Thanks!






I realized the blocks were upside down as soon as I got on the boat, They were hard to cleat but not a big deal in light wins. It's a little embarrassing but we're learning

That's a sweet boat!

Travel the jib inboard for going upwind. This will allow you to go faster when close to the wind and to carry more momentum into your tacks.

You've got some guts to launch in surf on your first sail! It's really important to keep those bows pointed into the surf while you have no headway. As you saw, when sideways to a wave, it doesn't take a very large one to toss the boat, break rudders, or even flip it. Also, you never want to be standing in shallow water on the downwind side if the boat goes sideways....it can break your foot when coming down off a wave. I'd also recommend that the skipper get on from the windward side to help get things under way quickly.

Enjoy!!

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16

Beautiful boat, I love the sails. That is a great video, also.

I noticed that you have the very hard to get Playmate Cooler rack on the front of your boat, too!

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

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Steve
2017 Hobie 16 "Cayman" sails 114795
1985 & 1973? Hobie 14 "Sea & Ski"