Hobie icat

Does the icat fit into the A-cat measurements? The video of it looks nice more like an a cat than a FX-1.

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Link to the video.

http://www.hobie-cat.net/site_gb/

Click on the video below the picture.

By the way, any on eknow what this weighs?

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Mike Hensel
'86 Hobie 18, '93 Hobie 14, '80 Hobie 14(restso in progress)
Wind in your sails, water in your shoes, great day!

Wow, those are very impressive.

Is the Icat and Acat, but without the A?

I don't think so. The hull profile is similar to some of the current A designs but that's about it. It is 200mm shorter than an A although that doesn't disqualify it. However it is 200mm wider and has 16sqm of sail when the A limit is 13.94sqm. Both of those disqualify it. There is no mention of the weight in the specs which would also be a critical performance factor. My guess is it's just another orphan class boat being used as a marketing attempt to sell a few more boats - not what we need!
There have been rumours over the last few years of Hobie entering the A Class - even a strong one that they would have a boat at the Worlds event three events ago in France. Nothing appeared. The video is interesting in that the sailor looks like Mitch Booth who has an A Class background - but not much recently.
It seems a difficult fit to me for Hobie to enter the A Class arena from a manufacturing and culture perspective. They have no history in building high tech, light boats built to very close tolerances. No disrespect to their current boats, but it requires a whole new mindset, skillset and equipment to build an 18 foot boat down to 75kg as opposed to 180kg and still have it strong and stiff. In the current market it seems a whole lot easier to make and build plastic boats and kayaks. There is also the Hobie business model where all equipment including sails must come from Hobie. That wouldn't fit the A Class model where development and innovation are constant and parts are tried and developed from all sources to continually push the envelope in performance. As an example, I think Hobie have struggled with the reality that most people who want to be competitive in the F18 class at higher levels have used sails from other sailmakers. To their credit though they have responded to the Tiger joining the dead boat society at international level by producing a more up to date boat. I'm not sure though that they could stand the pace of innovation attempts in the A Class.
They probably looked at the ill-fated Nacra attempt to enter the class with the A2. It failed even though they simply took over building and marketing an already developed boat from established class builders.
Anyway, I don't want to offend any brand loyalties here and I hope they do give it a go. If any big manufacturer can do it Hobie Europe would be the one.

Cheers
John Dowling
AUS9

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
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http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Ace11 is right here. In fact the iCat is more related to the F16's then the A-cats.

In fact the iCat is only F16 NON-compliant in its sailarea (1 sq. mtr to much) and its hull length (29 cm too much = less then a foot). All other specs are compliant. Of course we don't know about overall weight I really don't see the iCat go below 104 kg when rigged with a spinnaker as that would mean the "A-cat alike" basic platform would have to be below 100 kg ready to sail and that is a right proper challenge to achieve. Forget about bringing the weight down to A-cat level, that takes years of acquiring knowlegde and skills.

In the way of performance the iCat will be a lot closer matched to the F16's too. With respect to pricing it looks more like an A-cat however !

The glass/alu FX-one (it predessesor) was already 16.000 Euro ready to sail in 1-up mode (no jib kit, no spi) and the new carbon bits will not lower its price. I'm expecting it to come out around something like 20.000 Euro (incl EU VAT tax) for the 1-up iCat when fitted with a spi. About 5000 Euro more then a fully fitted race ready 2-up F16 (EU market). Basically some 1000 Euro cheaper then the Wildcat F18 because of having lost the jib setup.

For these reasons I tend to agree with Ace11 here that it stands a good change of becoming another orphaned class. The specs don't seem right, especially not for todays market with the economic meltdown. I both love and hate to say it but it is waaaay overpriced with respect to the F16's and it is waaaay underrepresented as a racing class with respect to the A's. I don't see it offering any benefit to either of these competitors, it basically combines the worst of both competitors in one illy timed new class. Why would a customer go for that ?

Wouter



P.S. I would have been so easy for them to have the iCat comply to the F16 class rules. A 12 inch shorter hull is really no biggy and the same applies for a 1/16th = 6.75% sail area reduction. They are not going to seriously outdesign the F16's in weight or performance anyway, so why not make use of the foundations already established for the F16's ? That would have made economic sense. Afterall, the Tiger was a winner for them as well. Why not repeat that trick with the F16 class ? The Tiger on its own would never have had the same succes. Basically they are now trying to create a mirror F16 class (but now as a OD class) without the design being different in any noticeable sense. Sometimes I wonder ....

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Both taken from another site.

_________________
Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
[email protected]
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/

Holy (censored), I thought Wouter was going to start hanging out here.....

Good points, but I think they are falling on deaf ears.

_________________
Mike Hensel
'86 Hobie 18, '93 Hobie 14, '80 Hobie 14(restso in progress)
Wind in your sails, water in your shoes, great day!