Will the iCat be brought to the US?

Gotta love Seal Beach Mike. I grew up swimming at Mcgaugh pool and boogie boarding at the pier.

I have three different venues I can race in.

1. Lake Waconia Catamaran Club. Mixed fleet racing, semi local for me, and I can leave the boat on their beach. Trouble is I don't want to drive 75 minutes to go sailing for fun.

2. Catamaran Racing Association of Wisconsin (CRAW). Also mixed fleet racing. They've got some local regatta's that I go to.

3. Hobie Cat Division 7. Other than Waconia they're the closest, so as far as I'm concerned its the only game in town.


I'm not brand loyal about anything, but my friends are in Div 7. When I was a more active motorcyclist than I am currently, at one point I owned 2 Yamaha's, 1 Honda, and two Suzuki's all at once. I picked whatever brand had a model that fit my needs and wants to fill certain niches. Hobie does build a good product, and more importantly they stand behind it. If I have a problem I can pick up the phone and get ahold of either of the 3 dealers that are semi close, or email Miller or Bernier and get an answer. I'm sure Matt Macdonald(sp) stands behind the Vectorworks boats too, but thats the only domestically built F16 that I can think of, the rest you're chasing parts through a handfull of dealers getting parts from over seas. Granted HC USA has to get the parts from HCE, but they care about their repution, and they have a regular system of boats/parts going back and forth. I can't justify two boats at the moment. Even though the Falcon looks like a really sweet design

As far as home build goes. I'm a cabinetmaker, I own a pretty well tooled shop. I've got the skills and the equipment, but jeez after spending a day doing your job, do you want to do more of it after hours? I'm psychotically obsessive compulsive, especially when it comes to wood working projects. I can see myself scrapping the whole thing numerous times before its actually done because of some minute percieved flaw. Besides, I don't have the room in the shop, I've got about 5k sq/ft worth of tools packed into 1600 sq/ft. It's like working in a phone booth.

I like the formula rule setup. I like advantages, and the corresponding dis-advantages that come from slightly varied designs. I don't really like racing on a handicap system that much either. Don't get me wrong, I love the FXone, I think its the best all round boat that Hobie Cat produces, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't jump ship the second something better comes along.

Now that's funny right there.

Let me know when you're going to start the F16 build next winter, I'll come up there and help you (by drinking your beer and watching you) for a week.

J

Jeremy, trust me on this one. Nobody who values their extremeties, intentionally comes to Minnesota in the winter. Winter would be a bad time for me to take on a project like that anyway. Heavy drinking, praying for the return of the sun and Russian roulette eats most of my free time during the cold months.

A Minnesotan was sent to hell and Satan thought he would have some fun with him, so he turned up the heat. When Satan check in on the Minnesotan, Satan found him dancing and singing. Satan asked why. Said the Minnesotan, "Aw, this just like summer back home!" So Satan decided to change things and sent torrential rains to flood the Minnesotan, but when Satan checked on him he again found the Minnesotan dancing and singing. "Why?" asked Satan. "Aw, this is just like spring back home!" So Satan decided to drop the temperature to well below anything ever known in Minnesota, but, again, he found the Minnesotan dancing and singing louder than ever! "What is it this time!" roared Satan. Jubilantly shouted the Minnesotan, "It's a cold day in hell! The Vikings finally won the Super Bowl!"

There was some more pictures of this thing on Catsailor. Holy iCrap, I want one.

Looks like, but I'm not sure, that the downhaul cleat is mounted on the hull. Neat idea, but I can imagine it causing some pain coming in off the wire wrong.

The pics:









The boat they show with the spinnaker rigged is different. The rear beam is raised, it has no graphics, there is a 2nd cleated mounted to the deck of the hull, the bow doesn't look as pointy, and it also looks like it doesn't have the flat spots along the top edges. But it definatly has the carbon beams. So I don't know what the deal is.

I think "test" is the operative word

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Looky there. On the last pic, the bridles have the "goofy ends" same as the FX.

You'd just think that they would be rolling out a "finished" model, vs a prototype. I'm guessing that it is more of a promotional tour than anything. There is a deal on the HCE website about signing up for testing the new boat(s) out. Just to be a smart ass I thought about filling out the form. Kinda doubt they'll make it to my neck of the woods.

JJ- Its goofy in that the size is weird. Fork ends aren't really that uncommon, but finding one for that size of wire, and having the correct opening is the killler. APS has them in a whole mess of different sizes, but if there is one that will work, it has eluded me.


Hmmm, just had another thought. *GASP*, I wonder if they are even planning on equipping the iCat with a spinnaker? The bow tangs don't look like they'd be that friendly to shackle on the extra wires on like the hoop sticking out of the FXone hulls.

An uber-light weight boat that's a quick rig? The attributes of that seem to follow the popularity of the A Class, but yet it's a One Design.

Amen on the "Hmmm"

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I don't know if I'd call 220lbs uber light. Now a 18' cat that weighs 160lbs is uber light, heck, I think a number of the new A-cats are actually built under the 160lb minimum. The F16's are in the ball park using fibreglass so I don't know, minimum for them is 230#'s?. But!!! 220#'s beats the snot out of pushing a 325# boat through soft fluffy sand anyday.

I love the cross bars and the tramp attachment.

I just built some wires for an FX and used the standard forks with a bell shackle for attachment. Worked well!

J

If I were to bet on this boat showing up here, I would say that given Hobie Europe's attention to part's detail stopping at the water's edge -- well, I wouldn't bet it.

Ok, maybe one chance in two thousand.

Maybe I could sneak up in the dead of night, shanghai a fleet, and sail them pirate-like back across the Atlantic, arrrrrhh! Hey, last week a college student made it rowing across the Atlantic solo. Back here, sell one to Karl for only $21,000. That's $1,000 off since you have an "H" tattooed on your back.