I just got my own fleet, does that make me and admirable

I have my beautiful little Hobie 14T and I will not give it up at all but I was driving past a house today and saw three cats sitting out back. There was only one hobie and it was a 14 like mine. It was in bad shape but I thought I might be able to buy it for parts. So what do I do, I go up to the door and knock, the guy who comes to the door was a really old guy something like 70. I was worried he might not even understand what I was saying but I was wrong. I guess he used to sail alot but in the past 15 years he has stopped and let his boats fall into disrepair.

So then the question came up, what did he want for the 14? To my surprise he said if I would get all three boats out of his yard I could have them all for $100. There was one other condition, I have to take him out on my 14T before it gets to cold. Could I have gotten a better deal? Not only do I have an entire fleet but I have someone I can take sailing.

Remember this only happend about three hours ago so I have not had alot of time to research them or check them over, first of all the 14's trailor was shot so I loaded it on a flatbed and hauled it over, the other two trailors look homemade and I am not sure I will trust them for very long drives if I ever decide to use the boats.

The 14 has alot of parts on it and they are in good shape but the hulls are soft all over. I do not think it will be worth fixing but I now have extra parts for mine. So that is one boat, it was well worth the 100 on it's own. Now the other two, one I have never seen before, it is aluminum. I have never heard of a cat made out of aluminum. It has been painted alot and I have no clue what it might be. I think it weighs close to three tons so I doubt it will be seeing the water. Actually it would be interesting to see what it is like. It looks fast if the means anything, I will tow it down to the pond at my parents house and see if it even float tomorrow.

The third boat, I am clueless. It is some old fiberglass cat, looks like it has been used for years and years. I can tell it has had some work done to alot of it. And I think it is some mutant, the mast is off a hobie 16, or at least I think. The hulls are fairly solid but if I don;t know what kind of boat it is I doubt I will be able to get parts. Oh yeah it is around 17 feet, and it has dagger boards. The hulls are very deep, almost twice as deep as my 14. Also, there is a metal bar crossing from the front of each hull.I think you could hit this boat with a train and there would be no damage. I will post some pictures if I can tomorrow but I think my day will be consumed trying to survey what I got and putting them in the pond and seeing if they float and stuff like that.

As a last thought, the metal boat is 16 feet long. If anyone has info on any of these boats please help me. Also, I am sure that fairly soon I will be trying to sell some pieces or all of some of them. So for now I have four boats sitting out back. I could hold my own regatta, I think my sweet little 14 would have it easy.

I was able to weigh her today on the cattle scales at the stockyard, she is a thin old baby. I had the mast on and everything that I would need to sail except me, and she weighed 253.5, that is good right?

_________________
Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

The aluminum boat is probably a Sizzler. They were filled with foam that would soak up water, making them weigh a ton. Cool boats when they were new, though.

The other one sounds like a G-Cat, but I would need a photo to tell for sure.

Here's a Sizzler:

Yuck.

Can you imagine a pitchpole in one of those things? With all those sharp edges?

"Cheese Grater" comes to mind.

The Sizzler's claim to fame was it was one of the catamarans featured in "Jaws II"

When was that cat released?

Look at the hull shape compared with the newest super-high performance wave-piercers. It looks most like the M&M/Nacra A2.

Aside from the cheese-grater, heavy water-laden foam effect, maybe it was ahead of its time!

_________________
Tim
Unofficial Fleet 72 Communications Officer and Div 4 Webmaster
http://www.hobiefleet72.org
http://www.div4.hobieclass.com/

Here's everything you ever wanted to know about the Sizzler:

http://www.thebeachcats.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=116&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

The shape was more a development of the process used to produce it rather than from hydrodynamics.

Well, I just got back after a day of experimenting with my new boats.

The new to me 14 is trash, I will keep all the parts so I have spares but today when I put some weight on the starboard hull it feel through, I mean gaping hole in the hull. It will be gone soon after the parts are off.

The metal boat is a sizzler, and I am afraid that it suffers from the common problem of the foam filling with water. But it does float and has a decent sail that I found out can be used on my 14 with some slight adjustments. I will keep it just for fun. Does anyone know of a way to dry the foam out? I think that it might be fast if it was lighter. Also it is in almost as good shape as my 14T in every other way.

The third unknown is just plain weird. I think I will be selling it, the hulls are in great shape and it is a really solid boat all around. If nothing else someone on ebay might give me a few bucks for it and the trailor which is in better shape that I originally thought. I will put some decent tires on it and sell it. If anyone is interested in and unknown cat that is a monster just write. I will try and get a few pictures of it sometime.

Well, my fleet dwindled fast but at least I still have my Hobie.

_________________
Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

There was a famous but nameless Hobie sailor that poured some type of petro chemical inside his hulls to liquify and remove the foam blocks so he could lighten his boat.

All was good until he got t-boned at the 18 nationals on San Francisco Bay. The boat sunk.

You might try the same thing to remove the old foam and then use Great Stuff to put new foam in.

_________________

I have heard of people putting swim pool noodles in place of old waterlogged foam blocks. Anybody else have any experience with this?

_________________
87 hobie 18

What chemical was this? Gasoline? Just kidding. Don't do it.

I would really like to know though. My 17 could probably use a little re-foaming.

Please post some pictures of the boats, especially the weird one.

_________________
Dave

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

Campaign for Liberty

I might try that, the boat looks like fun, and I bet it would be fast if it didn't weigh so much.

Also, I have some friends that I am trying to get into sailing. Me and my best friend both have 14t's so we can't haul alot of people but if we had a few more boats we could get alot of us out there at once.

Someone on here told me that the larger cat might be a g-cat. I found some pictures of g-cats and sure enough that it what it is. But it looks like someone has done some mods to it. For example it has a 16 mast on it. I am going to try and find some 16 sails so I can get it sailing.

Well, I guess that is it. I have a cheap supply of pool noodles, lots of young cousins with pools and they replace those noodles every year. Looks like it is garage raiding time.

_________________
Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

What's Great Stuff? And how's it applied?

Insulating foam. Screw on the applicator and squeeze the trigger.

There's two types, expanding and non-expanding. The non-expanding will grow a little but not like the expanding. I've used it to build up holes in Sabots that got beat up on rocks after breaking loose from their moorings. Applied the foam, let it sit overnight, shape, fill any dips with Bondo and apply glass. After paint there was no visible sign of the repair.

_________________

Noodles would be easy to install as all you need to do is shove them through a port.

_________________

I used a pool noodle in attempt to reseal my mast. Haven't tested it yet but I am not overly confident. I would think pool noodles would absorb water much faster than the original foam blocks.