shrouds and mast angle

I just bought an 18 this past Saturday that has been in storage for the last 20 years, after a trip to my local dealer to get a few rigging parts and reading the assembly manual, it's ready to sail. I have 2 questions (for now). What is the proper mast angle 9if there is one) when the boat is setting on a flat surface and should there be any "slack" in the shrouds? I believe the cat is a 1984, the hull id number is CCMH8517M84E.

Rig should be tight while on the beach. You can use a trap wire or the halyard to pull the mast to one side and make adjustments in the shroud pin position.

Mast rake can be checked by fully rigging and sheeting the main. There should be about a foot or less gap between the boom blocks and main blocks when fully sheeted.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Yep ... see those two last numbers ... that tells you that the hulls were made in 1984 .... Matt (previous post) can tell you which month from the letters .... is there a "graphic" on the side that says "Coleman"???

Please talk to Matt ... there have been some "upgrades" to that series of production boats ... he'll be able to give you the details. Matt works for Hobie Cat Co in Calif ... really helpful and nice guy.

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HarryMurphey
H-18 mag/ #9458
Fleet 54 Div 11

Thanks for the responses and information. There is no "coleman" graphic on the hulls and I'd appreciate the list of upgrades that should be done. I've known the original owner since the boat was new and I doubt anything was ever upgraded as it wasn't used very much and when it was it was only sailed on a 600 acre inland lake. I also live on inland lake that's about 1500 acres and that's where it will be mostly sailed, I may sail it on Lake Michigan later this summer.

Here is a thread that you will want to look at. I have an 18 that was made 1 month before yours and have the old brackets. Matt Miller urged me to put the new anchor plates on the front and rear crossbars (inner and outer sides of the hull) as well as add reinforcing fiberglass. These pics looked scary to me and so I am going to get this done.

When guys ask if it says Coleman on the boat there was a period from 84 to 87 when Coleman made the Hobie and some of them have "Coleman" hulls. This main tell tale is red sealant between the deck and hull. You will see in the thread below. Even though my boat was an 84 model (made Nov 83) it did not have the red seal. Confused me but Matt said the issue was the smaller patch used to reinforce the crossbar, deck, and hull conversion. The plates are like the ones used in your shroud area. The part number is 64100001 and are about $36 a pair.

http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=24844

Here is a a good thread from a guy that did the upgrade with his hulls. By the way - previous owners may have already done this upgrade. You may want to post some pics of the inside of the hull and I am sure some of the guys can tell you if the additional fiberglass has been added as well.
http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12641


Keep us posted. There is a lot of great help here.

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1984 Hobie 18

Hi,

There was a "manual" published in 1983 called "The Hobie 18 Performance Manual by Phil Berman" .... very excellent manual w/ lots of useful information. Phil walks you through the proper way to tune your H18 and even has charts/tables on how to set the boat up for different crew wieghts and conditions.

But .... most of the racers today disagree w/ the spreader wire settings that Phil talks about .... that maybe because the "sail cut" has been changed slightly over the years so the new factory sails need slightly different settings then the older sails. The manual is very good overall ... try and find one. It will give you a "baseline" to start with ....

What sail pattern do you have ???? The "Blue Hawaii's" from that time period are my favorites ... do you have those???

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HarryMurphey
H-18 mag/ #9458
Fleet 54 Div 11