Return to Hobie.com
Hobie Forums
It is currently Fri Sep 05, 2025 4:44 pm

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2015 4:20 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:34 pm
Posts: 12
Just watched the phantom 18 videos. There has to be a retired engineer or a upcoming brain who can figure out how to retro a foil system to the hobie fleet.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2015 6:09 am 
Offline
Hobie Approved Guru

Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 7:11 pm
Posts: 5198
Location: Detroit, MI
It's been done - but it didn't work very well.
Image
It only foiled in pretty good wind and on a broad reach.

Someone made a foiling Hobie Tiger, but it was heavy and again, the foiling envelope was pretty small.
Image

There are two things that pretty quickly dismiss foiling retrofit kits from Hobies:
1) Weight
2) Power

A foiling Phantom weighs 155 kg. A Hobie 20 weighs 191 kg - and it has a less powerful rig. None of the pin-head mains sported by nearly every "older" Hobie Cat generate sufficient power for consistent foiling. Even the Phantom doesn't foil upwind - only on reaches and downwind (with the aid of a asymmetric spinnaker).

The glitz of the foiling videos doesn't show what a royal pain in the a$$ foiling boats really are. They don't go in / out of a beach. They don't foil upwind. They have lots and lots of control lines. The learning curve is steep. Just putting the boards in is a major production - they have to be inserted from underneath the hull - and then the boat can't sit on the ground - it has to be on a hoist or on wheels. Weeds and debris in the water will take them out very quickly. Break a board? That'll be $3,000 for a replacement.

A new Flying Phantom will set you back something north of $35,000. The retrofit foil kit for the Laser costs over $5,000 (and doesn't work that well).

Hobie Cats are simple, durable, relatively inexpensive and easy to learn/use. Pretty much the opposite of a foiling boat. Putting foils on them is like putting Formula 1 racing tires on a VW Beetle - sure, it'll corner like it was on rails, but it's not a Formula 1 race car just because you changed the tires.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2015 8:35 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 8:45 pm
Posts: 1668
Location: Northfield Minnesota
A Flying Phantom will foil to weather as I understand it.

The one in Madison that sold was listed for $52k.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Jump to:  
© Hobie Cat Company. All rights reserved.
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group