Invested in a Hobie 18

My spinnaker pole sits over a pin that sits in the track of the front beam.

One length of rod with a threaded hole in the middle in the track, the pin screws into this and the pole slides over the pin. If I knew where it was I would take a photo

Had the boat for 5+ years, used the spinnaker (it is cut too full to be a gennaker) twice!

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H18 Newbie, Too heavy for the 14

How is it to sail the H18? I'm a lightweight guy with 30years sailing experience from windsurfing and The Europe dinghy.
In this movie the skipper seem to have good control. But it's a H17 and no jibe is up but the gennaker is.

If you're already comfortable sailing dinghies and windsurfing, then the Hobie 18 should not be too difficult for you to learn. Just start out in light to moderate wind the first few times out. Sailing solo, it will start to become a handful in winds over 15 mph.

sm

I agree with srm. Before the 18, I had limited sailing experience, and mostly on bigger monohulls. The 18 took a good few dozen outings to really get the hang of it, plus a few dozen more to get the hang of trapeze sailing and single handing. I could get from here to there and sail it just fine, but there were some of the finer points, and the general "feel" of the boat that took some learning. Hull flying especially takes a good feel for the balance of the boat.

I'm 160 lbs, and I have no problem at all single handing my boat in winds up to about 12-15 mph, and I've done probably winds 15 gusting to 20 mph on my own in the past. However, I know that if I capsize I can't right the boat on my own (I've tried), so I sail somewhat more conservatively and de-power pretty early. Tighter downhaul, tighter outhaul, loose diamond wires, lots of mast rotation, and when it really starts blowing, furl the jib and travel out the main.

If you're new to catamarans, I'd suggest picking up a cat sailing book, such as "Catamaran Racing for the 90's," which has a lot of cat sailing techniques, crew placement suggestions and tuning tips, to help cut down on the learning curve. One of the biggest things I struggled with at first was getting stuck in irons on the tack - catamarans lose momentum quickly. The best technique is to use an exaggerated roll tack through the wind. Weight placement is also a significant factor, as you want to keep your bows a little deep so that you're not dragging the sterns/transoms and slowing the boat down.

Some suggest that the locking mechanism for the mainsail could be removed for easier rigging. My concern is, could i still tension the downhaul as hard as with the locking still in place? With a windsurfing rigg the downhaul is the most critical thing you can use to make the sail flat or not flat. Is it the same with a cat mainsail?

No one is suggesting you remove the locking mechanism (the hook). What is suggested is that you may want to consider removing the "flapper" that is riveted to the hook. Many find that the flapper makes hooking the sail more difficult. All of the masts in the past 30 years have been produced without this flapper.

Yes, proper downhaul is critical to performance of your mainsail so you need to ensure that the sail is properly hooked to the fitting at the top of the mast and that you have a downhaul system that is powerful enough to tension the sail easily.

I suggest you use the search function - lots of discussion already exists about these topics in other threads.

sm

Thanks! Yes i have been searching and reading many pages about the hooking mechanism. It seems like i'm missning the ring. I need to found a ring and then do some real life testing to fully understand this concept.

These shrouds were found in the trailerbox for this cat. any idea where they belong? At least the white one looks to have some kind of original mounting in the end.

Thanks.
Christer

20151205_131442 by Christer Ljungqvist, on Flickr

Quite simply, they belong in the trash bin. The white one is old enough to rust and for the vinyl coating to become brittle. The red ones are galvanized wire which has no place on a Hobie Cat. Neither of them are safe to use.

yikes! The white coated shroud/stay is in extremely bad shape! That needs to be replaced ASAP!

The "red shrouds" look like something that was made at a hardware store. The fittings and cables are galvanized rather than stainless steel, and I wouldn't trust them. There's no way of knowing when they were made, what they were for, or if there's significant rust hidden anywhere under the coating. All hobie parts are either aluminum or stainless steel, and for good reason. Galvanized, powder coated or carbon steel is heavy and quickly compromised by rust and salt water, and as MBounds said, has no place on a Hobie Cat.

The ring that you're looking for should be tied to your mainsail halyard on the mast. If it's not there, you will need to get a replacement.
http://static.hobiecat.com/digital_asse ... Manual.pdf

Yes they are going to the trash bin. But before that i wanted make sure if they were an original part needed to be replaced or if they just had some unkown purpose.

Oh, I see. The red cables are not original, but the white is an original shroud. The eye gets shackled to the mast tang, while the other end gets pinned into the shroud anchor plate. Take a closer look at the assembly manual I posted above.

So i started the hullrepair-project. Difficult it is. The first attempt at the front went bad, i tried the screw-method to keep pressure from the inside of the hull but the screws didn't get grip enough to keep it tight to the outer glass.
For the middle part of the hull it was quite simple to put a jack inside at the inspection-port. It feels like a better setup and there are no screw-holes for the resin to vanish inside the hull.
I bought some quite expensive laminating epoxy and micro-balloons. Haven't used the balloons yet.(will they increase the floatation? )




20151221_130333 by Christer Ljungqvist, on Flickr
20151221_125007 by Christer Ljungqvist, on Flickr

I was wondering how this project was going. When you say it "went bad" at the bow, you mean that the screws simply weren't effective at pulling the layers together? I wouldn't be too surprised, as the inner layer in particular is pretty thin, not much material for the threads of a screw to pull against. I wonder if you could've started at the sides of the soft spot and "worked your way in", so to speak, in order to pull the two together and squeeze epoxy back out in the center. Of course, epoxy cures by generating heat, and the more concentrated the epoxy is, the quicker it cures, so perhaps it started curing too quickly on you as well? Do you think that you punctured the inner layer and allowed much epoxy to drain inside the hull?

One tip to save the exterior of your hull would be to cover the entire working area in painters tape, so that when the epoxy oozes out it doesn't get all over your hull. Also, with a small area, it's best to drill many holes along the perimeter and a single hole in the center, and use the center hole only to fill, ensuring that the injected epoxy flows towards the perimeter holes and vents out most of the air. If you start changing which hole you're filling, you can create air pockets. With a spot as large as yours though, the best you could do would be to try and fill one area completely before moving on to the next.

With the areas that you've completed (particularly that bow), how does it feel? pretty stiff? any flexing or crunching? You should be able to pretty much stand on it without any noticeable crunching or give to it. I wouldn't recommend standing on it on the ground though (it's not properly supported), but that's how stiff/strong it should be. If the boat were capsized, you should be able to walk on the side without any flex.

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Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238

A little update. Happy new sailing year everyone!!
Yes the repairs are quite stiff. The last made epoxy-filling was made with about 5-10% microballoons. It seems that the resin doesn't get "soaked up" as bad as before by the foam distancematerial, with the ballons added.

This project has got a pause as the temperature has dropped far below freezing now. The garage temp is a little low for perfect epoxy-hardening level.
Gonna get the ice-boat-project finshed now.

Thanks guys for all the help so far!!

So today was the moment of maiden journey. In a perfect windspeed between 9 and 19 knots we had a busy and fun ride with an almost completed capsize in the end.
The only bigger problem was the mast rotation that was uncontrolled because the little wheel in the end of it broke apart. Downhaul needs to be made in a more powerful way.
Mainsheet seem to be too thick. It doesn't run smooth enough to travel by itself when you want to sheet out.
The repaired hull is stiff but ugly after repair.
In two weeks we have our first race.