Plastic Hulls

Not anytime soon - so don't hold your breath. It's like asking, "When are they going to stop making cars with seat belts?" It just isn't going to happen.

Also, to clarify a piece of Hobie mythology:

The H-14 was conceived for a number of reasons, none of which was to tow surfers out.

One of the reasons stated (in the original promotional video) was so that Hobie Alter and his buddies would have something to do when the wind ruined the waves for board surfing. Quite the opposite of what JF was saying above.

Other reasons:
Phil Edwards (one of Hobie's friends and a master surfboard shaper) had buit some catamarans of his own out of plywood. Phil shaped every Hobie Cat from the 14 to the 17. Hobie contributed his knowledge of fiberglass / foam core construction methods.

Hobie saw an untapped market for a small, durable boat that was a lot faster and more comfortable than the other small boats at the time. Untapped markets = $. As Matt Miller has repeatedly said - Hobie Cat Co. is a business. At the end of the day, they have to make money - or there will be no Hobie Cat Co.

i'll second that clarification: catamarans were never intended to be used in conjunction with surfing. they would be worthless in that capacity. the only time surfers didn't paddle out to the spots they surfed were times when it was so big that swells broke across the bays, when the waves were upwards of thirty feet. hobie cats were the product of a time when surfers were fascinated by hawaiian culture (from whose outriggers early builders took inspiration), and also when surfers prided themselves on being good swimmers, paddlers, skin-divers, and sailors: in other words good water men. this type of attitude is almost nonexistent today among surfers. most of them can't even swim. hobie alter and phil edwards got their inspiration from bigger, wooden cats built before by a Ca surfer named Woody Brown who wasn't nearly as much of a business man as hobie.

and while you're correct to point out that hobie is a business, it should be noted that demand by the consumer controls what hobie builds, and if people really knew what they were doing by supporting the move to a disposable boat, i think their demands would change, because in the long run, they would only lose money. this may be a pipe dream, but if there's any place to discuss the merits and motivations for hobie's production choices, it's this forum.

I know that Hobie purists almost take pleasure in poo-pooing Hobie's plastic boats, but I don't think you can discount them as easily as some do.

Plastic boats haven't been around long enough for anyone to know that well-built ones (such as Hobie's) won't last a long time. There certainly have been plenty of mistakes made, and poorly built boats, but so were there in the early days of fiberglass boats (just go read the big boat magazine arrticles about blisters and soggy cores!). There were also plenty of mistakes made even earlier with wooden boats, and just about any other material you can think of.

I've sailed wooden, fiberglass, plastic, steel, aluminum and even "concrete" boats. Apart for the last ones, which I never found an interest in, I can see pluses and minuses in all other materials.

I would love the warmth of a wooden boat if I had a crew and the money to maintain it (not everyone can be a Larry Pardy). There are 100 year wooden boats still sailing the seas.

I trust the strength of steel and aluminum when sailing around coral reefs (I don't know many sailors in the tropics who haven't bumped some corals).

I like the low cost of production fiberglass boats that get me on the water without spending too much time on maintenance.

I also love the abrasion resistance and very low maintenance needs of plastic for my Getaway and my AI. They allow me to enjoy sailing off my rocky beach, while my neighbors work on patching their fiberglass hulls.

There are materials and designs for everyone and every situation. Pick the ones you like and enjoy the water. There's no need to dismiss someone else's choice.

If I lived by a sandy beach and wanted to race, I'd buy a H17. But I live on a rocky beach and I like to just be on the water. My plastic boats are perfect for my need, and I do hope that with care they will last many years. Thank you Hobie!

"Fans of fiberglass" and "fans of plastic". I think if your a fan of one, it doesn't mean you don't like the other, it just means you might not buy one. We're all talking about Hobies here, sometimes it seems like it's ok talk plastic over fiberglass, but not vice versa. Sales are shifting and I'm sure the dealer and manufacturer margins are better on plastic. It's ok to discuss why we like one over the other, just like xavier stated so well. It's just too bad if he moved to that sandy beach he wouldn't be able buy a "new " 17.

Hi, I picked up this conversation really late, but I did just read Matt's mention that the intention of the Hobie was not to coinside with surfing BUT I watched that Hobie Tiger surfing with its chute out on YouTube last night and intention or not, that was close to the coolest thing I have ever seen (that I can talk about in a public forum )

At work we often say, "it is what it is" to describe our operating environment.

You won't be happy with either plastic or fiberglass if you are trying to make them something their not meant to be.

The plastics are not meant to be the fastest thing on the water.
AND
The fiberglass boats are not meant to carry 6 people and a couple of coolers full of beer.

My son raced a Wave for two seasons, and now is moving up to a 16.
I've raced 16's, 18's, 17's, and just got a Tiger.

As my needs changed, so did my boats.
The boats changed, but the people I chose to associate with did not. They're all Hobie people.

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2003 Tiger - Don Atchley

Well put Old School. At Sail Sand Point in Seattle, we have both, five Waves and five Hobie 16's. Both types are well used. We also are proud to have three Youth Teams, including Shane, training for the US SAILING Youth Multihull Championship to be held in LA at the end of this month.
Caleb Tarleton

Old school makes me wonder. Do people dislike the plastic boats because of the material, or is it the demographic to which they are catered to. Meaning not having performance as the main and only goal. In MotoGP racing they say that function is the form, where as the wave and the like are geared more for a non-invasive ride. Easy to use and comfortable but at the cost of being not overly fast, or expensive. I'd like a Tiger, but I'd be lost trying to run it, and I just end up destoying it anyway. 15K down the crapper. A new 16 is 8k. I'm not saying Hobie should, but what if there was a performance plastic boat? Would it still attract the same persecution that the plastic boats do? Really, I wouldn't care if my boat we made out of popsicle sticks, if it delivers what else do you want?

i can't speak for anyone else, buy my objection is that the plastic boats are disposable. i think that even the 16 will eventually be phased out in favor of plastic boats if people don't start asking questions about the plastic hulls, such as: since there is no way any maintenance can be performed on them, how long do you guarantee they will be useable?

personally, i don't care so much about performance. if i had my way, the h16 would be a little slower and a little less susceptible to soft spots.

if i had to complain about demographics, it would be that what started as a beach cat has become a lake cat. one of the reasons surfers were so fascinated by these things was that you could surf ocean swells with them, and now it seems like people like myself, who still want to do that, are going by the wayside. add to that list of people poor folks (again, like myself) who would rather work on a boat than buy a new one if something should break.

This has been a very interesting thread. I'm pretty new to Hobies, only had my 16 for two years now. I love her very much, as those who know me will attest. I like the fact that when something goes wrong on my boat I can fix it. If I hadn't found a repair method for fixing my soft hull that would have been it for me. There is no way I could afford a new hull. I like the security of knowing I can fix my boat if need be. The thought of a "disposable" boat doesn't really appeal to me, but I can't accurately compare them as I have never been on a plastic boat or seen one in person for that matter.

I can see however that there are different boats for different needs, and I think that is understandable. But what worries me is that the trend, from what I have observed here on this forum anyway, seems to be moving towards the rotomolded boats. I hope to be own a brand new Hobie one day and I hope that the fiberglass boats are still available, without having to worry about importing one from Europe, which I understand is kind of taking over the high performance aspect of this international company. Keep in mind I'm a young guy and speed is important to me.

It seems that the majority of the Hobie owners on this forum, and I would suspect in general are older, from the poll on this forum. It makes me wonder if Hobie is still concerned about appealing to the younger generation, the future market, who I would bet would be in favor of the more high performance fiberglass boats I think it would be intersting to take a poll based on age vs. desire in boat. I also think Karl Broger brought up a good point, is there such a thing as a high-performance rotomolded boat?

This seems to be a very heated topic with many differing opinions, and I don't expect that any company can appeal to everyone at the same time. Just please tell me that Hobie will never stop making the 16, please don't ruin my dreams. I'd rather be pulling a new boat behing a used car than vise versa And don't take this post as harsh criticism, I think Hobie is a great company, one like no other.

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James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

Keep in mind that I have no real opinion about plastic boats. Many of those who own them seem to love them, and think they hold up quite well. I don't think they fulfill my need so I really haven't put any thought into owning one. I'm just being the devils advocate. Most everything is disposable. You'd be willing to fork out thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands for a vehicle that will probably be in a junk yard in a few years. I tend to be hard on everything, cars, trucks, tools, boats, women, whatever. So I tend to move on to the next item before I've inflicted to much damage. The fact you can't repair a hull issue as easily and as seamlessly as you can on glass boat is unfortunate. You have to view things on what kind of return you get. Fun for dollars so to speak. Some people spend ludacrous amounts of money on hobbies I think are dumb. Like antiques. Sailing at this level is cheap. Even for poor folk. What a new 16 cost wouldn't even cover the tab for the foul weather gear on a America's Cup campaign. With that said, if I could afford it I would buy a boat that was all carbon. Light, strong, stiff. What else would you want. If a H16 were built to the same specs with carbon spars, hulls, and frame I bet it would weigh half of what it does now. But it would probably be three times as expensive, and also hard to repair for a do-it-yourself type.

I own a Hobie 20 and a Hobie Wave. Neither is a permanent boat. Both eventually will be "disposable". The aluminum and stainless will be recycled, the fiber glass, foam, and plastic parts will be tossed, but the wave hulls may be recycled, if someone will take this type of plastic when the time comes. The Wave hulls have a much higher chance of being recycled than the glass reinforced hulls. It is true that repairing the wave would be difficult at best, but I think damaging the hull by impact or pressure is nearly impossible. My wave has blown off the top of the 20 while parked at the sailing club, landed on the rudders without any damage other than rudder tip scratches. The boat may truely be bullet proof. A glass boat would have seen significant damage.

The two keys to wave longevity are keeping it out of the sun, but the same is true of the glass hulls, and a good dolly to keep from dragging it up a rough beach. There are a few original waves on the beach near my sailing club, never covered or maintained and still look good and are still strong as new. I think the wave will be passed along/sold long before the hulls wear out or break down in the sun. The sail, lines, tramp will be replaced several times before this. Use it a lot and wear it out. Isn't this all our goals? Foam cored Fiberglass reinforced plastic or Rotomolded plastic, either choice is money well spent if you use the boat.

By the way, I bought the wave because the 20 was a little much for the kids (3&5) and they really like the wave. Not yet ready to solo the boat, but maybe by summer...

Just a question. Now that the 17 production has stopped, I assume that is for both models, is the 16 the only fiberglass boat that Hobie USA still manufactures? I know the fiberglass work is done by the aussies now, correct? But are all of the others imports?

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James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

They are still making the 20, too.

Therefore, the only fiberglass boats made by Hobie USA are the H-16 and H-20, with the actual fiberglass work being done in AUS.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't certain if the 20 was still being manufactured.

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James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909