Everyone needs to buy one of these!!

I've only sailed it 4 times in a fairly wide range of winds. From 4kt's to nuclear. Its a blast. It looks cool. It's fast. (Probably even faster if you know what all them thar strings R fer). It holds two people easily. It has a flexible sail configuration - Uni, Uni + Spi, Sloop, Sloop + Spi. Besides I need someone to race with. So run down to your local Hobie dealer and help a guy out.

I have to admit, when you posted the first pics, I fell in love. Its one of the sharpest looking boats I've seen in years. It will be on my "looking" list this spring, but I don't know if it's worth a 16 + $4000.00.

Trust me, it is. I've got a year old 16.

An awsome ride they are. Did two regattas the past two weeks on my FX in various conditions including a 23 mile distance race.

I love this boat.

Karl you come out here to race a regatta next year and I'll come over there for one. Sound good.

We will have two FXs racing this weekend at our next regatta. And I've heard that there may be one going out to anouther person as soon as the Hobie shop can get them in.

I moved up through the 16, 17, and Tiger, now the FX, this boat is worth a try, you will love it.

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Mike Hensel
'86 Hobie 18, '93 Hobie 14, '80 Hobie 14(restso in progress)
Wind in your sails, water in your shoes, great day!

Karl,
What do you think of the wings?
I didn't get them, and I was wondering what you thought of them?

_________________
Mike Hensel
'86 Hobie 18, '93 Hobie 14, '80 Hobie 14(restso in progress)
Wind in your sails, water in your shoes, great day!

Being that I haven't tried the boat with out them I have a bit of a biased opinion. The wings were one of the draws for me and this boat. I like them on 18's and I like them on this boat. It's much easier to get on the wire with these than the 18 style. You can also put your feet on the hull and hang your butt off them. Trapping off of them is also nice. You don't have your feet dragging in the water, or getting washed off the boat when you get T-bagged.

I am 180 lbs, how suitable is the FX-one for that weight?

My partner is 190 lbs, would it be any fun with him aboard?

Karl,
You keep pushing the boat hard. In a couple years if its still in working condition I'd consider one. At this point it is too much like the Fox and I wouldn't trust it for offshore, beach use. Beautiful boat none the less and really like the wing option. I'm leaning more towards the F16 designs at the present but even that decision will have to wait.

Once it gets warm again I want to get one of my friends out on it in high wind and push it really hard. The full speed, double trapped spin up pitchpole. Where it actually hurts when you hit the water, you're going so fast. And I really want to see if I can get it to plane. The hulls are super flat on the bottom back of the boat.

I have gotten my friends trained from being on my 16 that we only go out in wind that a capsize is inevitable.

If we're lucky, we'll be able to do that in KC. Do you have a double trap rigged?

You should pull up the post from Jeremy at Surf City Catamarans. He's been taking the FX1 off the beach for quite a few years. And he's not a small guy.

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2003 Tiger - Don Atchley

I don't have the second set on the boat, but I do have them. Takes 2 sec's to throw them on. They're spectra so you just loop it around the shroud.

I think that post is on Catsailor. Jeremy swears its a tough boat. He's close to twice my size. I remember him saying something about the nose's sticking into the sand like a fork if you come in wrong

If it was going to break it would have already. Johnny O (infamously dangerous div 3 sailor) and I took it out one time in Santa Cruz during a 15' groundswell and over 30kts. We headed out to Natural Bridges upwind, upswell for 4 miles. Then we looked at each other and realized that the only way home was downhill.

We nutted up, gybed, hoisted and surfed giant groundswells with breaking tops toward Capitola. We dropped into a few that got too steep... I hit them wrong and dove the bows into the previous sea. Due to my poor driving and the extreme conditions that day we pitched several times.

Double trapped with spi, going very fast, sailing up the back and over the top with not much of the boat left in the water, dropping in and pitching at the bottom. That was a great day of sailing!! I was pretty bruised up, but it was worth it. I'll try to find some pix, that was early 2005.

It was similar conditions during the 2005 Moss Landing Challenge. The swell was a bit smaller, maybe around 10' and the wind was in the upper teens to low 20's. On a 13 mile course I was 3rd to the beach racing against all classes. And I think they rated me as a Fox so I finished 5th overall. I never checked to fix that one. I don't like racing much anymore, and don't really care.

The crazy part was that 2 days before the regatta I was experimenting with mast rake and moved the rig way forward. I test sailed in a max of 10kts and thought it was good. Well, it wasn't good in 20kts. I pitched 3 times due to being overpowered, being in race mode, and hitting swells wrong.

The conditions here in Santa Cruz get pretty tough sometimes. We just lost a 16 in the surf last week...2 broken crossbars and a broken mast (which =ripped sails).

Santa Cruz is a boating tough test for sure. I told Hobie that I should be their primary 'demo' guy. Between me and the conditions, we can break stuff!

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Sail Revolution
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I am seriously considering one once my 16 is paid for..

Most of my sailing on the 16 is single handed (Except racing), and I would really love to have a spin.

I can't say enough about what a cool boat this is. I think it's time is finally here and we'll be seeing the numbers slowly start to come up. Hobie stopping production of the H-17 will help, as will the stop of the H-20

Here's some video of my boat sailing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fodevJuORmU