Hobie Dragoon

You guys see this on Ebay?

Looks like a 16 front crossbar? Without the corner castings? Matt? or...Matt?


another view


And what's up with the comp tip and the bobular thingie, thought this was an EU boat, is this a non-French version?

now that's a pretty neat little glass boat

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It kinda looks like H16 rudder castings as well. The rudders don't look like 16 rudders though.

The guy I bought my boat from had one of these for his daughter. He said it was a really fun boat to sail.

Been looking at this boat.

A number of considerations on it from a shopper with a family:

1. It's lighter than any of the current models at 230 lbs.

So, looks much easier to solo handle than the Getaway or 16 (the seller mentions this). Especially easier to right after capsize. (Lots of criticism I read about righting Getaways and heavier boats.)

2. However, on the Hobie website, no sign of parts listings. So, no future parts purchases/support? Plus, the boat is listed by Hobie as a learner model, and no max weight limit is listed.

This looks like a single-handed boat all way around.

3. Seller mentions less likely to pitch-pole because of design. Verify that...?

Frankly, I wish Hobie designed a somewhat lighter version of the Getaway with its simple rigging and carrying capacity for beach use but still with the option of being a manageable single-hander for those days when the family doesn't want to ride and I'm in the mood to race. This boat almost gets there, but not quite.

This is the first Dragoon I've seen up close and it looks great! It's looks like a Hobie 18 scaled down to a Hobie 14.

I sailed a dragoon a few years ago. It was a blast im 6'2" and 250 so i had it down in the water and it was singing. had a young crew with me about an 80 lb boy that put the spin up. with both of us on there i never got it close to pitching and had all the power in the boat i could. If i didn't have regular crew id sail a dragoon over the tiger.
As for the parts they are on the hobie europe site. just like the tiger and fx-1. and are strongly supported as a youth boat, and a racer. 20 to 30 boats at the worlds.

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So what's the rigging difference without the spi? Nothing. Looks like a more bouyant hull forward of the front beam and under spi should inherently lift the bows. Xtreme is designed to race double handed (youth).

Maximum payload = 528 pounds
Minimum crew weight (for racing) = 176.4 pounds

Comes in two models, Club and Xtreme(the boat for sail).

Xtreme has boom, self tacking jib and spinnaker.

Xtreme weight = 220.5 (per class minimum)
Club weight = 215.6

Suffers same fate as other EU boats...the exchange rate. Would probably pay a pretty penny for shipping (not promoted like FX One and Tiger for sale here) and parts would ship from the EU. Looks like an all Harken block package and a strong fleet "over there" so parts shouldn't be an issue.

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I've sailed the Dragoon quite a bit, both solo and with a youth crew. I definitely never felt like it was going pitch. The Getaway is certainly easier to rig than the Dragoon, but neither are a big deal. Stepping the light Dragoon mast is waaay easy on the back.

I always felt like it was pretty underpowered, good for cruising for sure. I weigh about 250#'s so that probably had something to do with it. The spin is fun.

A lot of the parts are interchangeable with other Hobie boats, you just have to find a dealer with some familiarity with the boat to do a translation. Nice boat for sure!



That's a hard set of criteria to meet, but... Lighter than the Get, simple rig, single or double handing, sounds like you just described the FX-ONE to a "T". The Dragoon takes about a 1/2 hour to rig. The FX is about 10 minutes.

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How are these making it into the U.S. if Hobie isn't importing them? Are people buying them and having them shipped themselves? That has to really drive up the cost of buying one new.

What about this little guy. Some one posted it on Catsailor.

Its a neat looking little boat. 253lbs 11' 10" length

Hobie imported a few in the early 2000's. We had 3 of them, with the big dreams of a youth sailing program. The boats, even though they were available free of charge, delivered to regattas, and rigged, spent most of their time sitting on trailers in the yard collecting dust. I guess youth are more into video games and Myspace?! (I hear that Myspace is 'out' now:)

If we can't get youth to sail free boats, at free regattas, I don't know how to proceed with this whole youth sailing thing. I've been waiting for a few years for someone to come up with a brilliant idea, because when I hear one that makes sense, I'm all over it. That's why currently I'm working with local yacht clubs. That seems like the right direction to me right now. Work with someone that has some resources. (The above paragraph is gonna look bad when I go begging Hobie for 3 more youth boats soon)

Did I just hijack this thread with a rant?

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Yup. On the other hand, there seems to be no shotage of surfers in the water, so maybe it's a perception thing too. Getting sailors into it with older cats that are affordable seems good for the price point that might match surfboard + wetsuit @ 1k +. Free boats at free events seems even better--but the kids have got to be there too.

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Dan St. Gean
'82 H 18
'96 H Wave

Thread hacker! Just kidding! Good luck with Hobie on the 3 youth boats let me know when you start asking and I'll bug them to give em to yea as well!
If myspace is out what's next?

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Thanks for the feedback.

At hobie-cat.net, there are indeed a lot of options on models, including Dragoons in big numbers. Parts costs, I expect, would not be good.

And thanks for the recommendation on the FXOne. Catsailor has some interesting discussion on forums about not being able to right an FX single-handedly, though.

What I really wonder about with the FXOne is the daggerboards. On a beach cat and running it up onto the sand/sailbars?

We"ve had our H16 for 28 years. The Dragoon is slower than the H16, but what about the "Sensation of Speed"? Does it feel fast? Is it as exciting & as much fun as the H16? Can it be sailed in the ocean singlehanded (165#) or with a light weight crew (130-140#)?
Richard

I haven't tipped mine singlehanded yet, but with two people it popped back up easier than a 16. It was also really windy. There is plenty of righting aids out there. Bags, poles, shroud extenders.



You just pull them up. No big deal, unless you forget.

Jeremy,

Did you have three of the Advance or the Dragoon?
If the latter, can you answer this to satisfy my curiousity?

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