What do you think of this boat?

Hello,

Nice place you have here. Just joined, and am anxious for advice. I have no experience with catamarans, but sure would appreciate your insight. What do you think of this boat for this price?

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/boa/789044650.html

It's also listed in the Classified section of this forum, as one might expect.

Thanks for your time.

If the hulls are solid, the sails are usable, and the trailer is not completely rusted out, sounds like a fairly good deal to me. There are many other things to look at and others will chime in about them I am sure.

Sam

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Sail Like you Have a Pair
Bluish gray 73 - 83 H16
Super Nice Yellow 84 H18

Looks like a fair price to me if everything is in good to very good condition. Take someone with you that KNOWS Hobie Cats and have them check the hulls for soft spots. Particularly the decks and on the decks, particularly the area just in front of the rear cross bar where the skipper normally sits. Also, sight the length of the mast and make sure it is straight, and unroll the sails and make sure they are not too raggedy. However, the only real deal killer is soft spots in the hulls cause everything else is not that difficult to find. The toughest thing to find anymore is a good set of hulls. The Cat wheels alone are around $400 new, so figure you are getting the boat and trailer for $1600 which is a really reasonable price for a boat that new.

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

Don't forget that the epo2's retail for about $500/pair.

Those are not EPO2 rudders.

They are original EPO's. Still very good, but hardly worth $500.

like Stephen (MUST5429) says, take someone with you who knows Hobies.

Here is something similar for a point of reference.
Last year I purchased a '88 H18 in good condition, sails were fine, boat was a little beat up, and it came with a Trailex alum. trailer... all for $2000.

I think what you show here is a very fair deal, if the hulls are sound and the sails are in good shape. Check for the rudder upgrade as well as the hull to crossbeam upgrade. From the pix, the boat looks clean.

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

Thats a Coleman boat! Check the hulls very carefully as those years are very prone to delamination. Check for cracks at the crossbars and rear gudgeon area. Look inside for water and signs of delam. Be very cautious around any 18 built under the Coleman ownership of Hobie.

I saw one of the '86 boats snap in half, port side a few years back. Pretty bad deal and little/nothing to be done about it. I thought I had read somewhere on the forum about how to reinforce the hulls on that boat. Just be careful.

Thanks for the feedback from all of you.

This comment scares the crap out of me. Did Hobie build inferior boats during the "Coleman" regime? (I don't really know what that means:).

I've read in other places on this forum that you can find a decent fixer-upper for under well under 1000 bucks. Should I look for boats from a different era for a lesser price? Here are some examples of others I have found in my area. I'm not willing to travel far. I'll just wait until the right one comes up. I'm looking at 16's and 18's.

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/boa/785451333.html

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/boa/771380318.html

http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/boa/772172888.html

http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/boa/751362648.html

The Coleman boats HAVE had some problems, but it is really more a function of how they have been stored and cared for over the years.
I see some very nice Coleman era boats still sailing competetivly all over the country.

The boats you find for $1000 will generally cost you quite a bit more to get "up to speed" as far as they, usually, will be in significantly worse condition. Things like Raggedy sails, $1400, and sun rotted tramp, $500, needing all new lines and rigging, 300-400.

Point being, sometimes it is better to pay more up front for a good boat rather than buy a cheap boat and have to spend a bunch of time and money rehabbing it into something that you can sail with confidence.

That is why it is important to take someone with you that really KNOWS Hobies and can advise you about things that may not be intuitivly obvious to the casual observer.


Stephen

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

Hobie Cat was owned by Coleman Co. ('The Outdoor Products People' - think Coleman lanterns) from 1976 - 1988.

In 1983, Hobie Cat started using a more refined manufacturing process which allowed them to significantly reduce the amount of resin used in the boats (resin=weight=$).

The 1984 to about 1986 model year boats were lighter, yet tended to be more fragile than their predecessors. Hobie Cat introduced a retrofit kit to reinforce the crossbeam and shroud attachments points.

A complete guide to installing these reinforcement plates is here.

As long as the retrofit kit is installed, you should have no problems.

[quote="MBounds"]Hobie Cat was owned by Coleman Co. ('The Outdoor Products People' - think Coleman lanterns) from 1976 - 1988. quote]

Matt, are you sure on those years ?????

I thought Coleman bought Hobie sometime in the Mid 80's and only owned the company for a couple of three years.

According to my recollection, certainly NOT in 1976.

Stephen

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

[img]http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/images/smilies/rofl[1].gif[/img]

Wessels does not call me "Yoda" for nothing. Page 6 of the March/April '06 HOTLINE had it as presented in the March/April '76 HOTLINE (upper right hand corner, photo of Doug Campbell):


Get hurt when challenge the master, you will.

Karl has beat me to it, he has.

They didn't change the graphics on the hulls until 1984.

Come on man, what were you thinking? Master Yoda can lift an X-wing right out of a swamp, and you don't think he knows when the hell Hobie and Coleman were in bed together? Paaleese.