Does anyone know if this is true???:

The hulls of my 71 h16 are still rock solid and have never had any delamination (according to the previous owner). When i bought it the guy said that early models (pre 1973) hobies have thicker hulls than models after 73. Is that true?

To quote him "When hobie first started making these, fiberglass was still a relatively new material. In the 1st couple years they werent quite sure how strong exactly the fiberglass was. After a couple years they realized that they were making the fiberglass more than thick enough so the newer ones are a little thinner"

It does seem like they might be a little thicker. When i stand on the hull when it capsizes, it seems like the hull doesnt sink in from standing on it as much as other 16s ive been on



Also, given if this is true. The dude said it weighs about 30-50lbs more because of the extra fiber glass. If it is even true in the first place do you think that extra weight is slowing me down. With all new parts new sails could this boat be a competitive racer??

_________________
1971 H16 (sail #1768)

To all of you on the Hobie Forum... I love you guys!!!
thanks for all the help!

Fiberglass was invented in 1938 and fiberglass (properly, "Fiber-Reinforced Plastic - FRP) boats were produced in the 1950's.

Hobie Alter was making polyurethane foam / fiberglass surfboards in the late 50's.

They knew what they were doing with the building materials.

The quality control on early production was not as stringent as it is now - they used more resin because when in doubt, make it stronger than it has to be.

Problem is that resin = $. The less resin you use, the cheaper they are to build. So they started to back off on the amount of resin and deveop different production methods to make the boats lighter (and cheaper).

This culminated in a 20 lb weight reduction in 1984.

Extra weight is always slow. Try running while carrying a couple of 25 lb weights. Hard, isn't it?

The only thing you can't fix on a boat is how much it weighs.

Can a 35 year old boat be competitive? Depends on who you're racing against. If you upgrade everything, you'd probably do OK in B fleet - but at considerable cost.

If you want a competitive boat, save your nickels and buy one that's less than 10 years old.

Matt,
In 1984 colman started doing the manufacturing? my question is what years were the red line boats an is there a story on that? I have heard they were lighter and still are lighter than other H16s. Is this true?

andy

The manufacturing of the boat has always been done at Hobie facilities. Coleman owned Hobie Cat for a period of time from the mid 70's to mid 80's. As Matt stated in his post, lighter boats were able to be manufactured in 1984 where the weight dropped to 320 lbs. and that has been and is the weight of the H16, give or take a few pounds here and there.

_________________
Greg Thomas
Hobie Factory Team

Thanks Greg,
my question is I have heard people talk of a red line or red glue boat, When talking of an earlier model 16. does that make any sense?

In 1984 / 85, the factory used a red glue to join the hulls / decks. This is often taken as an indicator of a light boat, since that's when the mfg. process was changed and the boats were lighter.

I have a "red glue seam" Hobie 14 and it is indeed light - 242 lbs. It was the lightest boat at the North Americans last year.

Now, if I could only do the same with my body