Hobie Pearl in the US??

Matt Miller,

Will the Hobie Pearl be available in the US, and if so how much will it cost and when?

Bjorn

Not my thing... boat sales. I'll ask Greg Thomas to comment.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

At the time we are not planning on bringing the Pearl into the US.

If we get feedback from our dealers and customers that this is a boat that we should offer we'll take another look at it and possibly bring it over on a special order basis only.

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Greg Thomas
Hobie Factory Team

Piss on the pearl, bring back the 18, NOT EVERY ONE WANTS TO RACE WITH AN 18 YOU CAN RACE AND PLEASURE SAIL !!!!!

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Bodhisatfa

Huh?!?

Kick up centerboards, roller furling gennaker (hooter), the Pearl is a reaching machine.

Although I still think the 18 is/was THE complete boat, the Pearl looks like a step up and meets all the recreational needs nicely.

http://www.hobie-cat.net/download/catalogue/gb/pearl_gb.pdf

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

You have to admit that boat, the Pearl, sure looks like it would be a great boat to just sail around and even race if you were interested.

Looks like it has all the nice inovations that have come up in the last few years and it targets the H18 crowd.

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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!

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Greg Thomas
Hobie Factory Team

If you do bring it in, ballpark, what would it cost at a dealer here in the US. Is it a $15K boat?

Personally I like the idea, but I'm afraid of the price tag. I like the idea of the furling hooter and the kick up dagger board. Plus hardware that's currently available.

Yeah the 18 was great and still is, but isn't this a modern 18SX kinda?? I like it anyways.

Its going to be in the same ballpark as a Tiger, being it is a Tiger with cheaper sails, and more expensive boards. So I'd bet $20k+. Oh add another grand for wings.

Yuck! what an embarrassment that all the new/er US boats are plastic.

Seeing how the Wildcat is $22.5K, Karl you're probably not far off the price.

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

I agree the boat looks like a great performer.... but the construction is way to light to stand up to every day sailing on ANY prairie lakes that i sail on. That is the trade off. Light weight build for speed or a tougher boat to LAST !!!!!!!

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Bodhisatfa

Where are you getting this info from? All the literature says is that the hulls are polyester construction. Assuming its based off of the Tiger, it's probably about 400lb which would make it exactly the same weight as a classic Hobie 18.

sm

That's BS, plain and simple. There are only two things that you would have to be more careful about. One is beaching, but every boat should be retrieved from the water with cat-trax. Two is staying away from other boats, which a good collision isn't going to do any of the older boats any good at all either. The F18's are frickin' tanks compared to any of the other modern designs where they're all built as light as possible. Most of the manufacturers have trouble getting boats up to minimum weight when it comes to the F18 class, and like I said it is a Tiger hull. The FXone is built lighter than the Tiger, last summer I there was two of us literally pounding upwind in chop that was 5ft tall, and no more than 10ft from crest to crest, and in better than 20mph winds on Lake Superior. When we left it was supposed to be blowing 18mph, after 30min on the water it increased substantially.

Trust me, with proper care it'll survive the dreaded flat fresh waters of SoDak just fine.

I don't even know how it's constricted as far as the internal structure??? I can assume that it has an internal grid, foam core, polyester, glued on decks etc. I've never seen one though.

I do know one thing; engineering and materials have come a long way since 1970.

My proving ground for the FX:
Crissy Field in the SF Bay in the summer during an ebb.
Santa Cruz in the summer with a 20' ground swell and solid 25 from the NW?
In this day in age, light does not = weak.
And I hope to put an Icat through its paces at both venues.
J

Kudos to Hobie Europe, shame on Hobie USA. While the euro crowd gets all the new sleek boats, we get to squat (FX1 and Tiger aside, OH wait their euro import boats). If Hobie USA can't desigh newer boats, they could at least import them from Europe. AND don't give me that bunk about the lack of interest on this side of the ocean. I could get real interested in the Pearl with wings. I tell you, it's enough to make you want to move to France.