musicman wrote:
Drakeman, just be aware that if you are going to race the boat in Hobie Sanctioned events (hopefully that's the plan) then you need to have Hobie manufactured sails
Good point musicman, I forgot to mention that Hobie sails are required to remain "class legal." However, that doesn't hold much weight in my book, as it's difficult to even FIND another Hobie 18 to race against, class legal or not.
I've been trying to find other Hobie 18's to race with for a few years now, and the only regattas I've found in the Great Lakes region are either 1) open regattas not sanctioned by Hobie, or 2) Hobie sanctioned regattas in which I'm the only Hobie 18.
Personally, I don't think it's worth spending an extra 50% on sails to remain "class legal" when the class is more or less defunct, and my 40 year old boat could use the $$ spent on other upgrades & maintenance. Hobie would be wise, particularly with the Hobie 18 fleet, to relax their interpretation & enforcement of "class legal." Better to have 10 boats to race with that are all pseudo-class legal than to keep the current restrictions and have none. The only Hobie sanctioned events east of the Mississippi that I'm aware of with a Hobie 18 turnout are in New Jersey, and I'd bet they'd be happy to have another boat to race with, regardless of where they got their sails.
So if anyone in the great lakes region wants to race, I don't care where you got your sails or if you have wings, SX mast, spinnaker or a comptip, hit me up!
Until then I'll be sailing with CRAM and the Sharks in Canandaigua!