H18 Hull’s …. all the same?

Hi all

Was out in a gusty 20kts+ today on my ‘92 H18 formula and towards the end of our session whilst on a port reach home some loud cracking noises were heard under our bums, it soon became apparent that the port hull was sitting lower in the water.
Back on dryland we discovered that the rear top of the port hull had become slightly separated from the lower part of the hull on the in board side.
Will get the boat home and strip it down for a closer look, but in the meantime, does nobody know if all Hobie 18 hulls are identical?
I see that the dagger boards on my formula 18 are different to the dagger boards and some other Hobie 18s looks like the chord is bigger so guessing the dagger board cases are a different size on some hulls, can anyone confirm this.
Thank you very much.

Phil.

The shape of the hulls are all the same, never changed over 25 or so years of serial production. That includes the dagger boards. The dagger board trunks went through a minor change in the early 1990’s where the trunk was incorporated into the main hull, molded as a single piece, rather than being a separate bonded part.

The hull construction and fiberglass layup is a different story. The hulls went through a lot of layup and manufacturing changes over the years. Early hulls were heavy and prone to delaminating. Mid 1980’s the hulls were lightened, but went too far and some hulls failed. Late 80’s early 90’s Hobie went the other way and put a lot of weight back into the hulls. Then they pulled some weight back out, but the later hulls were a good balance of weight and durability.

The deck is bonded to the hull with an expanding adhesive. In rare cases, they don’t get a perfect bond and it can let go. Sounds like that may be what happened to your boat. If that’s the case, you can flip the boat over, spread open the hull joint, clean out any loose material, and then re-bond with thickened epoxy (West six-10 is a good choice).

If the joint is intact but the hull failed (fiberglass cracked), then that is a more extensive repair that would require rebuilding the broken area of the hull.

sm

Many thanks for the in depth reply sm.

Based on the two different daggerboard shapes for the H18 vs H18 formula I am still slightly unsure if the hulls are interchangeable between the two variants?

Guess its the dagger board case shapes that differ between a classic H18 and a H18 Formula.

Phil.

Ok, maybe need to take a step back…

Are you located in the US?

In US during the early 1990’s, Hobie had a trim that they refered to as “formula”. The boats were identical to regular production, other than cosmetics - the aluminim parts were powder coated white instead of the standard black anodize and the sails and hull graphics were custom. The hull shape, daggerboards, and rig was unchanged. I assumed that’s what you meant when you said your boat was a H18 formula. In the US, Hobie has never changed the shape of the hulls or daggerboards on the H18.

I also noticed that you posted a question in the Hobie Tiger forum. If you’re asking about the Tiger, then that’s an entirely different boat from the classic Hobie 18. But I believe the Tiger didn’t start production until around 1995 and your original post was about a 1992 boat, so a little confused there.


sm

Different versions are shown in the FAQ: https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12780

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

Hi SM

I am based in the UK, the H18 with the top deck delamination is a French built Hobie 18 formula 1992.

I also recently acquired a 2004 Hobie Tiger, again built in the French factory at Toulon.

Will have the 92 boat at home soon and be able to see the problem hull in more detail.

ATB

Phil.

Ok, that’s what I was starting to suspect. There were versions of the boats made in Europe that are different from those in the US. I’m not really familiar with them, so I don’t know how similar the hulls are from different years.

sm

Kindof old post... but there are at least two different Daggerboard Shapes for the Hobie 18. Older boats had thicker boards. Newer boats had thinner boards... ISH. There are a variety of weights. In about '89 they switched from a 3 piece mold to a 2 piece mold for the hulls, indicated by a seam at the bottom and top of the dagger trunk vs just a seam at the top of the dagger trunk. 90's plus boats had the dagger trunk molded into the hull and joined at the deck.

Practically all the boards are all the same... but many redline hulls have swollen trunks, in some cases that were replaced under warranty, but still out in the world in which the boards wouldn't fit. There are boards with different widths. I think this is more of a US issue than Europe issue.


Also... I thought the Euro Formula 18 has centerboards instead of dagger boards.

_________________
Tom
Fleet 259, Central Coast CA
H18 ('81)
H18 ('85)
H20 ('97)
H18 ('78)