No more H18. Detuned Wildcat

There seems to be a vibrant an passionate community of H18 enthusiasts. Hobie no longer makes an 18 foot cat comparable to the H16 right? This is a bummer. Couldn't Hobie sell a detuned or striped down, simplified version of the wildcat for those that would like a bigger (simpler)cat?

Unfortunately, there is really nothing about the wildcat that can be stripped down. Sure, they can remove the spinnaker setup, but everything about the boat is intended to compete with the other high-tech entries into the F18 class. Without the spinnaker, the boat would still be at least 50% more expensive than a Hobie 18 would be. Moreover, the entire design of the boat is geared towards high end racing, with lightweight hulls and high aspect ratio sails and daggers. Some of the most endearing features of the H18 are due to the high buoyancy (and well designed buoyancy distribution) of the hulls and the high durability of the hulls and parts. These features make the boat perfect for a beach cat, excellent for sailing with friends and family, smooth and forgiving handling, long lasting, easily maintained and tough. Unfortunately, these features are also everything that the wildcat is not. High tech boats are not built for durability or extra buoyancy, that adds weight.

Moreover, Hobie is desperately trying to maintain its existing classes or build new ones, and having several boats that are too similar to one another or having different versions of the same boat does not serve that goal, in fact it ruins it. This is part of the reason the H18, H18 magnum, H18SX, H20 and H21 classes either fell apart or never really got off the ground. By the 90's, Hobie was selling very few of any of these boats, not enough to justify their continued production (and not enough to profit from them), so they cut the classes. Hobie's new goal is to have their easy to sail (and cheap to produce) plastic boats, their "classic" H16 class, and a boat for the hardcore F18 sailors. No competing with themselves, no splintering of the market, and unfortunately, very little growth to the well established classes. Personally, I think it was a mistake to cut the Hobie 18 from production, because it played a unique role in the market that is lost in their current lineup, but economically, it wasn't making money. So that's where it ends, probably for catamarans as a whole. They're not the new thing anymore; people look to jetskis, wakeboards, windsurfing and kitesurfing for fun on the water.

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Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238

Hi,

With global supply chains, CNC etc... You'd figure that Hobie could make very low runs of the H18. Or make new replacement parts.

The rotomolded boats aren't the same as a glass h18(tautology alert).

So many speak passionately about the H18 but the last boat was 1992(?). It would seem that these boats can't be sailed forever.

You're exactly right, the roto molded boats aren't as durable, long lasting or as easily repaired, aren't as stiff/strong and therefore not as high-performance. They do have many advantages: they're very low maintenance, lightweight, easy to set up, easy to sail, family friendly (no boom). The getaway in particular was designed to replace the H18/H21SC as a good "family" boat, comfortable to sail with a lot of buoyancy, but it doesn't have the high degree of tunability or the same performance as the 18.

The last factory made boat was built in 2006 I believe, with the last ever 18 custom assembled in 2011. (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=36064&hilit=Centralmichigansailor)

Unfortunately, these boats are costly to produce, and even with today's advancements and bulk production runs, a new catamaran still exceeds $10k in price for the consumer. Fiberglass layup in particular is a labor intensive process that cannot be easily automated, and so the cost of the hulls make up at least half the coast of the boat.

I learned quite a bit about Hobie's approach to introducing new boats and the catamaran market as a whole through reading this forum: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=53496

Europe has the HC Pearl : basically Tiger hulls but with the dagger boards from the HC18 that retract + wings and a simplified sail plan. A real fun boat but it is not cheap...

_________________
Michel