replacing H16 hulls

Has anyone ever replaced their Hobie 16 hulls with hulls of another brand or homemade hulls? I was thinking of possibly making some carbon fiber hulls to replace my original hulls that are getting soft.

Nope, but what an interesting idea. Use your hulls for plugs and make molds from them, then lay up carbon hulls. As long as you don't sell them, I don't think it's a copyright issue.

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Yet another Bob!
"Firefly" - 2012 Hobie Getaway with wings and spinnaker
"Sparky" - 1978 Sunfish (OK, it's not a Hobie, but it's a fun little craft)
Too many canoes and kayaks

I was actually thinking of my own design that won't pitchpole as easily.

Over the years I built a hobie cat and a few kayaks from ply wood panels and a number of cedar strip kayaks and canoes so now I keep thinking of a cedar strip Cat. Kind of thinking of a more modern hull design but pick up other parts from an old hobie to keep cost down. I am pretty sure it would be lighter than glass hulls, probably not as light as carbon but a lot cheaper....Jay

That should read Hobby cat, got the plans out of a 1973 magazine . it was a 14 foot cat modled after the H14... Jay

$$$$$$

Lots of better options to spend that kind of money on.

Before making any decisions on what to do, take a very rough stab at the raw material prices, (ie.. x number of gallons of this or that resin, and aprox x yards of your selected cloth (carbon, glass, etc). Price it all out first, I suspect you will be stunned at the raw material cost ( I was) now compared to say 20-30 yrs ago.
just sayin
FE

Watching the thread, and didn't want to discourage you.... but yeah, that seems like a lot of $$$ for very little return. I love my 16, but there are definitely more performance oriented boats on the market now. The thing I love about the 16 is the simplicity of the design and the fact that as a fiberglass boat it is virtually indestructible with a little maintenance and the occasional cheap repair.

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James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

I'm going to go ahead and join the rest of the folks here and rain on your parade as well. Building a set of custom hulls is expensive. Plywood hulls could be built for under a thousand, but they would be heavier, less shapely, more rot prone...... less good.

It would not be cost effective to put fancy carbon fiber hulls on a H16 frame and rigging. I can't think of a single component on the hobie 16 that would be appropriate on a race boat with carbon hulls. They are just completely different animals.

If you are just looking for a cat that sails a little better, try upgrading to a H18 (or something even better if you have $$$)

If you are looking for something special, build a plywood trimaran. It will be slower, but it will be your special toy.

There is a good chance you can salvage your hulls, depending how soft they are. If the hulls can't be saved, incomplete hobie 16's with OK hulls can be had for under $400, and often come with a few spare parts that might help you down the road.

~Joe

I have built a good number of ply wood hulled 18 foot kayaks and there lighter than fiberglass kayaks you can buy, even lighter than a lot of the kevlar kayaks. You are limited on shapes for the hulls but could come up with a good hull shape like they have for kayaks. Of course the hulls are glassed inside and out and are amazingly strong. As far as rot goes I have 1 kayak I have used for 15 years and I paddle on average of 150 days a year and its fine. I do store it inside when not paddling which might not be as easy with a sail boat, I know My hobie sits at the lake 6 months out of the year.
A cedar strip hull would be even lighter but cost a bit more and more work, could build any shape you wanted with cedar. Both would be a lot of time and work and not sure you would find any plans to help with the shape. cost for me to build an 18 foot kayak is app.$500 to $750 so you would more than double that for cat hulls I would guess. Like others said you could probably buy a nicer cat for what you would spend building hulls but theres somthing about using somthing you built your self .. Jay

Don’t forget about the incredibly higher stresses on a catamaran’s hulls compared to a kayak.....

Matt, don’t tell me you’re thinking about an A-cat too!

Jim

True there is a lot of stress on a cat. I built a wooden one back in 73 and it held up fine for the 6 years I owned it . Wood can be pretty amazing when its put to the test, skis always amaze me how far and how many repeated times they can flex and never break. I have 3k miles or so on the wooden bike frame I made and its holding up well. Jay

Nope. I'm too old, fat and slow. If drop $35K on a boat, it's going to have a motor.