New Project

Hey folks,

I am completely new to sailing but spent the summer using a rental Sunfish and a friend's Hobie Bravo and fell in love with the sport.

I just picked up a used Hobie Wave and trailer for $1100, which seemed like a pretty good deal based on the other prices for Waves available on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.

From the pictures from the listing, the sail looked completely shot, but it did come with a replacement club tramp that was still in the box (win one; lose one).

I got my hands on the boat yesterday and am now at the early stages of assessment. I don't really know what I am doing, but there is a TON of good info here and I am pretty handy.

I wanted to start a thread to post some pictures of the process and see if anyone had some advice on the process as I work my way through it.

I am storing the boat at an indoor location that a friend has access to. Anyway, after getting in there, I took home a few pieces to start getting it operational.

More to come . . .

I am trying my hand at posting a pic. I notice my feet are in a lot of my pics, so please ignore that. The hulls are in great shape.

Here is a pic of the Wave after pickup.



Fixed the image link for you. You used the page URL. You need to hover over the image on the page and right click to get the image URL.

(I corrected the post to reflect that this is a Wave instead of a Bravo)

That is a Hobie Wave.

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

My first weekend was working on cleaning up the rudders and getting the cam mechanisms working again. They were locked solid.

Thanks to this forum, there were a lot of great suggestions on how to clean things up. I tried a bleach solution on the rudder, but it couldn't cut through the gunk. I ended up using a 3M pad and dishsoap with some success. I think it acted more like a sandpaper than a cleaning effort. I hope that doesn't ruin anything.

For the aluminum, the vinegar suggested on this forum worked great to clear the corrosion.

For the cams, I was lucky enough that the lower screw worked, so I was able to take the screw out and get all of the gunk out that was preventing the plunger from moving freely. I used silicone spray as a temporary lubricant. I have some marine grease on the way for the final lube.

Here is a before and after pic:

Now two quick questions (and some more pics).

First, the halyard and main sheet lines feel really brittle. The boat was stored outside for a year by the previous owner. I am not sure how it was handled prior to that (it is a 2004). Is it safe to assume I should just purchase replacements? Both would put me in a bad spot if they broke, so I am leaning in the direction of replacement.

Second question, with pictures this time. I bought this Wave knowing that the sail would probably need to be replaced. It is missing its clear window and also looks like hell. The previous owner said he never got around to sewing in a replacement window, but having watched some videos, I am guessing that is not something that is done by hand. Can someone confirm that the sail is permanently ruined or if I should put the effort into trying to clean it and finding someone with a machine to sew in the window? The previous owner provided a clear piece of plastic, but it looks like he cut it himself. Please let me know:

@Matt Miller

You are correct. I spent the summer on a Hobie Bravo, so I keep referring to this one incorrectly. It is a 2004 Hobie Wave with the Club style tramp and the pre-EZ Loc cams on the rudders.

The colors are pretty vivid, so not faded... just super dirty. Try cleaning at least right?

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

Any sailmaker can replace that window for $40-50, probably. That's what I've paid in the past for the work. I would definitely attempt to clean the sail before throwing it in the trash.

Thank you both for the replies. I will definitely see if I can get it cleaned up a bit. $40-$50 plus some work definitely beats $1000.

In other news, I got the new tramp on this weekend. The tramp was a replacement bought by the prior owner and never installed. A picture of it is below (along with two very excited kids that sadly won't be getting a ride on the boat until next May/June).

Two questions about the tramp. First, the material feels like a vinyl as opposed to the mesh that was on there previously. Is this just what it feels like new or did the previous owner buy something odd? It is from Salt City Sailing. Second, the staggering of the eyelets was different than expected. Instead of the first two lining up, the first rivet on the starboard side was about 2" below the mast crossbeam and the one on the port side was about 5" below. From the Hobie videos I watched, the first rivets were always even. Is this something to worry about? If they make the tramps this way, I am guessing it isn't that big of a deal.

And then an amusing pic too. I got a trailer as part of the purchase too. I didn't pay too much attention to it beyond noticing that the prior owner had duct taped Styrofoam to the crossbars to create padding for the hulls. After I took the boat off to tighten the tramp lacing I noticed that crossbeams are actually masts for some other boat that were just slipped into the trailer. They aren't even attached, the weight of the boat was the only thing holding them in place. The trailer is my next project, but I was pretty surprised to see the halyard clip on one of my trailer crossbars.

New tramp:



Terrible trailer: