Last year Hobie 14 made

What was the last year that the Hobie 14 was produced?

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Mike Hensel
'86 Hobie 18, '93 Hobie 14, '80 Hobie 14(restso in progress)
Wind in your sails, water in your shoes, great day!

They are still being produced - in Europe.

In the US - early '90s - although the numbers dropped significantly in the late '80s.

Probably no more than a couple hundred built in the last few years.

Marquis Erikson's 14 is a '93 or '94

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

I think remember him saying his is one of the very last boats made. He bought it from the US Navy, they had a handfull that were either never used, or hardly used.

According to the Hobie South Africa website, they are still building H-14s there. Hobie Brazil may still be in the H-14 business.

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

The Hobie 18 sailors are working on building a list of sailors that are interested in buying New 18's.

If we can get enough seriously interested buyers together we may be able to convince Hobie USA to bring in a container from Hobie AUS.

If you can get a similar list going for 14's you might be able to convince Hobie USA to bring in a batch from Hobie Europe or Hobie Brazil.

Try going to www.HC14.org and see if there is enough interest to pursue the idea.

One other thought we are working on pursuing is to get Hobie USA to put together a "package" of New Hulls, Sails, Tramp and Standing rigging.

There are so many boats sitting in storage yards and back yards that have soft hulls that could be refurbished and sailed and or raced competetivly if only we could get new hulls at a reasonable price.

With new Tigers and FX one's going at 20K or more, refurbishing a boat that already has a strong, competetive fleet all across the nation has a strong appeal for many.

If we start talking to our dealers, and the Dealers start talking to Hobie USA, we might be able to make something happen. If all we do is sit and wish, the classes we love will eventually go the way of the Dodo bird, and pretty soon we can sail anything we want as long as we want to sail a Hobie 16.

Stephen

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

Really all that Hobie US would have to import is the Hulls. Everything else is made locally. I'd consider getting a 14 again if I could get a new one. My hatred for the boat is dwindling being I haven't been on one in a couple years.

Why do we have to wait for Hobie US to import a container of H-18s or 14s? If an individual or a dealer solicited enough orders, is there anything stopping them from going to Australia or Brazil, buying a bunch of boats, shipping them back to the states, and reselling them? Granted, I don't know what's in Hobie's licensing agreements or dealer contracts, but it seems to me that if I went to Brazil, bought a boat, Hobie or otherwise, and brought it back home, I could then sell my boat to anyone I wanted to. I doubt it's that simple and there may some substantial legal hurdles involved, but it I think if someone were willing to put some research into this they might be able to sell some boats.

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Speaking for myself, I have no desire to reinvent the wheel, Hobie USA already has a dealer network in place. It is a matter of can they make money doing it.

If I were to do it, I would be doing it out of a love for the boat. On the other hand, Hobie cat company has to see a way to make enough of a profit to make it worth their while.

If they could sell a few more boats, and add a few more bucks to the bottom line profits without adding a great deal of overhead to the top line, it seems to me like it might be worthwhile. Certainly worth looking at what the potential might be.

As I see it, if they did limited runs, that didn't involve tying up a lot of capitol, and a lot of expensive warehouse space, why not give it a try.

Extending the life of existing designs and increasing the sales of parts for those boats has got to be a LOT less expensive than R & D on new designs.

How about it Mr Miller, care to take a few minutes and shoot holes in our hopes and dreams for the old designs, or maybe set the bar and let us know how high we have to jump?

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

If anyone follows through with this idea, whether it be Hobie US, a dealer, or an individual in it for love of the old boats, please let me know. I'd seriously consider buying a new Hobie 14. I think a bunch of us old timers would line up to buy them. Among this segment of the Hobie crowd, the Wave, with all due respect, just isn't going to generate much enthusiasm. I'd love to see my daughter learning to sail on her Hobie 14.

I also like the idea of putting together packages to refurbish all those old boats rotting away in backyards and storage lots. If I could get a new set of H-14 hulls I'd buy the old clunker rotting away at our yacht club tomorrow.

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Mark Van Doren
H16 Seabreeze #112205 (Richard Petty Signature Edition)
H14T Fantasia #47787
San Juan 28

Funny, I was just asking about the year because I saw a Hobie 14 on EBay and it said 1990 somthing. It looked like a piece of crap and I thought that the add was not acurate. And the price was too high to start with for a 14.

Amazing how this thread runs away to the import thing again.

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Mike Hensel
'86 Hobie 18, '93 Hobie 14, '80 Hobie 14(restso in progress)
Wind in your sails, water in your shoes, great day!

Do you consider that a good thing or a bad thing?

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it is time to water your own lawn.

Matt M. has said in the past that Hobie USA no longer has the molds for the 14. They were chainsawed and dumpstered long ago. So any 14's would have to come from imports.

The quality of the Brazilian and S. African boats are a little suspect, so that leaves HCE as a source for quality 14's. The last time I heard, the cost of getting one to the US was pretty close to $10K. There are not many people willing to pay that for a new Hobie 14.

As for the other boats, HC USA did a run of 17's back in 2004. Probably no more than 20 or 30. I have one of them - but it didn't get sold (to a dealer) until 2007. It took the dealer another 6 months to sell it to me.

You can't make money on inventory that sits around for 3 years. They would have to have a significant number of orders in hand before they even thought about doing a production run.

""The Hobie 18 sailors are working on building a list of sailors that are interested in buying New 18's.
If we can get enough seriously interested buyers together we may be able to convince Hobie USA to bring in a container from Hobie AUS.""

Why would we need Hobie US to help with this? As long as we get enough orders to fill a 25' container we just order them direct. I'm sure on a container load we could get a good price from Hobie AUS. Unless Hobie US has some kind of reciprical trade agreement that won't let Hobie AUS sell here we should be good to go. Someone has to take the bull by the horns and get prices, freight costs etc. And the most important thing is people that will pony up and commit to purchase the boat.[size=9][/size[/quote]

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06 getaway -- always remember, man with both feet in mouth have no leg to stand on.

I think you would need Hobie USA to be on board. All Hobie sales in the USA must be directed thru the Hobie USA, there are territories.

I've been down the road with Bob Curry on getting new 14's in the states, Hobie was on board a few years ago, we needed about 30 pre paid buyers, price was about the same as a H16, pay now get boats in about 3 months.

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Brad Stephens
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