Hobby Kat

parts

Lenny, as long as you get all the parts from one boat, they should be easy to fit. I have swapped rigs back and forth from several different beach cats and not even had to change the shrouds. The mast steps do vary, and the boat might not balance quite the same, but you can address that when you are building the boat- one of the advantages of building it yourself. I think you have plenty of wind in Cape Town, a little smaller rig will probably work fine. I would also consider one of the production rudder systems, if you are really planing on using the boat off the beach, a good "kick up" system is really important, and replacement parts are available. I sold a lot of rudders and parts when I was a dealer Finding a good used rig first might help determine which one of the designs is most appropriate for you. That is kind of backwards, but realistic. Bruce

 

It might be easier and maybe cheaper to find a whole beach cat, trailer and all, than just spars and sails.

Of course, then you have to decide whether you still want to build a beach cat, when you already have one. The cost of materials alone may be more than the cost of a used beach cat.

Of course, if you like boatbuilding for its own sake, then a plastic beach cat might not appeal, no matter how cost-effective. The Woods beach cats are very good, in my opinion, and so are Bernd Kohler's small designs. Gary Dierking has drawn some wonderful outrigger canoes. If the point is that you just want to build something beautiful out of wood, then invest in the prettiest (to your eye) design you can find from a good designer.

Personally, I don't enjoy boatbuilding as much as going sailing, probably because I'm a better sailor than boatbuilder, but everyone is different. The only reason I talked myself into designing and building Slider was that I wanted a 16 foot simple trailerable open cat with seating in the hulls, and no one else had drawn such a design.



Then I talked myself into drawing and building a smaller simpler version of the same concept, as a cartoppable boat. It appears that designing is as addictive as any drug.

 

Wow' she is beautiful, quite classy. I think when i really get into this i'm gonna have too many boats and not enough space for them! The one in the pic, is that the trailerable one?
How difficult is it to design boats, do you have a background in engineering?

Yeah, my sailing experience is fairly limited. I crewed a bit on a hobie tiger and some sixteens, i also crewed on a bigger racing yacht (must been 30-40"). Although there i was mostly just human ballast. I thoroughly enjoyed these experiences.

Woodworking on the other hand, i have been doing since I was old enough to pick up a hammer (I might of even started a little too early, hehe). So I might be more into woodwork than sailing but who knows what the future holds.

Did some research looking out for hobie 16 rigs. They are pretty hard to find (surprisingly) I found a lot of hulls and trampolines, but not so many masts and sails. Here's the tough thing (as mentioned). I found a mast for R1000, a Main sail for R3500 and a complete h16 with all extras on a trailor for R5000! lol.

I do like building stuff, but if i gonna butcher a good hobie, i would like to know that i"m gonna build something that is a improvement on what it was
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Perhaps i should also try the sailing clubs, they also often have old stuff lying around the back of the club house.

 

used parts

Hobies were produced in SA back in the 80s, but yes, the rigs do tend to get used up. However, many of the h-16s of that era have bad hulls by now, they may look ok, but they tend to self destruct around the forward pylon, particularly when used in heavy waves/wind. (your conditions ). Just push down on the deck in front of the front pylon- if it is "soft", the boat needs a lot of work and should reduce its value, you can feel good about re-using the parts. Bruce

 

The gougeons Epoxyworks 4, 5, 6, carried a really excellent series of articles on making replacement hulls for the Hobie that were higher performance. These were cheap tortured ply hulls, which is a very pleasant construction technique to work in. Unfortunately their online presence does not include these articles, or not the last time I looked, though they ought to send them to you, or your local supplier if you ask. Those guys like to sail fast, but the higher volume lighter hulls have advantages for all.

 

This sounds like a sensible solution. Buy a soft-hulled H16 and then build nice, new hulls for it. All the hardware will transfer over keeping the cost low, you get a better boat than a H16 and to have the fun of building the hulls.

 

Thanks, Lenny-- yeah, that's the trailerable one. Weighs about 500 lbs empty, with a max displacement of 1100 lbs. You have to remember that in order to get comfort, I gave up speed. Slider has 140 sq. feet of sail, compared to the H16's 218, and weighs more. The fastest I've gone in Slider was 8.5 knots, which would be okay for most open 16 foot boats. You could go twice as fast in the H16-- but you'd probably be trapped out, soaking wet, and on the verge of capsize. So it depends on what you want in a sailboat.

I'm not an engineer, though I bought my first cruising cat over 30 years ago, so I've been thinking about cats for a long time. Designing was pretty hard for me, but on the other hand it's my opinion that cruising cats are among the easiest boats to design. I spent years thinking about the design, and 19 months building. It would have been a lot faster if I hadn't left so many decisions until the last minute, but if I had a better idea while building, I changed my plan. If plans for the kind of boat I wanted had existed, I'd have been a lot better off to get them from a real designer. It would have saved me literally hundreds of hours.

The cartop cat I'm working on now should be sailing in a month or two-- it's a much cheaper and simpler boat. I'm recycling a lot of ideas from Slider, so there isn't as much indecisive anguish associated with it. If it turns out crappy, I haven't lost a whole lot, and if it turns out good, it'll be something folks can build for a few hundred bucks and learn a little about the advantages of cruising cats, without going broke.

It sounds as though you'd have no trouble building a boat.

I could be wrong, but I think you're more likely to love sailing a boat you built than a boat you bought, as long as it's a good boat.

 

See what I would like is some means of converting a beach cat into a cruising trimaran. Wouldn't it be great if someone would come along with a design like that?

 

I am doing that right now with my Strike 18 conversion . You can see more by going to the Latest News page of my website, scrolling down and clicking on the link for the studyplan package.

I am currently building the prototype in my shed in BC Canada. I started work on it last summer, but then went off for the winter to sail in the sun.

Having said that, I write this in a motel just on the US border, so should be back in Canada tomorrow and hope to get going on the Strike again in the next few days.

I'll keep the forum updated om progress

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

It's all right for some... hope you get back to Saturna OK and looking forward to seeing pictures of the skoota and strike when finished.

 

Hello all, I came upon this site by accident, but recognized the pictures from the magazine immediately. If anyone is still interested in this thread, I actually built a Hobby. I launched it July of 1978 in Long Beach harbor, Ca. I still have the boat and could advise on the strengths and weakness of this design and what I would do if I had to do it over again, if anyone is interested. wightknightsmail@aol.com
best
Greg

 

Sorry to awake an old thread
So far no luck in finding article from Epoxyworks. Does anyone have a copy or know the s pecific name of the article in Epoxyworks.

 

Lenny25

If you find a boat that has centerboards or daggerboards, you really should choose that one. I once had a wooden Tornado which has centerboards and sailed with Hobie 16s (since there were so many). The Tornado has less sail area than the Hobie, but sails faster and closer to the wind. I think it is just the fact that there are boards instead of the asymmetric hull. You can sail OK with a Hobie style hull, lots of people have, just not as well. Its really incovienent to not go well to windward (takes longer to get somewhere) and the boards make tacking more positive (successful).

Just an old sailors opinion - but I am right of course!!

BTW, Tornado plans are available for wood using the tortured ply method - it uses 4mm Okume ply. Using a beach cat (Hobie 16?) rig or others would get you sailing cheaper and easier than trying to duplicate the "Classic" Tornado rig.

This will NOT be a cartoppable boat. Hulls are 20' and about 60# each. Note that some of the new comparable boats have a 8' 5" beam rather than 10' in the original Tornado design. I personally would make the boat narrower than designed - you don't want to trailer the 10' boat if you can help it. I don't think any 16' beach cat will be cartoppable. Don't know about Richard Woods cats.

Many beach cats have similar size masts, but not the same. I think the Hobie 16 is about 28' - someone correct me here.

IMO - don't ever build a Popular Mechanics (or Popular Science) copy of another design. The people who draw these things don't know anything and did not work out the details well. I bet that Hobby weighs an additional 50% over the Hobie - and that matters.

Marc

 

good point

Good point that a tornado would be easier to sail and faster. I just had the opprotunity to pick up a hobie 16 with bad hulls and wonderd if I could use the rigging.

Secondlu I like the idea of not having dagger boards to just pull up on the beach and go over shallow waters. If I could somehow just install hobie parts onto a tornado hull I think that would be a fun project. First time builder here so I was looking for an affordable solution to save the delaminated hobie.

B

 

This is an unfair and often untrue statement, many of the designers were, or later became, well known yacht designers who got their start making these plans for the "popular" magazines. While it is true many were simple and heavy hardware store materials tubs, but there are many excellent first time project type boats as well. And all were test built and sailed. The designs are now obsolete, and that alone is a reason not to build them. But I own several old plan books of these designs and I love studying them to see how they solved design problems without using costly marine hardware.