Hobie Cat Company Acquires Hobie Cat Europe

In the Round the Island Race you rung what ya brung.

I'll take that as a no.

I venture a guess that if more folks spent money on equipment like your circle, the overall pricing would go down?

I personally don't recall ever having bought a new boat, although I have purchased new equipment (sails, trampolines, cordage) for them regularly. So I wouldn't quite make it to your

circle of trust

...

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever purchased a brand-new car, home or other capital item either..

But are they considered competitive? Or would I be purchasing them strictly for pleasure sailing. To be honest, I have contemplated one for a while (good price, would fit in garage, great singlehanding), but I have grown quite accustomed to spin reaching...

They are still competitive on a club and local level, not Worlds material necessarily( but that's all of sailing). Jake sails a Boyer MkIV and is competitive. I did better, at the Admiral's cups that I did on my MKIV, than I have done since I got rid of it. There could be other reasons besides the boat, but...

well, that's pretty much what I'd use it for anyway out here on the Gulf, although chop may be problematic?

I know the A class has a bit of a bad rap when it comes to boats/masts being

fragile

, but how bad is it really? I'm not (or at least try) going to crash into docks, but will the mast handle the occasional flip?

Yes. The boats are alot tougher than you'd expect. Message me or start a new thread and I can give you some examples. Don't want to hi-jack this thread anymore than I already have.

I have a 13 year old boat that was and is still 6 pounds overweight. I still get good results with (split 2 races with Harper last weekend). It's all original and I fear no wind with it. Do stupid things, get stupid results. You do need to be more diligent with releasing the downhaul downwind but its still a durable boat.

Too bad I couldn't put the old I-18/I20 mast on there. Would probably sink the boat.

I mean, crap, I hit a friggin bridge with it and it only scraped the paint. Kirk hit a BIGGER bridge with his and still sailed on...

Yeah, but other than being tough the I20 mast has nothing going for it.

You contemplating buying a boat is like Timbo being more inclined to attend a regatta! And that's what they call a twofer b!tches. Silver fleet has made me mean.

Hey, I finally got mommy to give up the credit cards. Now the mortgage company has stopped calling and the bank isn't charging overdraft fees... So I'm one step closer...

And I got the kitchen pass revoked for Wildcat (

does this dress make me look fat?

is a frigin trick question!) but did get it for Hiram's, so I guess I'll have to postpone my chirrosis for another month.

It's not the dress that makes you look fat: it's the FAT that makes you look fat!

- Al Bundy

Use at own risk...

Mike

Don't get married. Way easier.

At least it's not as expensive as owning horses (timbo)

We (quick N20) regularly get beaten round the course by a great sailor on his Boyer MkV when the wind is light. Its a rocket ship upwind.

Hobie should start concentrate on building boats thatz fit into classes instead of selling boats with strange weights, dimensions and or looks such as icat, fx-one, 15 and others.

Terminate the icat and make it an A-Cat. Stop the fx-one and do a F16 for example. Maybe Hobie even has the power to build an affordable

A

?

YET...

Now I'm contemplating buying a boat, to let Jay sail it at Wildcat, with one of my horses as crew.

;^)

Have you met my friend, Sam?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuA0Xm2cy1s&feature=related

I actually got to meet him before he died. He is still the funniest S.O.B. , to me.

This is an interesting point.

Matt, can you chime in here? Have the Tiger and Wildcat convinced you that building to a formula rule is a better path to success than strict one-designs? I know that you have focused on recreational markets, but when considering racing designs, is it time to look at building an A-Cat or F16 design? Or, are you so large that you really need the economies of scale and have no interest in the niche racing market?

Mike

I'm curious how many of any model they need to produce to make it work. Would the Wildcat get dropped if they only sell, say, fifty a year?

He was hilarious, as is my friend, Bob

It's going to take us awhile to figure this out. I can say that we are not looking to build something that is not going to sell. A cats would be one of those in my opinion. They are a constantly moving target and very difficult to rationalize. I'd say we are likely to build boats that appeal to the wider market to get things moving again in Europe... first.

I'd wager a pint that the F16 market is probably the biggest growing market in Europe, it would be nice to see a Hobie entrant. Certainly the FX1 was a great looking and well built product, unfortunately it just wasn't designed to fit one weight group or the other, trying to fit both groups just didn't work.

A new F-18 maybe? Maybe some more flotation up front in the wildcat and the beam a little further back.

Thanks Matt.

Mike