When I received my newsletter from NAHCA (North American Hobie Cat Assn.) I Ran across a letter to the editor from a lady named Margaret From Indiatlantic, Florida. I hope Margaret will read this letter:
Dear Margaret,
With great interest I read your letter
..that people are using sails other than the class legal sails...
Then added,
Please tell me you are going to keep the Wave as a class boat and not allow major modifications to the class.
First of all, as IWCA (International Wave Class Assn.) President, I will do everything in my power to allow no major modifications to the class. We have worked hard to keep things very simple on the boat -- we want the winner of a regatta to do so on his/her abilities, not on how many tricks and gadgets you can buy to make your boat faster.
The Wave is a common denominator of all the cats I have ever sailed and reduces your tuning to such simple things as mast rake, downhaul, sheeting and steering. Well, that leaves one with a lot of time on your hands while sailing. This lets you concentrate on the bigger things in sailing, i.e., getting good starts, not overstanding laylines, good mark roundings, fast tacks and jibes, etc.
So, you see, Margaret, we truly believe that the boats should be all the same or as close to the same as possible.
Now, you have brought up the sail and the fact that we allow builders of the sail other than Hobie Cat Company.
That is true and outside sails ARE
class legal.
And the reason is that the class has set up a rule by which ALL sails are measured to insure sameness of size.
Funny, but when Mary (Wells) and I came up with the idea of having a Wave National Championship, we really were not sure what would happen, who would show, or whatever. Sure enough we had 30 boats attend. There was only one sail used that was not Hobie-built -- and it was way smaller than all the rest. The sailor was my son, David White. He tanked with that particular sail. Halfway through the regatta he swapped for a clear Hobie Sail and did well after that.
More interesting is that of all the Hobie sails that participated, there were three very different sized sails. On our first Wave that we bought when the Wave first came out the sail was 18
shorter on the luff than the clear sails that were way oversized. By the way, the clear, oversized Hobie Sails won.
Now, if you had just bought a new Hobie Wave complete with Hobie sails, you would have been blown away by these clear Hobie sails -- no matter how well you sailed. Is that fair? No, of course not! Is that one-design? Not even close!
It was then that we started planning for future national events and decided to allow outside sailmakers, but also to instill strict measuring of those outside sails.
We have since decided to measure even the Hobie sails -- since they seem to have the most problems getting uniformity to their sailmaking.
Are the outside sails always faster, you may ask? No! In the top ten finishers of the Wave Nationals, 70% of the sails were stock Hobie sails. Many non-Hobie sails were mid-pack or farther back in the pack. The winner did sail with his own design. That was Bob Curry using a Sabre Sail. Excuse me, but Bob is probably the best uni-rig sailor of all time in the world -- he could have won with a bedsheet.
At the boat show in Miami, Hobie President, Doug Skidmore, told me there were some complaints about the other sails from some of the west coast
hot dogs
that had probably believed they would swoop into the southeast and
...take candy from babies." Most did not do very well. But, those folks ought to consider a couple of things:
* There were a whole helluva lot of Hobie sails ahead of them, too.
*factoit: of the 65 sailors at the Wave Nationals, 23 of them were at least past national champs in one class or another!
With the concept of making the boats pretty much all the same speed one needs to have a sailmaker design a sail for your particular need. For example, Charlie weighs 225 pounds while his wife, Nora, weighs 130. They both own Waves. Should Nora's boat have the same Hobie-issued sail as Charlie's? Well, if they did both have the same sail and it was not full, Charlie would not have a prayer of ever winning a race against Nora.
On the other hand, if the Hobie-issue sail was full, then in heavier wind Nora could not hold the boat down and Charlie would dominate.
If Nora acquired a flat sail, and Charlie acquired a full sail, they would both have the sail they needed for their weight and both would be about equal. Then it would depend on ability and decision making.
If they simply settled for the Hobie sail that came with their boat -- a pig in the poke, you might say -- then these two sailors would not be even.
I remember when I got out of the Tornado Class (where all sails came from any number of sailmakers, but all had to measure in) and bought a Hobie 18. Luckily, the first boat we bought had a pretty full sail, which was perfect for Mary and I (our overall weight exceeded 300 pounds most of the time), but then I would see other big folks with really flat sails -- they never had a chance.
Funnier still was all the hotshots in the Hobie 18 fleet immediately had their new Hobie-issued sails recut by their friendly, local sailmaker. One-design? I think not! ![[Linked Image]](/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif){kind=icon}
And one more item:
We still have our Hobie-issued sails for all three of our Waves, and all but the one we bought this past December are already blown out. In other words, the sails that come with the boat will not last more than a year under normal use. Therefore, you need to replace them. I find the sailmakers that have taken an interest in the Wave Class offer their sails at very reasonable rates (probably less expensive than Hobie's sails), they are made of better material, and will last much longer.
So, Margaret, I ask that you reassess your thinking about what is one-design and what isn't now that you are more informed. I know that most Hobie sailors have been totally brainwashed into believing that one-design means manufactur-supplied. But, that simply is not true. There are many more one-design classes that allow sailmakers than there are those that required company-supplied sails.
Those of us involved in the Wave class are truly seeking to level the playing field and revive one-design sailing.
Thanks,
Rick White
I agree on the sail issue. I have seen the differences in sizes of Hobie factory sails, and the result when they were sailed.
The spirit of the game with the Wave is that it is a simple boat that lots of people can afford and I hate to see people come to the race with exotic sails that look like they came off a tornadoe, or designs that try to bend the rules as far as they can go, to get the last little bit out of them. If you want to spend $2000 dollars on a uni rig sail, then sail 'A cats'.
And I agreed with allowing a different block for sheeting as the one supplied with the boat was really is hard to cleat and uncleat..
But when a different type of rudder blade is used - that is going too far. A stiffer blade is going to work better whether a person is heavy or light. And the only reason for using different rudders is to get an advantage over all the other boats, and if you need to do that, why race one design - you are breaking the 'spirit of the game'.
Most Hobies are less true one-design than A-Class boats.
Hobie sails change from year to year, a little or a lot, for no reason.
I have yet to see a set of Hobie sails last as long as a set of after market sails.
Hobie provides heavy, fragile plastic rudders, but lets you buy
racing
rudders or find a set of EPO's.
How
one-design
is that?
Hobies hulls are notorious for large weight variations.
I know people who ran out and bought a new Hobie 16 one year because the boats were being made lighter.
At least the Wave/Getaway hulls should be uniform in weight. Rotomolding uses an exact amount of plastic each time, unlike fiberglass layup.
POINT OF FACT!!
Hobie Corp. DOES NOT produce and sell identical boats year after year.
Believe me the aftermarket sails on the Waves do not look like they just came off a Tornado. And sails do not cost $2000 -- most are around the $500 +/- area and normally less money than Hobie sails.
I am not in favor of exotic rudders, but then again there are none. And all the rudders being used are Hobie manufactured -- so we have no high-tech outbuying deals going on here.
Rick White
The Hobie Factory sail design for the Wave has not changed for MANY years. They are computer digital cut and as consistent a shape as any production loft. The best lofts in the country will vary their sails in some way when doing more than one sail in a run. We have experienced this as customers of some of the best lofts in the US, again and again.
Any real difference in size or style of the Wave sail can be attributed to the first year of production. We had purchased a very limited number of Mylar sails that never became standard with the boats. Certainly there was never a standard sail with an 18
difference in the luff... This would have to be a deck dragger. If it was 18
shorter, perhaps it was one of the reefable sails without the zip off (Multi Sail Design) panel intact or perhaps a proto type.
In any case, the sails made for the Hobie Wave are as durable as they come. We have made them with (approx.) 5.6-oz cloth for several years. This is the same cloth used in the 14, 16 and 18 sails. Most cheaper sails offered are using mylar or 3.9 oz. dacron. To say that a stock Hobie sail is not as durable as Mylar or exotic cloth sail is simply wrong. Don't be fooled by the
pro-custom-sail
crowd. They all want an edge, and that is their true concern.
Cost of a Hobie Factory sail more money?... Wrong again! At $555.00 for the 5.6oz white standard and $695 for full color Wave sail when a Calvert
Racing Mainsail
that is made from
mylar or exotic cloths
(which does not include logos, windows) is $795? Even Murrays replacement Wave sails are more money and cheaper, lighter weight cloth.
Sometimes you have to look further for the facts.
The Wave was never intended as a one design racing boat because of these silly racing issues. Since the Wave is intended as an entry level boat... why all the concern for those experienced (national champs and all) anyway? Lets get on to promoting to the entry level people it was intended for and let those rules twisters sail some other boat if they want. You take away a bunch of the fun when you add all these rules to the game and it certainly doesn't appeal to the beginners.
Matt Miller
mmiller@hobieco.com
Hobie Cat Company
Let me answer that last question you posed, Matt, since I can address it from personal experience. The reason to promote racing with the Wave is because of what Rick White wrote... the boat is so simple that it allows for the skill of the racer to directly affect the results, more than any other cat. As for getting on to promoting the boat to new people, if only Hobie would!!! I travel a lot in pursuit of my racing interests and it was not until the first Wave Nationals at Rick's Place that I ever saw a Wave on the water and where I first got a chance to sail one. In the boat shows they looked badly designed but I became a convert with my first sail and have bought four of them since then and have taken many non-sailors sailing on them since. In other words, if not for the racing at the Nationals level, I never would have been exposed to the boat. Where the hell were all the Hobie dealers all those years? Why is it that the dealers do so little to demonstrate the boats and promote them? If not for the owners and race organizers, the exposure and promotion of Hobies would be greatly reduced. So those are excellent reasons that Hobie should be thrilled to have us racing the Waves. And if the Hobie sails really are better and cheaper, then Hobie should be glad the owners have a choice so that they can readily see the advantages of stock sails over the competition and place even more orders to Hobie.