Found this cool video of brothers sailing two of their Tai IV catamarans in 1962. Amazing, great looking cat, and they launch in an extremely crowded harbor, I would be pretty nervous about launching through hundreds of anchored/moored boats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v22Hu6BA9Q4

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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I've had sufficient of sailing through moored boats... while exciting it's really not that much "fun".

Way cool video!

love the hand crank halyard.
very neat.

Love those old kapok life jackets. I had one as a kid, threw it overboard when I was about 10, the damn thing sank!

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lots of the old wooden boats near the dock full of water and only floating because they were made of wood

boating must have been more popular then because there were certainly a lot less people in 1962

Cool vid Damon.

Edchris177

Love those old kapok life jackets. I had one as a kid, threw it overboard when I was about 10, the damn thing sank!

OMG.. i would be a little worried to see that.

Here you go Jonny, put this anchor chain around your neck...

beautiful boat! man they really scream too...looks cold! the hand crank halyard reminds me of a flying scott(we would always break the cheap aluminum cranks but a 1/4" socket extension and ratchet worked better anyways). really surprised at how modern the design is(minus the wooden cockpit).

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bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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i like those small wings on the bows to keep the splash up down. was a nice looking boat.

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Kevin219

i like those small wings on the bows to keep the splash up down. was a nice looking boat.

Those chines are to help prevent the bows from diving down, not a splash guard (i believe)

i believe otherwise. with just 10 degrees of pitch forward that groove is already pointing down. makeing it want to pitch pole even more if in the water. and besides those cats have so much volume in the bows i doubt the ever pitchpoled. the overhanging lip on a h18 is to cut down water. but its ugly compared to the bows on a nacra. thats why i like the small wings on these old cats

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Ogden Dunes, IN
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the overhanging lip on a h18 is to cut down water

I think the overhanging lip was there for the simplification of the manufacturing process of the boats. I am no expert on how these were built in the 70's but it looks like two molds were used and then the top attached to the bottom. My guess is this was first done on the H14 and H16 for easier assembly, and then just carried over to the H18. They do help for reducing water spray, and may even help keep the bows up when they slap the water.

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Scott,
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i believe otherwise. with just 10 degrees of pitch forward that groove is already pointing down. makeing it want to pitch pole even more if in the water.

i looked again, and i still feel that was it's intended purpose. i could be wrong, but i dont think so.

that looks very similar to the hobie pitch pole guards available at murrays
(and it's angle is very similar)

if it was a splash guard, it would/should be higher as to not interfere with the waterline

MN3

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i believe otherwise. with just 10 degrees of pitch forward that groove is already pointing down. makeing it want to pitch pole even more if in the water.

i looked again, and i still feel that was it's intended purpose. i could be wrong, but i dont think so.

that looks very similar to the hobie pitch pole guards available at murrays
(and it's angle is very similar)

if it was a splash guard, it would/should be higher as to not interfere with the waterline

Ha, those seem NOT to work for me...

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Tyler holmes
Panama city, FL

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Ha, those seem NOT to work for me...

i always thought they were rather silly too... but who knows, maybe they help just a little.

One thing interesting about these 1962 "bow fins" is that the new Hobie Wildcat has a very similar thing molded into the hulls. It's hard to see them in photographs but it's quite a substantial "ledge" that does act as a spray deflector.

On the Hobie 18 deck lip, as was said earlier, that is just the way catamarans (and fiberglass boats in general) were built. The overlapping lip makes a very strong hull to deck joint and is the way big boats were and still are constructed. It's one of the things that makes the Hobie 16 and 18 so durable, but also heavier than boats built without this large amount of solid glass and glue all around the deck.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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the new Hobie Wildcat has a very similar thing molded into the hulls. It's hard to see them in photographs but it's quite a substantial "ledge" that does act as a spray deflector.

thank you damon, i have noticed that before.

and just to make sure were all on the same page... its obvious that in that sketch, if that boat had any forward motion with that plate it would cause it to pitch pole even more. right?

i looked under my h18 over hanging lip. theres no gel coat in that groove and its smooth. no seam. its possible they molded it like that. the only reason i would think theyd mold the two seperately is to ease the process of attaching all the metal. but that could be threaded in.

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Nacra 6.0 NA
Ogden Dunes, IN
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I believe they are splash rails - they are so small that they are not going to help much. They look like mini-Sharks or Sharks look like gargantuan of these (not sure which came first). Those polished decks were VERY slippery when wet. I have the scars to prove it from when I was a young boy.

Some of my earliest memories are of dragging from the bar that runs between the bows. Pops would trail a line in the water off the rear and we'd hold ontot the bar as long as we could, then catch the line aft of the boat. This was on a Shark in the southeast USA.



edited by: TShan, Oct 09, 2010 - 05:46 AM

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that is just the way catamarans (and fiberglass boats in general) were built.

C'mon Damon, buy a Nacra, sexy hulls with none of that lip stuff

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Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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lonbordin

I've had sufficient of sailing through moored boats... while exciting it's really not that much "fun".

Way cool video!

In Indonesia its wooden fish traps and nets stretching out from the shore, can make it quite tricky in a light wind.

Great video though.