Aside from a spinnaker, what kind of upgrades to a 16 would you suggest to add for the sake of speed and performance?

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Karl, Captain of Stayin' Thirsty
2011 Hobie 16SE
Atlanta, GA
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Anti pitchpole foil. A good downhaul to manage the power. Foot straps near the transoms so you can trap off the back. A good crew to double trap with. Other than that, the boat is already overpowered for it's size, it's how you sail it that counts!

But the best performance upgrade... sell it and get the new Nacra Infusion Mark 2 F18! :)

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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capable crew that is agile and heavy (but not too) and a 35 kt breeze should do it. maybe rake your mast back a touch.

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nacra inter-18
CNBP
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you won't need that spin above about 18 kts of breeze. At least on an F-18, you are tempting fate if you hoist at in a 20 kt breeze. Now that said, you got do it at least once (okay maybe twice) so you hit the 25 kt mark in boat speed, but if you break parts or send crew peter panning it's not my fault.

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nacra inter-18
CNBP
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They may have improved these things on the newer H16, but the things we used to do were:

STIFFEN THE BOAT. That means to glue up the corner castings to the pylons: ergo flip the boat, square it up, and pour epoxy into the corner castings. Another thing we used to do is to use a real heavy bungee to lace up the trampoline such that the sidebars bent in some. The bungee allows a real tight lacing and keeps even tension as one moves around on the trampoline.

DECENT RUDDERS. Get EPOs. I think that Hobie now calls them "racing rudders' or some such

DECENT JIB TRAVELLER. Bungeed between the cars such that they move inboard automatically, and the pins removed for smooth movement. The newer boats have different rigs as I understand, you may have that already fixed for ya

MAX LEGAL DOWNHAUL

MAX LEGAL MAINSHEET PURCHASE. Get some nice Harken blocks with good smooth line.

TOB. Time On the Boat, which is more important than all the above...



Edited by tami on Jun 04, 2011 - 08:05 AM.

zowee! you sure are "motivated", but hey slow down, 1st you gotta learn to sail, get familiar with your cat, learn how the rudders work, how mast rake affects your sailing, how to get out on the trap wires. The more you sail, the faster you go, only when you have peaked, or maxed out your current sailing ability, do you move on to things like square top sails, spinnaker, hydrofoils, turbocharged jetski engine...........................



Edited by turbohobo on Jun 04, 2011 - 10:13 AM.

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TurboHobo
H14T
H16
P18
G-Cat 5.0
P16
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Truly, the 16 is a fast boat already. The fastest ones are the ones you can keep from cartwheeling or pitchpoling! Not that it isn't fun to do that once in a while. :)

Learn how to make the best use of the sail power you have before trying to increase it. I can almost guaruntee that a stock 16 will be a handful by itself for the first season.

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Hey, many thanks for all the great tips and advice! Seems like this is a very cool community. This is my second 16, the first I owned in the 70's and I worked at a Hobie Shop in Florida where I sold, repaired and gave sailing lessons on all things Hobie. I know these boats better than I know my kids. However, it is my understanding that they've made some drastic improvements in the technology and hardware, so I was asking in hopes of understanding what kind of upgrades make sense on these newer boats. So, a few questions:

H16 Stock Block Sets - I believe they are 6:1 Harken sets. What kind of upgrade could be made to make this "max legal downhaul"?

I liked the idea of epoxy'ing the corner castings. What a great idea. Anyone have experience with this? I'm wondering about the unlikely case that you need to disassemble the cross or side bars, you prolly wouldn't be able to get them apart, right?

I'm ordering the boat with plain white sails and intend to have a custom set made. Where can I get plans (or a sailmaker with plans) for a square top mainsail? I don't think I've ever seen an example of that on a H16.

The anti-pitch pole foils - Yeah, that was a lot of fun on those downwind tacks. I saw those in the hobie catalogue. I'm assuming they're effective as preventing the hull from submerging at max speed?

Kind regards!!

P.S. I posted my Hobie from 1975 (#15921) as my avatar. The new one will be quite different.



Edited by motivated on Jun 06, 2011 - 08:24 AM.

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Karl, Captain of Stayin' Thirsty
2011 Hobie 16SE
Atlanta, GA
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Did you see this 16 for sale on this sitehttp://www.thebeachcats.c…283-new-hobie-16-se.html

motivated

Hey, many thanks for all the great tips and advice! Seems like this is a very cool community. This is my second 16, the first I owned in the 70's and I worked at a Hobie Shop in Florida where I sold, repaired and gave sailing lessons on all things Hobie.

Welcome back to beachcat sailing, glad to have you aboard!

motivated

I know these boats better than I know my kids. However, it is my understanding that they've made some drastic improvements in the technology and hardware, so I was asking in hopes of understanding what kind of upgrades make sense on these newer boats.

The new boats being sold now have at least two major upgrades from your Hobie days and a bunch of small ones. 40+ years of small changes and a lot of company changes have refined the boat. I recently quizzed Hobie about how the new boats are different from the original design, two things stand out.

• The raised tramp corner pylons were redesigned in 1994 and are now solid castings instead of the previous pylon made from a mast section. It was where the mast section inserted into the base casting that became loose and needed to be epoxied. The new designed doesn't have this problem.
  
  
• Integrated traveler tracks in the front beams and upgraded traveler system.

http://www.thebeachcats.c…e-for-better-performance

motivated

H16 Stock Block Sets - I believe they are 6:1 Harken sets. What kind of upgrade could be made to make this "max legal downhaul"?

The new boats come stock with all Harken blocks, that is an upgrade over the old Seaway blocks, no upgrades required to a new boats running rigging.[/quote]

motivated

I'm ordering the boat with plain white sails and intend to have a custom set made. Where can I get plans (or a sailmaker with plans) for a square top mainsail? I don't think I've ever seen an example of that on a H16.

http://www.WhirlwindSails.com Keep your stock Hobie sails in case you decide to enter Hobie events.

motivated

The anti-pitch pole foils - Yeah, that was a lot of fun on those downwind tacks. I saw those in the hobie catalogue. I'm assuming they're effective as preventing the hull from submerging at max speed?

These seem silly to me, I've sailed with hundreds of good Hobie 16 sailors and have never seen a pair.

Bottom Line: If you buy a brand new Hobie 16 you will have a better Hobie 16 than anyone you are likely to meet outside the World Championships, buy it and enjoy it!

motivated

P.S. I posted my Hobie from 1975 (#15921) as my avatar. The new one will be quite different.Edited by motivated on Jun 06, 2011 - 08:24 AM.

P.S. Classic cool sail pattern!

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

How To Create Your Signature

How To Create Your Own Cool Avatar

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Also, the new EPO2 carbon rudders are standard on the new boats.
http://www.hobiecat.com/sailboats/hobie-16/

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

How To Create Your Signature

How To Create Your Own Cool Avatar

How To Display Pictures In The Forums.
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I agree with wolfman. Get out there and sail ur cat to the edge and know that you will have a few capsizes if your doing it right.

Quote

motivatedThe anti-pitch pole foils - Yeah, that was a lot of fun on those downwind tacks. I saw those in the hobie catalogue. I'm assuming they're effective as preventing the hull from submerging at max speed?

These seem silly to me, I've sailed with hundreds of good Hobie 16 sailors and have never seen a pair.

More than silly... i think they will induce a pitchpole if you get them under the waterline

Oh they work. I've seen them in action (know a guy that makes a copy of them also). They buy you a bit of leeway in diving the lee hull and probably buy you between 2-5 seconds to react before you go flying. Helpful when learnin and in gusty swirly winds and 'maybe' when pushing the boat but certainly not a cure for the issue.

Putting a foot strap near the rudders and raking the mast way back do more for you for sure. All the good hobie 16 sailors I've met just double trap as far back as possible to keep the bows up. But the foils could be considered a 'go fast goodie'.

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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if you are a techie, a $100 GPS and some time on the computer analysing your tracks will help you race faster

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

I know I was thinking about buying some anti pitch pole for my 16. looks like I just put a foot strap near the rudders. I know it just feels like you can not get back far enough some times. Although my lake big star lake has many wind changes due to three different land inlets.

Awesome, thanks for all the great advice. Sounds like the boat is "go-fast" ready. And, I am glad to hear about the upgrade to the pylons. Sounds like it will go a long way to keep the boat stiff and true.

One final question. I intend to have a custom logo inked into the spinnaker. I can't determine if the spinaker is fixed on the end of the pole (for example, does it act as a jib where the front is fixed and the rear moves from side to side) or is it like other spinnakers where that front corner would swing around the boat and become the rearward point of the sail when you tack. The reason I'm asking is to determine if the logo would need to be applied to just one side or both sides of the sail.

Kind regards and again, many thanks for the welcome advice. By the way, I ordered the boat yesterday, so in about two weeks, I'll be the proud owner of a brand new H16.

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Karl, Captain of Stayin' Thirsty
2011 Hobie 16SE
Atlanta, GA
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Like a jib. the tack remains the same.

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Ron
Nacra F18
Reservoir Sailing Assn.
Brandon, Mississippi
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make sure it has the 6:1 downhaul that really helps with sail shape- I have one for sale if you are interested just about brand new :)

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85 Prindle 16
"If you aint the lead dog the view never changes"
North Carolina
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