I have read many posts regarding the wet ride of a Solcat, how does that compare to the H18?
Took the H18 out yesterday in 25mph,(with 200lb crew), & rough conditions. The wind had shifted nearly 90* to the prevailing swell, leaving short steep waves of up to 1 metre,(3').
Max speed attained was 20.6 mph, (GPS).
The ride wasn't just wet, it was like being in a washing machine. We were both sitting on the wings, with fire hose water coming through the tramp, & often 5 gal bucketfuls being thrown in our faces.
I notice the Hobie tends to decelerate more than my Nacra, especially when waves strike the support tubes for the wings. In one instance downwind, we submerged almost the entire lee hull, coming to a complete stop. It didn't lift the back end, so I think the bat is pretty pitchpole resistant, but I would be very leery of trapping out without some form of chicken line.
I got wet on the Nacra in rough conditions, but if trapped out it was mostly knees or below. I thought sitting on the wings would keep us generally high & dry, not so, this is the wettest I've been short of swimming.
The Gen 1 EPO rudders are marvelous, about 4-5lb pull, can steer with thumb & forefinger if need be. Very responsive & predictable.
How do others, with lots of H18 time find the ride?



Edited by Edchris177 on Jul 15, 2016 - 10:11 AM.

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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
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I don't know of any beach cat that won't be a wet ride / fire hose experience in 25 mph breeze and steep chop. The Hobie 18 can be driven very hard in those conditions and it's not uncommon to bury the bows up to the front crossbar on a broad reach, but 9 times out of 10, she'll pop back up.

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I have read many posts regarding the wet ride of a Solcat, how does that compare to the H18?

Do you mean SuperCat?

I can't speak for the solcat but i owned an h18 and have been on many models of SuperCat - both in light, med and heavy air.

The h18 is a moderately wet boat. It sits low and has med freeboard
the super cat is much wetter (in general) and esp in a blow - It simply shoots water at you!

I think the 18 with wings is a fairly dry ride. Never sailed a Nacra so can't compare. I have had waves sweep people off the boat who were trapezed off the wings. So I know when one hull dips down into a trough it can get wet sitting on a wing. Yes the Lee wing will drag often in waves and that can be a pain. Especially if you have the other hull out of the water. The stern always seemed low to me so my lines would get washed off the tramp if not careful.

Sounds like a good day on the water. I think my old 16 with raised tramp was dryer until you went over, and my time on a Supercat taught me what wet sailing really is. So in my opinion the H18 with wings is on the dryer side of things.

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Scott,
‘92 H18 w/SX wings
‘95 Hobie Funseeker 12 (Holder 12)
‘96/‘01/‘14 Hobie Waves
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Sounds like you were definitely out in "firehose" conditions regardless of the boat. How much total weight on board? Where were you positioned? With the wings in big chop you should sail a little flatter, but at 20 mph in chop you are going to get wet.

The good thing is the fun factor of how hard you were able to push the boat and not get in trouble.

When I get buckets to the face I always blame the crew.

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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Our Hobie Tiger is really wet when going downwind with rough waves / waves coming from different diction. Wet as in "you get buckets of water in your face and it's impossible to see anything, or breathe". Obviously wings should help a bit on that compared to trapezes.

If your leeward hull goes below the water, you probably should move weight back a bit (unless you already did that...).

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When I get buckets to the face I always blame the crew.

It is ALL the crews fault!

I do now recall i used to carry ski googles with me on my h18 for heavy air days since i found it slightly hard to see with salt water in my eyes

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Do you mean SuperCat?

Yes, thank you for the correction.

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it's not uncommon to bury the bows up to the front crossbar on a broad reach, but 9 times out of 10, she'll pop back up.

I think we've used up 8 of the 9 lives then! At one point it drove the ENTIRE hull below water on a beam/broad reach. The boat very quickly ground to a halt, recovered, then kept going.

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How much total weight on board? Where were you positioned?

I'm 170, & my buddy is around 190ish. I was sitting as far aft on that wing as I could get, & he was snuggled so close to me people might get ideas!
I don't think I ever got as wet in the face on the 5.7. The 5.0 with both of us was wetter, but not Hobie wet. I thought the "lip" on the H18 hulls would deflect some of the water. Perhaps because the Nacra hulls are quite a bit higher, they keep you drier.
There were several instances where we had our feet yanked off the hull. Of course trapped out would be more weight on your feet vs sitting on wings, but I think we both would have been washed off several times.
It was a Hell of a lot of fun, & once we moved back into the bay & got away from the waves the ride was dry.
We kept it on its feet all day, & at the end there is maybe 1/2 cupful of water in the port hull, & a shot glass or two in the other. That is after 15 days of sailing, there isn't enough to drain, or even bother sponging out.
I wanted to swap those crappy Seaway jib blocks for the Harkens, but the track is just a bit to shallow to accept the Harken slider. I find the locking knob for the slider on the Seaway sticks way up, & catches lines. I did ditch the Seaway main blocks, & put my Harken 7:1 on. It is way more convenient to just drop the S hook onto the beam than reeve those 3 single blocks.



Edited by Edchris177 on Jul 15, 2016 - 03:05 PM.

--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

There is no reason you should not be able to put Harken jib blocks on a H18. Many, many people have Harkens on their boats and Harken jib blocks ultimatley became the stock blocks after Seaways were discontinued. The Harken blocks work much better than the Seaways and will certainly make it easier for your crew to pop the jib in heavy weather conditions. If you're having trouble getting the jib car installed, it's possible some of the rivets have worked loose or bent up slighltly making for a tight fit in the track. Use a pin punch and hammer to knock the heads of any raised rivets back down or if that doesn't work, replace the rivets.

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If you're having trouble getting the jib car installed, it's possible some of the rivets have worked loose or bent up slighltly making for a tight fit in the track.

I'll have another look at that. initially I thought i could just shackle the blocks to the car, but Seaway has the block permanently attached to the car.
The tracks looked the same, but I couldn't get the Harken car into the slot.

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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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The crew's sole purpose in life is to block waves from hitting the skipper.

Our 18 with wings was a bit dryer ride than the one without. If the waves are big it can be a challenge out on the wire with no wings. The waves try to knock you off. So yes it is a pretty wet ride. Biggest single improvement was to make a strip and lace it through the center lacing. No more firehose through the lacing. Helped out a ton.

Pete

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Pete Knapp
Schodack landing,NY
Goodall Viper,AHPC Viper,Nacra I20
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