[quote=DamonLinkous][quote=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.[/quote]
Welcome back to beachcat sailing, glad to have you aboard!
[quote=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.
[/quote]
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.
[list][*]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.[/list]
[url]http://www.thebeachcats.com/news/82/how-to-epoxy-the-hobie-16-catamaran-frame-for-better-performance[/url]
[quote=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"?[/quote]
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]
[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.[/quote]
[url]http://www.WhirlwindSails.com[/url] Keep your stock Hobie sails in case you decide to enter Hobie events.
[quote=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?[/quote]
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!
[quote=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. [/quote]
P.S. Classic cool sail pattern![/quote]
No HTML tags allowed (except inside [code][/code] tags)