First trip on a H18

Bought a used Hobie 18 with sx wings and got my first chance to take it out, sunny and 80 but the water was only 50 degrees. The wind was blowing strong at about 20 mph with gust to 35 so I was a little , how should I say this nervous, worried maybe scared but any ways my son daughter and I put on our wet suits and splash jacket and headed out. We are on an inland lake and back in a bay so you could a strong wind line with lots of white caps on the open water, only 1 to 2 foot waves. Well as we got into the wind it just started accelerating and with us on the wings it was a great ride, it took about two trips across the lake and I was glad to have bought the H18, sailed again Sunday in about the same conditions and by the end of the day was tiered , sore but very excited about the new boat.......Jay

I'm in Ogden Dunes @ the S end of Lake Michigan w/ a '99 H-18SX...I used to travel often to Ft Wayne. You're only 2 hours from us...please take this as your invitation!!

Do you have the spinnaker?

Thanks, I would love to come up and sail with you. No I do not have a spinnaker. what is the launch like there? I dont have beach weels either, at least not yet. I was hoping to take it to Weco beach in S Mi, they have a paved ramp to the water. One of the reasons I bought this boat was with the hopes of taking it out on lake Mi. I have 79 H 16 thats kind of tired and no trailer so rather than up grade it I bought a 98 H18 SE and added the sx wings to it plus its got a good trailer. Of course now my adult son wants me to work on the 16 so we can take them both. You can e mail me and my wife at joycekoontz at juno dot come....Lets go sailing, Jay Koontz

We're thinking of sailing to Weko sometime ourselves over a long weekend and camping...could meet you there?? We did a ~ 50 mile r/t from home to Chicago two summers ago in ~ 4 hours.

Local sailers with trailers use a ramp in Gary and sail ~ 4 miles to Ogden Dunes. We store our SX on the beach year-round..no problems...there is access to the beach by a gravel/sand easement that goes half way from the street to the beach...then we use the cat trax.

The spin is an asymetric one with a "turtle" bag that lays on the tramp. It's added a new dimension to downwind last season and hopefully upwind sailing this season.

We have a tired H-16 also. Having both means twice the maintenance and half the sailing.

I'll email you. I'm jwirth1 at comcast dot net.