Hobie Cat Forums

The beaches on the lakes I use are rocky. I am very reluctant to beach my H16 on these beaches, or temporarily on a concrete boat ramp. I'd never drag my H16 up onto a concrete boat ramp or across a rocky shore. Am I being overly cautious? My hulls are in great shape, not worn, and not scratched.

I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts about using a product like the Keel Guard Protective Tape on the leading edges of a Hobie with fiberglass hulls? http://www.keelguard.com/ I'm not sure if this product would conform the angles of the Hobie hull, as it is primarily designed for powerboat / bassboat keels? I'm thinking about putting 5-6' lenghts on the front 1/3 of each hull.

I'm not a racer, and not too concerned about losing a little performance. It would be nice to not worry about the hulls getting scratched or worse when you want to pull up on shore to take a break or have some lunch.

I have another Hobie with the Rotomolded hulls, and it is a joy to beach wherever and whenever you want. I'd like to make the H16 a little less fragile.

Any thoughts are appreciated. The forum is a great place to learn before doing something I might regret. Thanks.

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'08 Hobie Wave, Hobie Adventure Islands

How about getting an anchor and a set of beach wheels? Put the boat in the water using the beach wheels (rather than dragging). Once it's in, anchor it a little ways off shore so you don't have to beach it when you take a break. Put a mooring ball on the anchor line for when you're sailing. You would also probably want to run a line from the anchor to the beach just as a safety line.

Just a thought.

sm

Thanks for the input. I've more or less come to the same conclusion.

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'08 Hobie Wave, Hobie Adventure Islands

"Back in the day" when I was sailing in So Cal we had the same dilemma when we headed up to Big Bear Lake for the annual regatta. The place we launched from was a rocky section of the lake. After doing the tag-team boat launch and recovery thing my first time up I decided to make a portable system out of PVC. It had two 2" crossbars wrapped with ribbed rubber matting that were held together by two 1" pieces of pipe that were pressed into four T's in the 2" pipe sections.

The smaller pipes nested in the larger pipes and were held in with end caps for portage, just bungied to the trailer and nestled up against my sail box. Once the thing was put together and sitting on the beach or rocks the hulls would sit on the black matting which had enough bite to keep my Hobie from sliding off on it's own, but were still slick enough to make pulling the boat on and off a breeze.

The thing worked pretty well at Big Bear, Lake Perris and other places where the "beach" was more dirt than sand. It also did a good job of "saving" my spot on the shore.

Try old strips of carpet. They do get dirty but I just threw them in the back o the truck. I have launched off a steel sea wall with the carpet as well.

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DVL 1989 H-18 Worlds Boat, Magnum Wings & Spinnaker

dale.vanlopik"at"att"dot"net

I like the simplicity of using carpet. But of course that's not permanently attached to the hulls. So you have to lay out the carpet before beaching. Kind of like you'd have to get the beach wheels ready, before you hit the beach/ramp.

Using KeelGuard tape is still on my mind. Yes it's pricey. But if it worked, it might be easier to do than layering up fibre, resin, and gelcoat.

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-Roland
Sailing vintage Hobie Cats in West Africa.