Hi all, I've been looking into buying a Hobie Wave and found this forum a huge help, thanks everyone! Before I bite the bullet, I've got a few questions I was hoping you all could help with:
1. I'm looking for a cat to
sail solo, so need to be able to rig and right it solo. I used to sail a Hobie 16 which was awesome, but a lot of work to rig and I doubt I could have righted it solo. Other than the Wave and Bravo (the Hobie 14 seems very rare in Australia), are there any other Hobie cats that meet these criteria? Having read the Bravo forum, the Wave really sounds like the best option for my needs.
2. I live on the edge of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne Australia. The cold I can deal with, but how will the Hobie Wave cope with the wind and waves:
20-25 knots is common, 35 knots can come up with little warning. It's a shallow, protected bay 50x60km so we also get a pretty
nasty wind waves, often up to 2m (6 feet) and sometimes more, see
http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/portphillip.shtml.
3. We also get some sudden calms (Melbourne joke: if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes), so has anyone tried
paddling a Wave? I used to strap a canoe paddle on the underside of my Hobie 16 and more than once used it to paddle in a calm.
4. I love the idea of optioning up the Wave for more speed, without getting (too) silly.
Traveller for the mainsheet sounds like a must, boom sounds unnecessary, jib with/without furler I've read mixed reports on and the spinnaker sounds fun but probably overkill for me. I'm thinking of adding one
trapeze and a
jib, because I've read that the Wave can be hard to tack when you're heading into a steep chop. Thoughts?
Thanks everyone, can't wait to join the ranks of Hobie Wave sailors!
stuart