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PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:04 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:41 pm
Posts: 12
After sailing Hobies for almost 20 years, I'd like to encourage other cat sailors to not hesitate to install a mast float. We recently bought a used Wave with mast float already installed and it made sailing on the edge and flipping the boat much more fun and less stressful. Finally put one on my 18 last week and am so glad I did. We had some of the best sailing in a long time due to some nice wind (20mph) and not being worried about the boat going turtle. Flying a hull and flipping in gusty wind is the norm where I sail. Usually we were able to get around before the mast sank, but when we did not it was an 800 lb mid lake recruiting adventure. We have met a lot of friends this way, but having the mast float really reduced the stress of flipping and increased the joy of fun hard sailing. If u have been thinking of adding one, look up the other posts for techniques for your mast style, and go for it! Cats were made to sail hard and fast.... We should not be holding them back because of fear of going turtle.
By the way, we have started teaching all our new crew first thing how to flip and then right the catamaran. It's amazing how much more relaxed they are once they realize it is easy to upright. Thank you Hobie Alter and the Hobie Co. for such well made products that have changed so many lives. Well done.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:12 pm 
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Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 8:45 pm
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Location: Northfield Minnesota
No frickin' way. Harder to right, and it prevents the boat from going turtle when you need it to.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:22 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:47 pm
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Location: Punta Gorda, FL
Still learning here. . . when would you "need" it to. When you want to protect the boat from weather? ? ? That's the only thing that went through my head.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:18 am 
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whiprsnapr wrote:
Still learning here. . . when would you "need" it to. When you want to protect the boat from weather? ? ? That's the only thing that went through my head.


Being alone in the water with a boat that's drifting away from you is a lot worse than being alone in the water with a turtled boat.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:56 am 
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Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:13 am
Posts: 1184
Location: Nepean S.C. Ottawa, Canada
What about the 'it depends' factor?

We sail on the Ottawa River, which is a 'controlled' waterway in that there are a series of dams etc, so our 'lake' is around 2 miles wide by about 18 miles long.
Lucky for us, it is perfectly located for the prevailing winds, all of them.

The water depth runs from 15-25 feet to about 70 feet in the main channel.

In a capsize, the worst that can happen is that the boat drifts to one shore or another. Getting a mast stuck in the mud is not a good idea, don't ask me how I know. Takes a large size power boat to pull it out. Slowly.

If we were sailing on the ocean, then a Hobie Bob becomes optional, as Karl suggested.

Better yet, make sure the mast is well sealed....ask Matt B. about the H17 he borrowed in San Fran a couple of years ago at the Nationals....

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:49 am 
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Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 8:45 pm
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Location: Northfield Minnesota
I'm not going to say turtling the boat couldn't have potential problems. I will say that turtling is usually not a problem. I have no idea how many times I've put a boat on its side, (its a lot), most of the time you have to be doing something wrong to get the boat completely inverted. Not getting on to the low hull pronto is the typical culprit. I also question how much more prone to capsize the floats make things. They aren't all that heavy, but they're on a pretty long stick whipping back and forth, plus its more windage.

Sealing the mast well and getting off of any thing that will pull the mast down is more than adequate. You're getting a false sense of security from that thing. I've watched my boat drift away, and its a very very lonely feeling. Fortunately it hasn't happened to me, but if I was caught a long ways from shore and a storm came rolling in, inverting the boat and waiting it out could be your only option. Or if you're in open water and one person is with the boat, and the other is floating away, (assuming one person can not right the boat alone), invert the boat and it slows the drift dramatically. My local Hobie fleet had a righting practice day two years ago. Its a good thing to do, especially when there's a bunch of other sailors around heckling, and available to offer assistance if needed.

I sail out of a yacht club that doesn't see too many multihulls. A handful of times through the summer while setting up, or tearing down I get asked what happens when the boat is turtled. "ah..... I pull it back up?!" I think I'm going to change that to: "I scuttle the boat, and call the insurance company." For what ever reason, I like alienating and going hostile on the yachties. Counter productive I know.....

and to be fair here, I have pounded masts into the bottom too. Even bent one, I'm still not a fan. I can't think of one time though that couldn't have been prevented through preparation, and correct procedure.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:07 am 
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Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:13 am
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Location: Nepean S.C. Ottawa, Canada
Well thought out response, and good for the newbies to ponder......

On the amusing side, couple of years ago, I took out a trainee on a Club H18, and asked the usual questions, including 'can you swim?' Bad move, should have asked 'How well can you swim?'

On the way back, sunny day, light winds 8 - 12 mph, we got hit by a gust while she was at the helm. One hull went UP, she slid right off, and she was GONE. From the shroud, I was busy enough trying to hang on, so needless to say, the boat capsized. With the Hobie Bob at the top of the mast, the boat started drifting away FASTER than the trainee could doggy paddle. Do I stay with the boat or stick with her to make sure she is safe?

Lucky for me, some kayakers were nearby, they picked her up, and she was safe. Now I was stuck with 'how to right a H18?' Again, my lucky day, the Club patrol boat came out, and with some help, got 'er up, and I sailed back to the kayakers and picked up the bedraggled sailor....She did not re-join the club the next year....wonder why?

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 3:26 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:50 am
Posts: 24
I've never really made any attempt to seal my comptip. The mast is so bedraggled it's hard to imagine ever being successful. The boat turtles about the time I can get up on the hull. Carlyle is only about 24' deep in most place it seems like, I usually have a couple feet of mud on the sail.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 6:08 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:15 pm
Posts: 1195
Location: Oakland, CA
In high winds my 18 turtled, but righting it was a snap because, after I furled the jib, I was able to pull the mast up into the wind, and once the wind got under the tramp the boat was righted with very little effort.

In another instance of high winds I couldn't tack the boat and had a bad feeling about gybing, so I deliberately turtled the boat so my crew and I could swim the boat around 180 degrees to the point of sail we couldn't achieve by tacking and were too scared to try by gybing. It was our third turtle of the day so it wasn't a big deal anymore.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:05 pm 
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Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 7:49 am
Posts: 1053
Location: North Carolina
High wind Jibes aren't that scary if you handhold the main and not let it flop over. You can feel when its dead downwind and by sheeting in tight as you get dead downwind and releasing as you come thru the wind and start to round back up on the opposite tack it is very controllable, even prefferable in high wind.

And no float for me, never had a problem with turtleing or getting out of it.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:59 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:15 pm
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Location: Oakland, CA
There's more to the high wind gybe story than I let on since I'd successfully done a few already that day, but:
-the wind got ridiculously stronger (35+ knots) and were swirling in unusual ways due to the headlands as we got closer to the Golden Gate Bridge
-both rudders wouldn't stay down and made gybing dangerous because the boat was slow in turning
-I didn't feel like taking a chance of being separated from the boat as my inexperienced crew nearly did twice earlier that day due to three pitchpoles and a capsize due to a blown gybe
-the traveler had already pulled out of the track once that day


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