Hobie Cat Forums

Here goes a strange story that hopefully someone can help me fill in the holes.

This guy bought a new hobie 18 in 1985 and used the boat for racing and pleasure sailing. After a few years the owner noticed some cracks in the hulls near the front support. He at that time asked Hobie to replace the Hulls and claimed they were defective. Hobie replaced the Hulls and the guy was happy.

Ok, fast forward 25 or so years, I purchased this set of '85 hulls out of this guys field about 6 months ago and I am beginning to refinish and build a new boat out of the hulls that were replaced. The cracks are not that bad and easily repaired compared to some of the crap we have to do these days to keep these boats going.

Well low and behold I came across the original boat that the original owner sold years ago. The boat has the same serial numbers as the set of hulls in my back yard. The thing that caught my eye was that the serial # showed that the boat was a 1985 but the glue was not red and the dagger board wells were build differently.

So, while I was happy to find another 1985 light hulled boat, it turns out that the hulls are probably not of that variety. I would like to know when the hulls were produced but the only thing I have to go on is the dagger wells and the glue color. The wells don't have a glue seam at the bottom. Is there any other way to know.

Would Hobie have the information in their records if I provided them with a serial #.

Love those 18's!!

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H18 '86 "Knotty Passion"
H18 '85 Signature Series
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision
Fleet 259 Central Coast California

The original hulls built in 1985 would have two dagger board well seams, one at the top and one at the bottom as well as red glue.

The red glue only lasted a couple seasons and the dagger board well construction was changed to just one joint at the top of the well in the late '80s, certainly no later than 1990. So likely the replacement hulls were built in that late '80's early '90s period because I would find it very hard to believe that Hobie would provide a warranty replacement after more than 5 years. You could probably narrow down the year of the replacement hulls based on the hull stripe/graphics.

I'm always amazed that people are so concerned about what year a set of hulls or boat is made. The hull shape has never changed, so the only real variables are condition and weight. If the hulls are in good shape and a reasonable weight, then who cares when they were built?

sm

I found out a little more info. The hulls were replaced because the dangers fit too tightly in the dagger wells. hmm. seem to work ok now.

Why hull year matters you ask.....my 86 boat is 30lbs lighter than my previous 1981 boat. These '85 hulls in my back yard are only 100 lbs each. (light hulls) My understanding is that the '87 &'88 hulls were the heaviest of all the hulls because of overcorrection of the problem redline hulls. So that tells me that these hulls could be between 117-120lbs each. That is heavy when skipper and crew already bring more than 350lbs to the start line.

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H18 '86 "Knotty Passion"
H18 '85 Signature Series
H20 '96 "20/20 Vision
Fleet 259 Central Coast California

as an FYI, my '88 H18 has the two seamed daggerboard wells. So the conversion to a top seam only had to be very late in the '88 production year or into 1989 at the earliest.

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Chris
'88 H18SE Arís

My 1989 SX has the 'new' style of dagger well.
A great improvement over my old 1987 18SE.
Like SRM says, who cares, as long as they work.

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1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Ok....but simply throwing the hulls on a scale would be a much more accurate way of determining hull weight than trying to figure it out by manufacture year. There have and always will be some amount of variability in hull weight regardless of production year. Also, IMO, especially if you aren't racing, I'd choose the slightly heavier but stronger hulls every time over the light ones.

FYI, my 1990 boat has the dagger trunk with only one seam, so it looks like this was likely introduced in the 1989/1990 time frame.

sm

Since wscotterwin and I are racing this season, I prefer he race with the stronger hulls that leak.

Ahhh,
But if he sinks, will you stop and rescue him?

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1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Not if he is behind Skipshot I would imagine

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Zupe