Check it out...

OK, here is the cat I am buying. It's a 77 Hobie 14 Turbo. It needs a rope sewn into the main sail, and thats it. $250 with the trailer.... do you think it's a good deal?

Looks solid bro. I would just go ahead and order some new sails for it. Besides needing the bolt rope sewn in, they are probably pretty blown out. Seems like a great deal to me.

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Marcus
H16
Narragansett Bay, RI

I would say the boat itself looks in great shape, the metal is much better looking than my boat (early 70's), but very few hulls compare to mine (professionally rebuilt/painted). I would also say that ordering new sails is your best bet. And I'd just go with the hobie ones, the aftermarket sails are 1/2 as much because of a cheaper build quality (I'd say your paying $200 extra for the Hobie logo and $100 extra for the better quality compared with aftermarket). Plus, I can bet you only have a 5 batten main. I'm so wanting a 6 batten main, especially after seeing 16 Miracles, Inter20's and Tigers sail by me yeterday with all the high tech gear you can imagine (CRAC's 100 mile Chesapeake Bay race). The winning boat for saturdays leg was a solo skipper on an inter20, worrell 1000, Tybee and Outer Banks 500 on the hulls. He said he was flying the spin 99% of the time, and at one point was trapped out with one hull up and the spin out. The rest of the boats were stuck off my beach at 8:30 pm, while he was in at solomons (easily an afternoon of sailing from my beach in the H14) at 7:15pm.

Anyway, for the price you payed for that boat,and the savings (I'd say its worth more like $500-$700), I'd definatly put some new sails on it and have a great boat!

Sam

Sam,

I'm not sure that I can afford to plunk down $700 + for a set of sails. What are some aftermarket manufacturers?

Check the Murray's catalog. I know there are also a few others. The boat does look to be in good shape; have you checked the hulls for soft spots?

_________________
Warm regards,

Jim

Havn't checked, but I did ask. He said the hulls are very solid. I guess I will see when I drive to Detroit next weekend to pick it up.

Well,besides the sail, if their are no soft spots you have a great boat. As for the sails:

Complete set, Murrays:$700
Hobie: $1000

The jib prices are within $50; I would just go with a hobie jib. The $465 main in the murrays catalog is only 3.5 oz sailcloth; 5, whcih the $655 white mains in murrays are made of, as well as all stock Hobie sails, is what you want for durability. Either way you cut it, your looking at a minimum of $700, and more like a $1000. You could just buy a new main and wait for the jib (how much experience do you have? A H14 in 25 with a trap and no jib can get crazy pretty quick, especially if you don't know what you're doing), and save some money upfront. Plus, the old jib looks useable, prbly want to save it for the light air if you want to keep it for any length of time.

Sam

Hey bro, here's another thought - check the rudders out. If they've been sitting outside for a long time, it's quite likely that the sun has made them brittle. Now as you get more serious you might want to spend the cash on some fancy EPO rudders or something, but for now you'll just want those, right?

In order to save yourself some $$ and annoyance, and to fend off an afternoon like this:



I recommend you go to Lowe's and get a sheet of bidirectional fiberglass cloth. (meaning 50% of the fibers go one way and the other 50% are perpendicular to them.) Cut out two pieces about the size of a sheet of paper and using waterproof epoxy (West System or you can also use the "Devcon" brand "2-ton", among others,) put a layer of glass on either side of the rudder in this area:



I believe that should keep the rudder from breaking off in the above location (which is the usual spot), at least for a very long time.

Good luck!

Jim

eek. I think I will just repair the main that comes with it, and fly that until I gain a little more experience. I wont be taking it out to Lake Michigan anytime soon.

I need to restore the OZ's for my GLX first, and buy some new rubber. Then some other little things to fix on the car before I really tackle the Hobie.

_________________
Dave

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

Campaign for Liberty

Great advice Jim. The thought of breaking a rudder has going through my head all week, especially after reading your thread about weather helm. As much rudder force as you are experiencing, I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks

Dave

_________________
Dave

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

Campaign for Liberty

Just remember that sails are not equal...

Hobie Cat made sails are built from 5.6 oz dacron and are class legal.

Murrays (when looking at lower priced sails) are lighter weight cloth... perhaps 3.2 oz.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thats what I was saying Matt-the Hobie sails are really the way to go.

As for repairing the one it comes with, you will need a proper sail shop to do the bolt rope, and that may cost $200+. Is it really worth that?

Sam

We'll see when I pick it up this weekend.

I won't be doing any racing right now, so class legality is not a big concern for me. I don't exactly have $1000 to spend on some fabric right now anyways.

It's not a Gucci 14 .

_________________
Dave

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

Campaign for Liberty

I got it! This boat is much better than I thought it was going to be. The hulls are very solid, with no soft spots, and the sails seem pretty good too, although they need to be cleaned badly. I'll take some pictures later after work.

_________________
Dave

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

Campaign for Liberty

Dave:

Did you end up using the same sail that came with the boat? I have a sail that is in the same shape as the one in your pictures. It needs a new rope sewn in.

Approximately how much does that repair cost?

Thanks,

caveman