Let's talk about Hobie cats and Hurricanes.

Still adjusting to this new format so forgive me if I missed the Irma thread. 

As you may have heard, there is a Cat 5 hurricane on the way to break Florida off from the rest of the country. My question is this, what is the highest windspeed you would be comfortable in sailing a Hobie 16 on the gulf?

Just kidding. I'm cleaning and organizing the yard and I'm stuck with the Hobie. I don't think I can disassemble the Hobie and get it in the garage. What my plan is I have 6 of these ground anchors:

[img]https://s26.postimg.org/6zqq41zah/9-5-2017_8-06-07_PM.png[/img]

I would strap/tie down the Hobie 16 to those as well as fill the hulls with water. Any other ideas? If it gets really bad I'll cut the trampoline out as I get outta dodge.

If it blows away, I have a Hobie 16 and trailer I'd sell for $200.

remove the trampoline, take her off of the trailer, and if you can, flip her over on the ground. This will make her very "flat" to the ground

Yeah, a Hobie 16 is not heavy.  If you can't get the tramp off in time, at least lay her turtle on the ground and strap her down well.  Best of luck, skipper.

I may or may not - OK, well, I did - sail my 16 during Hurricane Gloria on the Chesapeake in 1985.  Wind was probably 40-50 knots.  It was insane and exhilarating.  Seriously, the rudder howl was ferocious and I wasn't really strong enough to steer, so mostly I sat on the tiller and steered with the sheets.  My crew was a guy who had never been on a sailboat under 30 ft.  He was laughing hysterically the whole time.

My uncle had a Hobie 16 in his garage under the house on the beach when Ivan hit.  A storm surge of 25' ruined the home and they found the pieces of Hobie hundreds of yards away in the golf course.  Nothing would have saved it.

Duke said:

Yeah, a Hobie 16 is not heavy.  If you can't get the tramp off in time, at least lay her turtle on the ground and strap her down well.  Best of luck, skipper.

I may or may not - OK, well, I did - sail my 16 during Hurricane Gloria on the Chesapeake in 1985.  Wind was probably 40-50 knots.  It was insane and exhilarating.  Seriously, the rudder howl was ferocious and I wasn't really strong enough to steer, so mostly I sat on the tiller and steered with the sheets.  My crew was a guy who had never been on a sailboat under 30 ft.  He was laughing hysterically the whole time.

When i taught sailing at a summer camp in college, we had a tornado touch down. Me and another guy were just stupid  enough that we had taken the camps 16 foot hobie out when the wind had started flapping the tarpaper on the sailing shack. Figured it would be a riot. Tornado was seen at the other end of the main channel about the same time as we capsized and broke the mast.

As someone who has always seen a "small craft advisory" as an invitation to go sailing, I endorse this decision.

Not sure if this is an improvement or not but the Hobie has found a place in a garage. I drove it down to my inlaws this morning and left it there. Unfortunately they also live in the water so if we get major storm surge that could be interesting. Either way it's not a wind hazard to me anymore but I could lose it. Not a huge deal, the sails and expensive stuff is at my house. Left a canoe there too.

Next time I'll attach my name and phonenumber on them but that ship has sailed! Unfortunately I also broke a leaf spring during the process. I was using the Hobie trailer as a utility trailer  and pushed it too far getting sheets for my inlaws.

I am as crazy as they come to sailing in big wind on a H16.... (ask around)     Anything over 25mph true wind speed and it is pure survival mode. (meaning awesome fun).   The boat is just way beyond overpowered at the point.  In theory you should be able to go faster broad reaching but the waves and so on REALLY limit boat speed..   This coming from a guy who sails most often in big Kansas winds, so the waves I am talking about are lakes.   Big water compounds the situation.  (even more stupid fun but much more danger and less boat speed)

The trick to making survival mode fun...    Leave the top battens in the main almost completely loose..  Just enough tension to keep them snug in the pocket.  Then the bottom 2 or 3 battens you want to tension them up as tight as possible.    It sounds silly but this lets you drive the boat off the bottom of the sail.   Keep it sheeted in tight and travel to keep the boat "flat".    With the top battens loose and the bottom tight the sail will just blow open in the gusts and still be able to drive the boat forward off the lower part of the main.   Don't oversheet the jib.   The crew will have to work it to keep the slot open (seriously don't oversheet the jib it will kill boatspeed) and not just letting the jib luff.   (if they are trimming off the telltales make sure they now the telltales appear to fly properly on a luffing jib)

The most important thing though is to keep the main sheeted in fairly tight with the rig raked back as far as your main sheet system will allow.  If you are dumping lots of main to keep it upright drop the traveler..   Or head up(or down)...   If the leech of the main is not fairly tight you are not going to have enough boatspeed or control of the situation and will get nailed by the gusts..   Another thing to think about is on a H16 when you sheet in the main you are also having a big effect on the Jib Luff, which is the leading edge of all the power you are trying to make...   

Hardest thing to teach people is steering the boat in big air headed downwind.   When it is really  blowing boatspeed is your friend.   Heat it up...   In the "lulls" sheet in and head up to take the speed and then in the big gusts head down into them.   You should be running fast enough heading down will settle the boat down.  and going back up the same thing applies.   Don't pinch.   Drop the traveler and get the boatspeed...   Take the gusts up...

We have a couple of puddles around they use for waterskiing tournaments..    I am going to see if I can find flat enough water in one of them with big air to top this sometime this fall or spring..

This is my highest recorded peak speed on a Solo Run..   It was a gusty day...   So you just had to wait out the lulls and grab the big puffs when they came by..   the water stayed fairly flat..

https://www.youtube.com/embed/a6bg4scCfO0

I will never understand why Hobie cats never had sail reefing. If you wanted to use one in ANY of the Watertribe events, you have to add it

mad_machine said:

I will never understand why Hobie cats never had sail reefing. If you wanted to use one in ANY of the Watertribe events, you have to add it

The older sails have it.  I have a set of Tequila Sunrise and Cat Fever sails from the 70s/80s and they have them.

Older 16 mains had reef points and an extra crimp on the halyard to grab the tang at the top of the mast. When Hobie implemented the Comp Tips (Fiberglass tips) that pretty much ended. If you can find a "solid" mast it is easy to do.

I did some pre-hurricane sailing about 10 years ago. We were jumping swells directly out of hurricane pass in Dunedin with my crew on the wire when my windward stay decided it had had enough. BOOM, rig in the water. Not my first rodeo with this issue. Release sails and roll onto tramp. Lash mast to tramp and let your buddy on his 16 tow you back to beach. Oh yeah, always sail with a partner on the really bad days.

mad_machine said:

I will never understand why Hobie cats never had sail reefing. If you wanted to use one in ANY of the Watertribe events, you have to add it

My sail number was 39887 and definitely had a main reef.

My 1984 Hobie 16 has reef points 

The Europeen Sails still have reefing points.   None of the North American ones do.   The reason is the Comp tip mast.  The sail would pop out of the luff track on the comptip for sure...   and the extra metal cable up there would negate some of the shock protection the comptip was designed for.

There were actually some rule changes about all of this recently also allowing synthetic instead of steel trapeze wires and some stuff specifically about the Comp tip.   It was a big stir around the Pan American games because the Brazilians and many of the Central Americans didn't want to use Comp tip masts as they aren't required in the H16 class outside of the North American Region, but because the games were being held in Canada the comp tips were required.   The problem was there used to be a one time exception in the North American rule book to allow regular guys to compete it local events once or twice before having to buy new equipment.   So the South Americans were trying to use the loophole to run solid masts which would have been a HUGE advantage at that skill level if the wind was blowing hard...    The Hobie Class of North America closed the loophole.  (which I understand but still don't like because stupid comptips wreck sail shape when it is blowing).

Check out the Sail number and note the Reef points..      

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I used to think that a Hobie was the most fun you could have with a sailboat.

Then someone took me for a ride on a Tornado.

ronholm said:

The Europeen Sails still have reefing points.   None of the North American ones do.   The reason is the Comp tip mast.  The sail would pop out of the luff track on the comptip for sure...   and the extra metal cable up there would negate some of the shock protection the comptip was designed for.

There were actually some rule changes about all of this recently also allowing synthetic instead of steel trapeze wires and some stuff specifically about the Comp tip.   It was a big stir around the Pan American games because the Brazilians and many of the Central Americans didn't want to use Comp tip masts as they aren't required in the H16 class outside of the North American Region, but because the games were being held in Canada the comp tips were required.   The problem was there used to be a one time exception in the North American rule book to allow regular guys to compete it local events once or twice before having to buy new equipment.   So the South Americans were trying to use the loophole to run solid masts which would have been a HUGE advantage at that skill level if the wind was blowing hard...    The Hobie Class of North America closed the loophole.  (which I understand but still don't like because stupid comptips wreck sail shape when it is blowing).

Check out the Sail number and note the Reef points..      

 

 

The guy on 113409 needs to get his ass forward just the right of the mast. 10837? has the right idea.

In reply to NOHOME :

Yes, but for the price of a Tornado you can have a fleet of Hobie 16's. ;-)

NOHOME said:

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I used to think that a Hobie was the most fun you could have with a sailboat.

 

Then someone took me for a ride on a Tornado.

fancy schmancy cats.. this looks like more fun

I'm torn between "y'all are crazy" and "looks like fun".

hobiercr said:

The guy on 113409 needs to get his ass forward just the right of the mast. 10837? has the right idea.

Hey now...   I'll sit where I want between races..    But yeah..   Keeping up with Mark and Shelia is a tough thing to do.    

so Enyar, how did you and the hobie survive?

Haven't checked it yet but I hear all is well. We got lucky here in Tampa Bay. I need to get new leaf springs for it because one partially collapsed when i was picking up plywood for my inlaws.

In reply to ronholm :

That is you? Cool! Couldn't entirely tell if you were raving as they were in go fast position and you weren't. Were you solo or was you crew just out of the picture?

My crew is laying down just out of the picture.   You can see her head and leg.  The picture was taken at Lewisville Lake in Dallas, would have been 2014.   She was talking about how we could beat that old couple no problem.   I just laughed.  

Mark and Shelia have both won national championships at one point.  

 I really love that game.