[quote=DanBerger]Those Hobie 14s with Hooters were mine. I sold mine, with the 420 number and my friend sold the #99 one to the guy who was selling it on eBay. Don't know the result. Both were pretty cool.
They are Whirlwind mains and Hooters. Chip Buck really hooked me up.
The 14 with the Hooter was a blast. Upwind, you could sail it to about 8mph, then it was too much. In light wind, it would smoke anything. The square top was only good in heavy wind--a Dacron sail was faster in the light stuff. Down wind ANYTIME was holding on for dear life. I would hang off the back of the boat just to keep the bows up. Sometimes, I thought the boat wasn't even touching the water!
The big problem was righting the boat. I can right a 14 Turbo or Uni easily by myself at 165 pounds, but with the hooter--forgetaboutit.
...So, I'm on to a different project. A Supercat 15 with the same hooter as seen above. I sold the 14, but kept the Hooter rig. I wanted the Supercat because it has (what seems like) almost 3 times the volume in the hulls as the Hobie and it has the Supercat righting system. When you pop the shroud adjuster, it practically rights itself. That may fix the Hooter righting problem.
I think, though, if I was to do it again, I would get a Supercat 17 with a Supercat 15 rig on it and then add the Hooter or a spinnaker. Bigger sail plans don't always mean faster. I'm surprised anyone on a 14 with a 16 rig can keep it up right. There just isn't enough buoyancy. I figure that you can do a lot more with a controlable rig on some seriously buoyant hulls.
Just my 2 cents. I'll be posting pics of the Supercat when I get it done. I already have a self tacking jib on it..
Dan[/quote]
No HTML tags allowed (except inside [code][/code] tags)
