Wasn’t somebody looking for a cheap Hobie Cat?

Wasn’t someone looking for a cheap Hobie Cat to strip and add a deck and outboard to?

$200 in Milford CT, not mine, etc...

I've been thinking of selling my AMF Force 5.  It's just been sitting for 18 years.  I have too many projects.

I loved my Hobie Cat  but putting the mast up was a lot of work and too heavy for one guy.....sold it and bought windsurfers........

its great if you have a place on the lake where you can leave the mast up and take the sail home with you.....

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Yeah, mast hoisting is a 2-person job, at least on a 16 or larger.

Can we have a working link?

Dr. Hess said:

I've been thinking of selling my AMF Force 5.  It's just been sitting for 18 years.  I have too many projects.

Force5s are great boats.  

Our 14' monohull has a 20' aluminum mast with a through bolt pulpit, so I can walk it up inside the boat and walk forward with the headstay to clip it. The 17' Thistle I had for a while was much worse - huge mast with spreaders and no pulpit. no way you were getting that one alone.

Seems like a trashed Hobie Cat would make an awesome floating hammock stand.

If I ever live on the lake I will have one of these.

Duke said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Yeah, mast hoisting is a 2-person job, at least on a 16 or larger.

My Hobie Cat was a breeze to put the mast up and down. Loosen the stays enough to pull the mast out of the pocket, remove the front stay and walk it back until I had the mast then slide the mast forward and set it down.  

Jump overboard and pull it under the main channel bridge where I’d reverse the process and sail into the lower lake.  

I did it every time we’d have a sailing regatta.  Then I’d reverse the process sailing back into the upper lake.  While I preferred to sail the upper lake once in a while I’d  drop the mast to sail the lower lake too!  

I can see how that might be hard on the ocean. But not on a lake. 

frenchyd said:

Duke said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Yeah, mast hoisting is a 2-person job, at least on a 16 or larger.

My Hobie Cat was a breeze to put the mast up and down. Loosen the stays enough to pull the mast out of the pocket, remove the front stay and walk it back until I had the mast then slide the mast forward and set it down.  

Jump overboard and pull it under the main channel bridge where I’d reverse the process and sail into the lower lake.  

I did it every time we’d have a sailing regatta.  Then I’d reverse the process sailing back into the upper lake.  While I preferred to sail the upper lake once in a while I’d  drop the mast to sail the lower lake too!  

I can see how that might be hard on the ocean. But not on a lake. 

A Hobie 16 mast is 26 feet of extruded aluminum pipe in an airfoil shape about 2-1/2" x 4" and weighs in the neighborhood of 45 pounds with rigging and without sails.  That's not all that heavy, but trying to swing it from horizontal to vertical by yourself from your fulcrum point WAY DOWN near the bottom end is anything but "a breeze".

And then you have to hold it magically in the vertical position while you hop off the tramp and fix the forestay.  Good luck with that.  It is physically possible but it is in NO WAY easy or convenient.

[edit] Note to self.  Don't bother arguing with this guy.  He's never wrong.

Duke said:

frenchyd said:

Duke said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Yeah, mast hoisting is a 2-person job, at least on a 16 or larger.

My Hobie Cat was a breeze to put the mast up and down. Loosen the stays enough to pull the mast out of the pocket, remove the front stay and walk it back until I had the mast then slide the mast forward and set it down.  

Jump overboard and pull it under the main channel bridge where I’d reverse the process and sail into the lower lake.  

I did it every time we’d have a sailing regatta.  Then I’d reverse the process sailing back into the upper lake.  While I preferred to sail the upper lake once in a while I’d  drop the mast to sail the lower lake too!  

I can see how that might be hard on the ocean. But not on a lake. 

A Hobie 16 mast is 26 feet of extruded aluminum pipe in an airfoil shape about 2-1/2" x 4" and weighs in the neighborhood of 45 pounds with rigging and without sails.  That's not all that heavy, but trying to swing it from horizontal to vertical by yourself from your fulcrum point WAY DOWN near the bottom end is anything but "a breeze".

And then you have to hold it magically in the vertical position while you hop off the tramp and fix the forestay.  Good luck with that.  It is physically possible but it is in NO WAY easy or convenient.

[edit] Note to self.  Don't bother arguing with this guy.  He's never wrong.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Masts in general are tough single handed. Anything that long is just unwieldy; when you get momentum going minute movements are just tough. I even struggle with a 16 foot mast--if I had longer arms it'd be easier. 

In reply to mtn : you may be right, I don’t remember it being particularly hard but I was much younger and in far better shape.  I do know it’s what I did to sail in regatta’s or practice for regattas and unless it was dead calm I sailed in every one.  Plus several times a summer when I’d get tired of sailing the upper lake.