H18 wings...

I have not seen home made wings for the H18, but curious what is out there. They are hard to come by, and expensive, but make for a nice ride.

i would go 500 for a pair. i dont think i have a magnum or SE. just the original 1982 H18

The Magnum basically just added a welded construction wing to a standard H18, the wing is the same length as the distance between cross bars. The H18 SX has a longer wing (maybe 18" in front of and behind the cross bars) and is rivetted together instead of welded. The longer wing is nice for getting weight to the back of the boat, and easier to have 2 people on the wire. A true SX also has a longer mast, vertical cut sail and had a spin option.

At some point, in the late 80's I think, they started adding reinforcement to the hulls at the shroud connection points and where the cross bars connect to the hulls. Not sure if this was for the wings or just needed in general. They added steel plates on the outside, not sure if they added fiberglass on the inside or not.

yes, they added fiberglass to the hulls... at the crossbar connection points on the inside there's a few extra patches of thick mat put up there... maybe a 10x10 inches per ... in addition to the stainless reenforcement/load distribution things.

if someone got into making thier own wings.... strong and light, AND cheap... I think they'd sell.

I would think someone with a mandrel bending machine and some thick wall aluminum tube could make them. The problem is you either have to weld them or create a bracket of some kind to connect the legs to the seat. Hobie made a casting, but that probably isn't cheap to do.

A couple of guys in Fleet 2 have been kicking this idea around as well. I doubt it would be able to reduce the price vs Hobie but I believe that Hobie doesn't even make them anymore. So that being said I agree with Scott, you need to find someone with a mandrel bender, we were thinking of checking out a spiral staircase manufacturer since they're good with a mandrel bender.

As for the brackets I'm thinking about using someone like emachineshop.com. I have no idea what it would cost but they could either cast them of based on volume maybe you could just CNC them.

I'd be amazed if you could pull this off for under $400 and then you need another $350 for tramps! I also suspect there isn't that big of a demand for these so the ROI on working through all the issues would be pretty low. If someone were to sell 20 pair of these I'd be shocked. And don't forget what it takes to ship a set of 8' wings, it is incredible expensive.

All that being said we have a H21 that is missing 1 wing so we might be working through some of the issues.

Are people serious about this? Given past experience you can count on 10-20% of the people who say they want one to actually order it. I'm not in this for any money, but it would be a lot of work and I'd need to bug some of my auto-cad buddies to pull it off.

-Eric

Anyone though about trying your local muffler shop? Mandrel benders are standard equipment with those guys and I have trouble imagining them turning down a few bucks for a couple of quick bends.

My concern would be accuracy. Most of the muffler guys I've met aren't exactly detail oriented. 🙂 Also I think the wing is the easy part (a big oval) but the arms that go between the hull and the wing need to be pretty darn accurate.

Also I think it is important to pretty closely match the OEM wings otherwise you're looking at custom tramps too.

I remember a couple years ago seeing H16 wings someone made that were basically aluminum bleacher stock with arms attached to the hull. That would really reduce cost (no tramps, less fabrication) but I'm not sold on that approach...

Welcome Eric...

I'd need to bug some of my auto-cad buddies to pull it off.

Don't be looking my way : )

i dont need originals or replicas. i was thinking to attach a six inch long square 1 inch wide to each cross bar on the end and have some aluminum bolted together seats. with a 2x6 on top id be satisfied. that can be completed for less than 300 ill bet. a little stain and varnish and people would want to trade me...

Sounds like an interesting idea. One thing to keep in mind is when you fly a hull the downwind wing will hit the water, the question is at what angle. I would recommend not going to far off the side the hull without an elevation change or that downwind wing will be dragging very early.

illl definitely incorporate for that. the farther out they go the more counter balance i can get but the less out they go the stronger they will be. its a spring project ill keep you posted