Hobie 20 Fresno $1650

Its not a H20 its a H18.

Back in my racing days, I went to check out a Hobie 16 for sale in Arroyo Grande, CA for $1600. The year was a newer, lighter boat than the one I was using. It turned out to be a Hobie 18, which I had no use for at the time. I told him he had made an error in the ad and that I was not in the market for an 18. The guy kept pressuring me to make him an offer, so I offered him $100. He said that was ridiculous but I pointed out again that I DIDN'T WANT THE BOAT.

Two months later, he calls me and says he is moving out of state in two days and to come get my boat. It needed a lot of cleaning up, but the sails were crisp. I ended up sailing the boat for over 10 years, even on trips to the islands.

Then there is the Hobie 18 I got for 10 bucks. But that's a whole new story...

"Online Pioneer"? WTH?!? 😕

nohuhu wrote: "Online Pioneer"? WTH?!? 😕

1996 https://www.thebeachcats.com/OnTheWire/westnet/_lpm/hobie/archives/v1-i1/index.html

"Online Pioneer"? WTH?!?

This man lived, breathed,probably slept with & ate Cats for breakfast.
Online pioneer hardly does justice to his contributions. When i didn't know a furler from a forestay I read many of his online magazines,(archived here), a lot of knowledge.

Edited by Edchris177 on Jul 29, 2017 - 11:38 PM.

Then there is the Hobie 18 I got for 10 bucks. But that's a whole new story...

Ha ha, I once bought a Ford, in a bar, with the 429 Thunderjet at 360HP, for $35.
The car was crap, but we were gearheads, with a best friend whose dad had been a mechanic in WWII, lived on a 5000 acre ranch, & had a full machine shop.
A very patient man, he taught us so much. I have not brought a car to a commercial garage in decades.

mattson wrote:
Then there is the Hobie 18 I got for 10 bucks. But that's a whole new story...

This is a story that needs to be told... 😎

[quote=Edchris177]

The car was crap, but we were gearheads, with a best friend whose dad had been a mechanic in WWII, lived on a 5000 acre ranch, & had a full machine shop.

Can't tell ya how many VW engines we swapped out when we were kids....

Online Pioneer? Wow. That's kinda awesome!

So... After getting my $100 Hobie 18, a friend calls and asks if I want another boat. No, I told him. I have two already. He says this might be another deal like I just got. Says the Harbor Patrol has a Hobie 18 that someone stopped paying storage fees on, and they want to get it go cheap. He wants the sailbox, but they won't sell it to him unless he takes the whole thing. I had room for it, so I asked him to find out what they wanted for it.

He goes back and tells them he found a buyer. They tell him to make them an offer. He says he can't really make them an offer, since he's not the buyer. So they suggest he offer $10. He does, and they tell him he just bought a boat. He calls me with the news, so a couple days later I drive down to pick it up after stopping by Harbor Frieght for a $30 wheel and tire because one is flat on the boat trailer. The boat is a little rough, with a trashed trampoline, but it will otherwise clean up nice. We find a crumpled up dollar bill in the sailbox, so now it's a $9 boat. I decide to give my buying partner the sailbox for his trouble, and tow the boat home. A couple days later I see a new coffee shop putting a Hobie 16 up on the roof as an attention grabber. I chat with the owner and see the trailer with a sailbox on it, and asked what he was going to do with it. He tells me to take it if I want it.

I install the sailbox on the trailer. I take the trampoline off my $100 boat and put it on the $9 boat, spend a day cleaning and polishing it, then sell it for $1200. That gets me a brand new trampoline and rigging for the $100 boat, and after a couple of test trials, I sail that sucker to Catalina, and subsequently have made a few trips to Santa Cruz Island on it.

I have since replaced the sails, upgraded the rudder castings and rudders, and just recently replaced the hulls. So the crossbars, mast, and tiller bar are all that is left of the original boat.