Matt’s post above hit the nail on the head. If your forestay is moving around, it is because you aren’t sheeting in the main enough. Rig tension won...

thunder1 wrote: they sail with the hull plugs out so the hulls have some water in them for ballast, and the water runs out when you are under way, I...

Don't take the cleat off - you will kill your hand/arm hand-holding the sheet all day and you will never be pulling the sheet in tight enough upwind. ...

The way you have the jib sheet running forward to your lower jib bridle doesn’t look like it works very well. When you tension your jib sheet, you are...

1). Rig your jib. 2). Release the furler line and completely unfurl the jib. 3). Pull in the furler line all the way and cleat it. 4). If the jib ...

A piece of 1” wide nylon webbing on either side of the sail running up the leech to sandwich the existing material would certainly be strong, but prob...

I second checking your state’s laws regarding objects overhanging the vehicle. It is not just a matter of getting the mast home safely - the issue is ...

A lot of it comes down to how well the boat was built. In the “Hobie hay-day” they were cranking out ten’s of thousands of boats at a very high rate. ...

I use a short length of rubber hose with a couple of wraps of tape around the end to build up the diameter to match that of the drain plug fitting. T...

Another potential option would be to open up the hole to 5" diameter. 5" ports are much easier to get your arm into either when doing repairs or just...

There are countless places where hulls can leak - thru hull fittings, pylons, hull/deck seam. If you only get about 1/2 gallon or less of water in th...

You can’t go wrong with a Hobie 18. Tough, fast, lots of flotation, surf sailing or flat water, the boat does it all pretty darn well. There were so...

If the rivets are pulling out, most likely the rivets were too short for the overall material thickness and were not able to fully flare when they wer...

Do you have access to the crack from inside the hull? If you can get in there and put some glass on the crack, it will be 100 times stronger than try...

Yea, not really seeing how this is easier or better than a standard tongue jack with a caster wheel. It seems like you would be very limited with th...

Attach indoor/outdoor carpeting using contact cement? sm

Wow, a little harsh I should think. Stuff wears out, stuff corrodes, folks don't always have the time to perform regular full inspections of every pa...

Yes, I’ve done the same repair on clew plates (I think I may have used #8 screws but otherwise the same). The only thing you need to watch out for wit...

Agree with the others. A pad lock would be way too clunky/awkward and when it corrodes and seizes up, it is going to cause headaches. Look into some...

It is an interesting idea, but it also seems like having the wings only held down by gravity could be a fairly major liability during a capsize. Not s...

You could do that, but it would pretty much entirely eliminate the safety feature of the (non-conductive) comptip mast. Seems like a pretty extreme co...

I assume you're talking about the main halyard used on a comptip mast where the wire and the rope sections are spliced together to make one continuous...

For minor tweaks to the amount of helm, yes, rake the rudder tips forward in the casting and/or rake the mast forward. Raking the mast forward shif...

Mold release will not inhibit the curing of the epoxy. I would definitely do this if you think you will ever want to take the boat apart in the futur...

Thoughts on what? Yes, if you ever need to take apart a glued Hobie, you will either have had to use mold release on the castings before gluing or yo...

I would also add that having a snorkel over the jib is not a guarantee that the jib won't unfurl. Several years ago, I had my boat stored on the beac...

I'm assuming your question refers to how much wind does it take to flip a cat under bare poles. With sails up would obviously take much less wind. I w...

The integrated wings are one of the great features of the H17 - I wouldn't get rid of them. Put the access port between the aft crossbar and the tra...

Unless you have a highway rated cover, I would suggest removing it. A flogging cover will do a lot more damage to a boat than it will prevent. Good...

I agree, in the big picture, the fate of a beach cat is small potatos when a life threatening hurricane comes to town. This is part of the reason why ...