Hobie to See You
01 April 2014 | Bodkin Inlet/Chesapeake Bay
Capn Andy/springlike
The message was about the car, the car in the stolen picture. I do not have a Bentley Drophead Coupe, or a Rolls Royce Phantom. Not even my favorite car. My tastes have changed since the time I saw a white Rolls convertible in Villefranche. Mostly with boat obsessions replacing the car obsessions.
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The change occurred during a motorcycle phase when I had an old Suzuki GS-1100E, the non-fairing street bike with a big round headlight. The bike was a perfect fit and burbled along until I found out it had another aspect. The previous owner had fitted it with a “Kirker” exhaust. It was actually illegal and made for drag racing. It set off car alarms when the bike was revved up. There was also something called a “Stage Three” carburettor kit. When I looked up technical articles, there was only one and it described modifying the bike for drag racing. The big change was putting in heavier valve springs. No other changes. “We replaced the valve springs with a higher rating to get higher horsepower in the upper range”. What? I had only run the bike up to about 4500 rpm's and burbled around town, what about at higher rpm range?
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I was on a city street called River Road. I twisted the throttle open and watched the tach. I knew I had 4 blocks before the next traffic light. The tack immediately went up to the red line in 2nd gear while I hung on like doing chin ups on a bar. I shut it down and coasted up to the light. Coasting down from 65 mph.
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This began a wild experimentation with motorcycle power, street pavements with oil and paint on them, construction zones with ribbed concrete, wind forces on exposed areas, like my head and neck, and little games, such as, “how outrageously can I overtake that limo that just went by at 85 in the left lane?”, can I turn the bike just by blipping the throttle in the middle of Westport?
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There was a sad run at high speed into the marina, parking under the catamaran on the hard, evading a police car. Later I found out that an elderly pedestrian had been killed on the same route I had taken, by a motorcycle, the night before. I was not out then, but it could just as easily been me to hit someone stepping off the curb.
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Next came a Kawasaki EX-500, also called a Ninja 500, which turned out to be a better bike to tool around town. I sold the
Suzuki big bike. The replacement was so cheap, it was probably the cheapest sport motorcycle they could make. Drum brake on the rear, single disc on the front. Twin cylinders with 4 valves per head. 500 cc's. The bikes of my youth were British 650 cc's and legendary. They made about 35 horsepower, at best. Triumph's, BSA's, and even the bigger Norton's. They couldn't compare with this cheap Japanese bike. Change the carb jets with a factory authorized part, put on a Jardine single exhaust and you've upped it's power into the 60 horsepower range. It had a little fairing, was a little small for my fit, but it was light and easy to flick back and forth through town. 6 speed transmission. Nice little bike, and made for volume production at a cheap cost, sold all over the world.
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When I bought my first Miata roadster, I had a big smile on my face. No regrets. I'm into my third. $2400 dollars about 4 years ago. It was like the Kawasaki motor bike. Cheap with good performance. Parts readily available. Don't worry about denting it. Still have that smile every time I drive.
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So, the Drophead Coupe may be nice, but I would probably do better with the Miata. I always wanted a Shelby Cobra, or its replica, but it would be like the GS-1100E, way over the top. The Miata gets around town quickly and I guess I've found my style of car.
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We grew up with a bunch of British sports cars being attractively advertised. They generally had 4 cylinder over head valve engines. There was the Austin Healy 3000 with 6 cylinders. From Italy were Alfa Romeo's with overhead cam engines. The Ferarri's were V-12's with overhead cams. American cars had large heavy engines and large heavy chassis. Carroll Shelby put a big american engine in a light British frame, and the Shelby Cobra was born. It was the epitome of ragtop roadster. The Jaguar XKE was a notch below. The modern Miata comes in at just below the XKE.
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So, what has any of this have to do with boats?
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There are “Ferarri's” of boats, and there are “Rolls-Royce's” of boats, but what is the “Miata” of boats. It would be a high performance boat, ubiquitous, offering relatively high performance, not excessive in any way, and puts a smile on your face every time you sail. Sorry, it's not a Wharram, it's the Hobie Cat.
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I'm going to sell my Hobie Turbo this year, and build an outrigger canoe to replace it. Maybe it's a mistake to do so. The Hobie is old, less than a thousand dollars, and the sails are in good shape. Roller furling jib. Just put the boom on, hoist the main, get out into the channel, roll out the jib, make sure the rudders are locked down, and go sailing. It looks for other boats to blast past.
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It's a well sorted out design. We read of Hobie Alter consulting with Woody Brown during the initial prototyping on the California beaches. It was actually conservative. A personal sailing craft. Then the beach catamaran segment began to really evolve. The Hobie 14 became a lame, slow, retro cat. The Hobie 16 became a huge hit. Advances with an added jib, hull volume, length, and a worldwide class organization became a large segment of the recreational sailing community. The Hobie 14 would not be forgotten, an influx of sail power brought it back, almost 150 sq ft of sail, like the A Class, and the advantages of the added jib. Now the boat had a lot of acceleration and needed trapezes in higher winds. The crash and burn lee bow submergence of the 16 were even more dangerous in the 14. The crew, which consists of one, has to actively anticipate bow burial and hope trapezing off the back can prevent it. It's an easy boat to right from a capsize.
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The Hobie needed a small repair on the corner of the rudder, so it was glued back together last week, and now triaxial glass was used to reinforce the corner, set in epoxy. A coating of colloidal silica smoothed the repair which can go back onto the boat with a little paint.