Hobie 16 - Structure

Structure

The Hobie 16 is manufactured in France by the Hobie Cat company, and by the Hobie Cat of America company in the United States. Historically the French boats are preferred as they are perceived to be built to tighter tolerances.

The Hobie 16 normally carries two sails, the mainsail and the jib. There is a kit to allow an H16 to fly a spinnaker but this is only class legal for youth racing.

Each hull has two pylons (the forward ones are vented to allow the pressure inside the hull to equalise) and the frame fits onto these pylons. The frame consists of four aluminium alloy beams which slot into four aluminium alloy corner castings and are secured with rivets. The trampoline slots along the inside of the beams and is tensioned by rope or shock cord. Racers commonly epoxy the beams into the castings to boost rigidity because the flexing of the boat as it rides over waves saps power. Equally, the joints may be packed out with aluminium sheet cut from drinks cans; this method facilities disassembly.

Earlier masts were one-piece aluminium alloy, but were changed to two-piece ones with a non-conductive composite fiberglass tip (known as "comptip") not for performance reasons, but after a few people in the United States of America were electrocuted trying to raise masts under power lines and their families sued Hobie Cat. The mast foot casting forms a ball which steps into cup-shaped shoe riveted onto the forward crossmember and there is a Teflon disk separating the two. The downward compressive force from the mast is partially carried by the crossmember and partially by a stainless steel compression post and tensioned tie rod assembly called a "dolphin striker".

The Hobie 16 is noted for its particularly robust construction. Whilst this is of great benefit when launching and recovering in waves, and in close quarters racing where contact is not un-common, the Hobie 16 does weigh more than some other boats of similar type; notably the Dart 18.

The H16 may be equipped with two trapeze wires either side to allow both the helm and crew to trapeze. "Cat seats" can be fitted to allow disabled sailors to sail the H16 without too much penalty.

The rudder assembly consist of a rudder on each hull fitted to a (Hobie patented) automatically releasing stock comprising a casting, a cam and spring-loaded plunger, so that the rudders spring up when they hit ground to avoid damage. The system can be troublesome until the correct tension is set on the spring. The rudders are connected to two short tillers which are in turn attached via a ball and socket joint to a connecting rod called the tiller bar. The tiller attaches to the centre of the tiller bar and is typically extendable for operation while trapezing.

The mainsheet has a maximum of a 6:1 purchase and has a traveller that allows movement over the entire aft crossmember of the frame. The jib sheets are of a 2:1 purchase and attach on the front beams with their own two travellers.

The boat has a 3:1 purchase downhaul (upgradable to 6:1) to tension the mainsail and an outhaul (standard 1:1, upgradable to 2:1) to flatten the mainsail along the boom. Both the mainsail and jib are fully battened.