Everyone is buying small sailboats – Elie’s Hobie 16
Today my friend Elie (He came by my house and helped me rig the new mast when I first got it.) called me and told me that he had just acquired an older Hobie 16 in the same storage yard as my boat. I had gone to see it with him couple weeks ago and I didn’t think it was worth the asking price of around 300 bucks. Low and behold the owner started to get desperate since it is towards the end of the month soon he will have to pay another month of storage fees. He called Elie back and they made a deal he couldn’t refuse. For $175 he is now the proud new owner of a sailable but project Hobie Cat.
He went to the Ventura Port District who handles the management of my storage yard and happened to get a spot right next to my boat. It is a 25 ft slip so he can bring down his Aquarius 21 from time to time and store it there mast up. He lives in Santa Barbara and works in Ventura so it would be cool to be able to take it out for a quick sail at his lunch break.
Today I met him at the yard as he was getting the Hobie setup with his friend Omri also from Santa Barbara. Since I had the right hitch ball I trailered the hobie out to the ramp and we promptly rigged it up and launched her for a little test sail. The boat is pretty much good for an afternoons sail but the trampoline and the hulls are getting pretty worn. The port side trampoline probably should be replaced as it is holding on by a thread in the front right below the mast base. The decks are soft to the touch and seems to crack with a minimal amount of pressure but you can really expect more from a boat this age and price. The wire main sail halyard had a weird crimp near the connections to the sail that prevents it from being hoisted all the way up. We had to basically reef the main right from the get go until he removes the crimp in the halyard later.
When we did get it in the water though it floated right off the of the fair conditioned trailer. Its suppose to have a hole in one of the hulls but it doesn’t seem to be taking on water. Both of the sails however are in excellent condition. No visible tears or rips nor are there significant stretch marks. We manage to fit all 3 of us on the trampolines and we gave her a little push and off we went in the Ventura Harbor.
It took off with ease under a fair amount of wind and started to accelerate at a closed hauled course towards the harbor entrance. As we got closer to the mouth of the harbor the winds started to pick up and we were now moving probably at nearly 7 or 8 knots. It was pretty awesome to be on a boat that has the potential to really move. Just last Friday I went out on the Capri 13 and today I am making another maiden trip and a Hobie 16. This definitely makes me envious and wanting a little fast and manuverable sailboat myself. Marlene will never go for that and I suppose that’s fine since I will get plenty of chances to sail both of these boats. Back to the Hobie. Now we are crusing towards the harbor entrance and there are just a small amount of swell in the water but the way Ventura harbor is setup you get a fair amount of it head on right at the entrance. Water was starting to splash through the tramps and Omri being on the leeward side was getting drenched. Luckily he was wearing a wetsuit and stayed warm and comfortable through the entire trip.
We did a little loop outside and decided to turn around and go back in. On the way back we decided to make a turn to port so we can check out some of the houses in the Ventura Keys. These are a couple of tracks of custom homes that have direct access to the water in the back of there houses. With the real estate boom of the last 10 years, these are now well into the multiples of millions in price. It was pretty amazing to see some of the boats thats dock directly behind some of these people’s houses. It would really be great to have that kind of access to your boat. Unfortunately some of these boats don’t seem to get a lot of use or attention.
Once we were in one of the narrower channels we had lost wind completely. Being a small boat without a motor we had to drift our way back out to the main channel of the harbor. After a few painfully slow and many more failed tacks we finally made it out. Omri had to go back up to Santa Barbara so we called it quits and made out way back to the ramp.
These little boats I’ve been sailing lately really made me even more excited about sailing in general. There are so many facets of this sport and I am looking forward to taking them out for more extended trips in the future. Tomorrow I’m planning on taking out the Capri for the afternoon and maybe there will be another post about what it is like in a couple days. Ciao….
Nice story. Amazing that it made it out and back. Those soft hulls are worrisome. What’s the plan for its restoration?
yeah, i personally would not have bought it because of the hulls and the shape it was in. I doubt my friend will do any significant resto on this boat. Probably just sail it til it dies and junk it. It’s his style.