I posted this on a boat building forum but though I might get more relevent answers here.


Short version, are there any cat designs for sale where the hulls could be used with Hobie 18SX rigging, if so which ones?

Long, drawn out version...

My wife and I sail an older Hobie 18SX on the weekends usually between some local islands within 11nm (22km) of shore. No racing, just island hopping with other Hobie sailing if the weather permits or just blasting around off the beach if a long sail looks questionable. We enjoy this boat, with the possible exception of its weight (way over class weight), but it is starting to show its age. The hulls have been injected with epoxy once already due to delamination and I'll be doing this again soon it seems... I also have to track down some leaks as we are taking on a lot more water then is normal.

This boat has been out of production since 2003 but there are lots of spare parts available as well as used boats on the market. I have extra crossbars and dolphin striker in the garage. The last few boats I checked out also had soft hulls so didn't make the cut for spare parts boats.

In the past I have toyed with the idea of building a lighter cat such as the Blade F16 due to being at least as fast as our 18SX (probably faster), much lighter (don't need as many people to help move it on the beach), carries its buoyancy low (reduced tendency to pitch pole was one of the reasons we chose the 18 over a Hobie 16), but couldn't justify the cost of a modern racing rig just to fun sail. I've often seen it mentioned that building the hulls for a project like this is the least expensive part with the rig, sails, foils, etc. usually costing much more.

So the question is would it be feasible to build new, modern hulls (preferably out of ply/epoxy) as a winter project and use most of the parts of the old Hobie, with the possible exception of the dagger boards since the trunks are usually part of the hull design?



Specifications
Length 18'
Beam 8'
Min. Class Weight 400 lbs.
Draft (Boards Down) 2'6'
Mast Length 29'6.5'
Total Sail Area 240 sq. ft.
Maximum SX Wing Load 550 lbs.
Hull Construction Fiberglass/Foam Sandwich




(Typical boat, not mine)