The Hobie 17 was designed after the comptip was required, so, as Matt Miller said, it was designed specifically for a comptip mast (unlike the earlier Hobie models). So no Hobie 17's were built that did not have comptips (unless some were built in other countries, which I don't know).
(Well, your last post jumped in ahead of this, so I see you have already researched that. If the 17's weren't actually built in Europe, and if they had aluminum masts, I wonder whether they imported just the platforms and put on aluminum masts??)

Anyway, regarding the righting of Hobie 17's, I know that one thing that seems to work really well is shroud extenders. I have seen it in action with a Hobie 17 sailed by an elderly gentleman. If you use them, just make sure your mast is captive enough to its base that it won't hop off the ball when the boat rights.

(I don't know whether extenders are class legal, but it is probably irrelevant in your situation.)

P.S. You said, "One of the things I love about my Nacra14 is that I could go turtle on it if I tried because of the large mast volume." Did you mean you could NOT go turtle on it? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />