Welcome to the forum.You moved from one great sailing venue to another.I have sailed at Gimili a number of times twice at the Canadian hobie Nationals and once at the N.A laser champs,biggest waves I have ever been in,bigger then Lake Superior where I sail.also sailed at the Canadian hobie nationals at Kingston.
In response to your question I too have the same problem.From what i have read you can permanently stiffen by glueing or you could shim the posts with strips of aluminum i.e.old pop cans or I have heard of people using duct tape.I will tell you though the new boats are definitly nice.there are a lot of nice features on the new boats.i quess it all depends on how serious you want to race.There is some excellent 16 sailors from your area and I believe the 16 Continentals are located close to you in 2004.On the other hand there have been some excellent sailors that can take an old hobie and make it go fast.hope this helped a bit any other ? you could e-mail me directly or use the forum as there is a lot of knowledgable on this site
mike
for foot grip I use a roll of tapethatr is sticky on one side an roughed up on the other don,t know what it is called but i have used it for years