No doubt that was a problem in the late 80's. In 1984 Hobie reduced the weight of the 18. To do this they reduced materials including some "patches" of glass that strengthened the crossbar connection points. Before that... the 18 was bullet proof. After a few years, problems started showing up. Didn't help that we also started adding wings in 1984. Took about 4 years to unwind from that and get the boat bullet proof again. That whole mess was thrown in my lap when I started at the factory doing Warranty back then. I got the warranty extended from 5 to 6 years and the prorated coverage increased to a minimum of 60% over the entire 6 years. Under the Coleman warranty program at the time, the coverage went down 20% per year over 5 Years. 100 1st year, 80-60-40 then 20.

Any 18 in that range should watch the area below the forward crossbar and add reinforcements inside the hull and be retrofitted with anchor plates.