Hi F18-Community,

we had a Hobie Wildcat build 2009 to test it out for five days now. My sailing-mate is/was seriously thinking about buying it.

1. By putting the boat together we found 40 to 50cm long hairline cracks in the edges of the inside sprayrails where the forestay wires are fixed.

2. My friend had to walk to the front on the hull while sailing. We both heard a cracking noise when he made one step. No visible damage.

3. At the end of our testing period - 40 hours, up to 5 Bt - we now found three bubbles one already open nearby the forestay connection of one hull. At the open bubble one can see that the gelcoat and the fibre are not connected properly.

4. If you put power on the mainsail by setting the main block under mid to strong tension one can see the two forestay holders in the hull inside coming out some millimeters.

Are this known "teething probs" or has anyone heard how Hobie treats the issue? My friend is really down now because we had fantastic sailing days with the boat. It sails like a rocket and moves great. Especially the downwind directions the boat seems to have no limitations at all and goes, goes, goes. But we have lost confidence. The dealer gave no satisfying answer yet and wants to talk with Hobie first.

Thanks for reading and your comments.

Bye, LF

I think the problem you are describing is highly unusual, as far as I know there are no known hull problems with the Wildcat.
Could it be that this happened while handling the boat?
Maybe overtightened trailer straps?

Could you post some pictures of the damage?
Thx.

Hi, the WC was fixed on the trailer with straps without ratchmatic so I don't think that there was a problem.

But look at the pics please. Its the inside front part of the left hull. On the other hull its pretty similar. Excuse the poor quality. Maybe you have to move your viewing angle to recognize all.

Cheers, Uli

PS: The forumsoftware seems to downsize the pics. Here are the URLs for those among you who want to see the original size ;-)

http://www.fade.de/catamaran/wildcat/wildcat001.JPG
http://www.fade.de/catamaran/wildcat/wildcat002.JPG
http://www.fade.de/catamaran/wildcat/wildcat007.JPG

I know of one that the port hull has a pretty significant structural issue. As tension was applied to the mainsail a crack would open up at the spray rail. This boat was taken to a fiber glass repair shop and it turns out that the bulk heads had split.

From what I have been told Hobie was taking care of repairing this boat. I have not heard of this happening anywhere else.

Nice boat to sail, but really badly built! I know one that had it's bulkhead fall out, and another boat builder told me that after doing some repair work on one they were the worst built cat hes ever seen, total other end of the spectrum to the Tiger. If you are going to buy one i think you should only buy a new one and even then i'd be cautious.

I'd buy a Capricorn or a C2 the build quality is excellent and the factory support is superb.

Sounds like you should go straight to a dealer to get your issue correctly assessed. Posting things like this on a forum where it's next to impossible to properly diagnose via pics will only yield incendiary and unhelpful comments like the two above.

If you need help locating a dealer, send me an email and I am happy to assist.
Good luck getting it all sorted.

Ain't that the truth!

Since Hobie Cat has the highest reputation in the industry for warranty and technical support... it will be taken care of. We are also the only brand in the market with an actual dealer network, so access to support is far easier than for those purchasing from garage dealers and importers direct.

Hobie Cat France has responsibility for this product and has been in contact with Jacques concerning any issues with the Wild Cat.

As Jeremy said... contact your dealer with any concerns.

It is never a good idea to buy the first of anything, let some one else work out the bugs and capitalize on their experience.

I cannot find it now but there was a website devoted to the manufacturing defects in hobie tigers. It's a bit vague in my mind now but there were plenty of issues around leaking hulls as i seem to recall.

not much help I know...

There are issues with all the new boats. Most of them are good but some off the line have problems. Here depending on who you ask and what they sail will influence the answers.
The problems were there on the Tiger. They are there on the C2. They are there on the Wildcat. They were there on the Infusion.

The question is if you buy a boat that has a flaw will the dealer fix it? My personal experience with Hobie and Surf City Catamarans is yes. Both the C2 and Wildcat came to full production really quick a few flaws don't suprise me.

Now shouldn't we save the boat bashing and making fun of other boats for the F-16 class?

Just my thoughts.

Your right of course Rich, the only thing is i cant make up my mind which boat to make fun of, the f-16 or the 104 pretending to be a f-16 or is that the f-16 pretending to be a 104... its just so confusing.. I give up!

I'm a manufacturing geek.
And I can tell you that the factory desires feedback.
Forums are great if you're looking for history on an old class or brand.
But something as new as the Wildcat will have been built with fresh ideas. The last thing any Operations Leader wants is to hear of a defect and not be able to analyze and implement a corrective action.
You'll get 1st class attention if you contact the factory with your data.

I think things like this should be posted on this forum simply to let us know about issues. That's what this forum is for. Hobie is great about taking care of issues but these issues should have been worked out in the first place before boats were sold.
One Wildcat here in Texas had the same issues. The bridle tang started pulling out of the Port hull. There will be two Wildcats racing in the GT this year, this will be a good test for the boats.
On a somewhat related note: I was recently replacing a comptip on a H16 mast and the replacement one that was just shipped from Hobie came with damage. It was clearly damaged before it was packaged up ( I guess nobody looks them over before wraping them in bubble wrap.) I thought this was a minor oversight. Hobie sends a new one. It came with the same kind of damage in the same exact spot. I know it wasn't the same one because the damage was slightly different. Hobie was good about taking care of the whole situation.

Whats so funny about the F 16's?

Karl Brogger's "squid pig" totally fun and brilliant at the same time!

Miller,

I don't paticularly think this is good form, I find it rather insulting that if you honestly belive that thj this is true.

this comment has particularly insulted our North american distributer who has worked extreemly hard to support the F18 and F16 classes regardless of build.
I have been asked to post this on their behalf as they are still packing up after supplying boat for the Alter Cup.

“I am getting a bit tired of this type of complete misguided information.
I am also pretty sure that Nacra would not take too kindly to that either.

For information sake. We have 5 dealers in the US. We have an excellent warranted program that we have not had to take too much advantage of since we have excellent quality control from the beginning. Not to say we will never have a problem, but we stay on top of that. We keep close to 150k in stock on hand in the US for mediate delivery and have delivered 15 of the 16 new C2s into a depressed economy in the US alone.

We have had 2 of the top Hobie sailors join our family to handle the popularity explosion in Europe with 2B sailing...Carlyn and Darren.
We have sponsored boats for the Alter Cup 3 years in a row and are committed for 2011. In addition, we are supplying Vipers to the youth championships right before the Alter Cup next year.

AHPC, its North American distributor, Fun in the Sun and its dealers in San Diego-Long Beach, Omaha, Memphis, Fairfield-NE, Nova Scotia are primary sponsor of the North American Championships (something I only hope the other manufactures will step up to the same level).

We have the only full service including coaching for ALL sailors out there with Red Gear Racing.

We have more 2010 C2s in the US than Hobie and Nacra put together. AHPC had close to half the fleet at last years world in belgium.

So all and all I think these people need to focus their efforts on supporting an industry instead of constantly trying to tell everyone we don't exist. Let's just work on building the sport. I am not going to participate in negative politicking. The sailors are smarter than that and the proof is in the pudding. We can not order our boats fast enough. People see the quality and the service and naturally want to be a part of it.

If anyone has any questions or concerns I invite them to contact me at 727-734-0799. ""

"We have the only full service including coaching for ALL sailors out there with Red Gear Racing. "

+1

+2

AHPC is a top company and I think makes a great product and has great support. Greg sails at a lot of the us regattas and always is willing to help out. I don't even own a AHPC product but sure can see the devotion Greg puts into the company. I think Matt needs to get his facts straight.

Are we going to respond to everything we read that is wrong now?
IMHO factory support is only as good as your local dealer.

The fact is, if you have an issue with a product, you are obliged to contact your supplier and give him an opportunity to rectify it before you post here and get all of us know-it-alls involved.