I am thinking of adding a spin or a hooter to my TheMightyHobie18 next year. I read Rick's article on sailing with hooters but I would like more opinions on them. They seem to be easier to operate.

So, any thoughts or opinions?

A couple initial thoughts after reading ricks post.

1. The sail would probably not be optimized for down wind. It would probably be too flat especially for a boat like the hobie 18, which does not generate that much apparent wind.
2. The furled sail will cause a lot of wind resistance.
3. It will be useful in a small wind range upwind, downwind is were you have a lot more potential increase in speed.
4. How will it affect pointing when it is flying?
5. Richard Howard of rudder chaos fame (video on thebeachcats.com) built a similar sail for his hobie 18 (see video). Hopefully he will see this. If not message me and I will send you his email.
6. I contacted Calvert to build my spin and their prices were way higher than any other sail maker I talked to.

I have never used a hooter, which pretty much makes this post useless.

Matt

The hooter I find less useful in heavier wind, over 10 knots it is tooooo much sail. You need both sails and have to plan for the days expected conditions.

Nick,
I added a spin to my 18 for the last year or so that I raced it. I've got a bunch of pictures and can show you what I did.

Also, if you're interested - I've still got the spin rig including sail that I put together. When I sold the boat it was going to a lake and the new owner figured he'd run out of real estate too quickly with the spin up. So, I've got a H-18 SX spinnaker (great condition), fiberglass pole, some lines and blocks and a bunch of pictures. The stuff is mostly collecting dust in my large collection of boat bits, so if you're interested we can make a deal. Since I'm in the Annapolis area you could come see the bits I've got.

The 18 with a spinnaker was a blast. I haven't sailed a spin boat since and I kind of miss the addictive feeling of a cat heated up with a spin...

I can't say much about whether a hooter would be better, but I can say that the spin let me sail deep and fast, and since the 18 is a great reaching boat I didn't miss the ability to carry the headsail higher (unless the wind was really light).

The Mighty GBH (Geriatric Blue Hobie) under spin in Galesville Harbor, light conditions:



West River, flying a hull and trapped, smokin'!

I may have to talk to you about the gear. It will probably be in the spring when my boat allowance has built back up.

Did you use an all aluminum mast? I currently have a regular TheMightyHobie18 mast w/ comptip. I would love to find an all aluminum mast with no damage. I guess I should ask if the H18SX ever had an all aluminum mast.

Nick,

Get a Hooter! ...and buy my aluminum mast!

Dan

Nick - My mast was all aluminum. I had the comptip from the Hobie freebee program but couldn't bring myself to cut a perfetly good mast. The SX did come with a comptip. So the halyard attachment would be different from what I did, but not difficult.

Dan,

I haven't forgotten about you. Just doing my research. BTW the "boss" is really excited about the wings.

I noticed you changed your signiture to say "Magnum".

Seriously, though, I love the Hooter. It is easy and really helps out upwind in the light stuff. It really makes a difference on my Hobie 14 and I'm glad I made the change. I'm getting one for my Supercat 20 and I'm working on getting one on a friend's Sc17. I don't think the windage is too much of a problem if you have a tight luff and can furl the sail tightly. I found that in heavy wind, it doesn't always furl nicely, so the upper part of the sail flaps around.

One change I would make to my set-up is to add a block to control the tension of the luff. I cleat it now and it isn't always optimized. Also, you HAVE to have a fairlead on the furler or it just won't work right.

I ran a big Hooter on the SC20 (28' luff) last year, and installed a spin/snuffer set up on it this year. The Hooter worked well from a little above a beam reach to maybe 40 degrees below the beam reach. The spin runs substantially deeper. The Hooter requires real self discipline, it needs to be furled at around 12kts, over that it becomes problematic to get it furled. I also had it set up so that I could drop it to the tramp (releasing the tack as well) if problems occurred, or the wind picked up over 15 kts. Then I didn't want the additional windage. I also rigged the Hooter halyard w/ a 2 to 1 purchase to get sufficient luff tension. Overall, it worked very well in light air, gave the boat a massive amount of sail area, was easy to use just toolin' around.
The spin/snuffer is almost as easy to use, and does work deeper. If you're mostly reaching around for fun in lighter airs, the Hooter might best serve your needs. If you spend a lot of time going up and down wind, the spin might be a better choice. Also, not choosing the largest possible Hooter might minimize some of the difficulties I occaisionally experienced.

Dave
H16, SC20, custom carbon DC 24