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Nacra called,

they'd like their bows back :P

correct me if I am wrong, but was'nt the Hobie Fox the first boat with the upside down hull shape? I remember thinking how crazy that was, but now look at it.... Maybe it was copied from something else.
Anyone ever sailed a Fox? Isnt it 20ft? Seems like it should have been fast, who knows the skinny?

Nils Bunkenberg's A-class Flyer was the first reverse-shear bow that I know of; AHPC builds Flyers now.

The Fox never took off in the US; it appears it was a bit off the pace of the Nacra 20. Perhaps the fine bows did not support a heavy press of sail downwind? I don't know; this is pure conjecture on my part.

the unique look is more that the top of the deck is angled downward. Bimare did that on the 18HT as well - it had a very similar look of the bow but I believe the leading edge of the bow was plumb. Personally, the upper deck makes it look like it's trying to dive downward...but I can see how it would reduce some of the windage up front. Even though the Nacra and the Capricorn have reverse canted bows, I believe their bows are substantially taller. On my '04 Nacra with the plumb bow, the bow is considerably taller than my 6.0NA bows were.

THe US I-20 has 1.4 sq.mtr more sailarea, that is why it was faster.

Wouter

Well it also had a comp tip and that was a problem for performance oriented sailors.

I raced on a Fox (crew). IMO, the hulls were great - I think they just didn't figure out the rig before giving up on the 20-foot market. I liked the boat - just needed the kinks worked out.

Add 1 feet (foot?) to the FX-One or, take 2 feet from the Fox. Slap a Tiger rig on there, and voila the Hobie FX18 is born!

Of the Foxes I had sailed none had a Comp Tip. I think that the Comp tip was eliminated shortly after the boats introduction.

I agree with both John (on the rig) & Wouter (on the smaller sail area). PS the sail area thing was in toatl deference of the formula 20 rules as originally written in EU

But let me throw this in. By the time the Fox was introduced in North America the I20 was already established as the pre-dominant (only) spin cat class in the US. We did not need another big spin boat.

Eyes then turned on the Formula 18 and we all know how that is going

What about the noise? Why did they sound like a frieght train and why couldn't they harness that spent energy?

GARY

Hi All,

We have a Fox down here in St. Croix.

It was a demo sailed by Puerto Rician expert-in-any-boat Kiki Figeroua ( also the Hobie dealer in PR).

I remember the comp tip exploding on him here at the St. Croix Regatta.

He sailed for 1 season I think, until he sold it to Harper here on St. Croix ( Harper had a H14 before).

While Kiki sailed it, he did not have great succes with it, mainly because He was sailing against John Holmberg(I-20), Terry Jacskon(Tornado), and it did not equate out (..the following seasons, Kiki would bring his Tornado and just collect trophies and watches)

I sailed the boat with Harper, and, it is an amazing design. Remember, we have big air/waves here all the time.

At first, I would just be amazed how those bows destroy a wave,...the bow would enter a wall of water,....and by the time the wave reached about 3-4 feet back[from the bow],..it[the wave] was a mass of droplets,....just casually falling back to Earth,...a amazing thing to watch..

The rig[sail area] was very nice for 15-20 mph winds,..the size is in rememberance of a non spin Tornado,..and in these conditions, a very stable rig to ride!

When you look at the hulls, when they are on a lawn, once you quit staring at the bows,...the next thing that jumps out at you is the size of the hulls, from front xbar to rear xbar,...the volumn is huge,....like I-20 huge.....

..so, yes, I believe it to be a 'big water' boat,..and it lives up to its' design very well..

..the boat is now over in St. John, and I wish it was back here, so we could sail it.

..I believe if one dedicated a season or 2,..that you could learn the strenghts of the boat and do very well.

regards,

Bruce

St. Croix
I17

that can't be fast.

In California we had 6 Foxes on the water. All sailed by very capable sailors. The sailors seemed to like the boat very much. Sadly, they did not seem to give Brandon Wallace, sailing an I-20, too much worry. It was mostly due to the rig and sail area. They all came with comptips that were later changed out to full Alum masts. There was always a thought of making them "Turbo" (sail area to equal I-20) but that was going to cost each team about $1400 for the new sail. As the fleet was changing to Formula 18s Steve Myrter spent the money for the new sail. He was desperately holding on to that boat and had a hard time giving up on it. With the Turbo, he all of the sudden was on pace with Brandon but it was too late to revive the class as most of them went away to other parts of the world. It is a great boat for big teams. Steve and I raced one regatta together weighing well over 400 lbs total and won the regatta.

Sailing the New Nacra is very much like the Fox. I was pacing with Pete Melvin last weekend. I took out my Tiger and he was on the Infusion. We sailed outside in Long Beach which has pretty nice swells out there. We did one lap then changed boats. It took me a while to get acclimated to the way the boat sails but eventually got it. Roger Jenkins who was crewing for me has sailed the Fox a lot. He thought that the characteristics of the Infusion were the same as the Fox. I have not helmed the Infusion in winds over 20 but it seems that the boat would be more forgiving downwind, especially, as the bows do not like to stay underwater for very long.

Later,
Dan

So the boat is taking all the energy that should be used to power the boat forward at speed, and using it to 'destroy' a wave? No, that can't be a positive. Now, IF the bow simply penetrated the wave and effortlessly shot through I'd be impressed.....

Hi Dan

Any idea where the boats went? You don't see any of them in Open class anywhere.

Mark

Mark:

One is in Canada somewhere in the East. One went to Tailand. One is in Texas. I think one went to Florida. One is on a Lake somewhere. As far as I know none of them went to racers. They were really good prices, to get rid of them, and attracted people that wanted a good platform to take guests on. Too bad, I think.

I do not know about any of the others.

Later,
Dan

Surprise, surprise,,,its an HT hull,(at least thats what it looks like to me). The hull from the front xbeam forward is an exact copy. It looks like its got more volume in the stern, thats good. They kept the HT rudder stocks, thats bad.

Does F18 allow carbon beams? Or did they paint the aluminum black? Either way I like it.

Carbon rudders? very nice, Will they be hollow? Hopefully not. Will they leak? If they're hollow they will.

What are the odds they will get the rudders hold down and kick up right? Probably low.

It will be interesting to see if this F18 is competitive. If so, Wouter's constant drum beating that the HT's hull shape was bad will be proved wrong.

Bill

2000 Hobie Fox (San Antonio) listed last month on the Hobie Forum and price reduced since.