Frankenhobie ( Put the third rudder here, Igor)

(I knew that subject line would get some attention.)

Does anyone have experiences with mutant Hobies, assembled from an odd mixture of parts from the sailboat cemetery?

Hint: I love pictures!

i dont really have frankenhobie pics but ive got pics.got a '77 Hobie 16 and its my first boat. Got it out for the first time last weekend. lovin it. original sails too

I should have pictures this winter. I have a 79 h16 , but just was given nice condition 92' hulls. So it will be a 79/92 h16?

I hate you. I've been looking for some early 90's hulls forever.

Ok, I really don't hate you. Just envious.

How about a Frankencat? Not a Hobie but fun.

http://www.catsailor.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=141814#Post141814

I'm trying to get a trashed Gcat 5.7 going. Any leftover parts from your Gcat?

A few. Most of it went to the new boat. What do you need?

I am sorry we never got to try out the Hooter rig we were working on. You can push the 5.7 pretty hard downwind w/ the tall bows. I think it is definitely faster than it's rating. If I could have found another one cheap, I would have gone that direction as it would have been much easier.

I've already patched one hull where it sat at the edge of a lake for 3 years and wore a hole through by rubbing the sand every time a boat went by. The rear crossbeam has a hairline crack that I might fill in with a weld. The bridle is missing also, but I would guess you are using that on your creation. Both of my tramps are shot also. Jib is gone, and one boomless mainsail is fair, the other is shot. It was a rental alright. The more I assess the thing, the worse it gets, but I've got all winter to fab stuff together and get it going.

So anything you arent using from your Gcat might be usuable to me. Let's make a deal.

The back tramp is still there but not pretty. Not sure if my Dad wants to part w/ the crossbeams. The bridle is in use. I will talk with him this weekend.

Thanks. I read through the old threads. What happened to your Gcat? Anyway, shipping shouldn't be too bad from SC to FL if you decide to sell any of it to me.

I looked it over again Saturday and found a few more problems with it, but that's fine. If I get it sailing by springtime, it'll be something to brag about. I also noticed the mainsail says GFORCE, not GCAT, but it's identical to the boomless sails on other Gcats I've seen. The hulls say GFORCE also.

Back to the original subject of this thread, I picked up the Gcat originally to use the one good hull with my old Hobie. It seemed every time we went out, I always had an extra person who wanted on, and we always were a little overweight and slow. My idea was to somehow mount that good Gcat hull between the hulls of the Hobie, and have a "frankenhobie" trimaran. That way, 6 or 7 people could ride with all that bouyancy. But a couple friends repaired the bad hull of the Gcat, so that monstrosity won't see the light of day, I'll just have 2 boats instead.

How long is your GForce? It is a later version of the GCat. They had a big 21 footer as well as 18. Dave Mosely on this site had one. Pm me with a wish list. Still working on my Dad. He's a pack rat...

I sure wish I had a 21.

Mine has "5.7" molded into the top of the hulls. If the hulls of yours are wrecked, there's not much chance the tramps or crossmembers can be used on any other boat.

I'm mostly intested in the tramp(s), and other parts of the rigging and fittings that didn't go to your new boat. Large things like the crossbeams aren't that important right now.

Even if I don't need them right now I probably will later, as the grandkids, college, school, and a dozen other things take priority over my sailing hobby, so the Gcat will be my boat for a long long time.

Here's a mutant Hobie air boat that was built here in Santa Cruz. The seat mounted on the fwd cross bar is used to run a kite from. He was going to sail it from CA to Hawaii. It eventually broke apart in the surf.





J

Well, the Gcat won't make a comeback afterall. One hull is too far gone.

However, this thread is "frankenhobie", so I'm taking measurements right now for my own frankenhobie trimaran. No third rudder though. I've needed to address a few issues, the first being my back problems when sitting on the tramp all day. Second problem is always having too many guests for the Hobie. Third is the flex in the old boat. This will address all these issues. This will provide a sitting ****, room for seven without getting bogged down, and a very rigid boat.

I plan on taking the tramp off, installing bench seats along the frame sides and fiberglass panels for floorboards. The Gcat hull goes down the middle. The existing beams from the Gcat fit across the hobie's hulls, 3 beams will make a very rigid setup. The bottom of the Gcat hull sits a foot lower than the hobie when the beams are attached just as they are. I'll see if that's the right height when I try it out the first time.

I'm not changing any of the rigging or anything on the hobie, just removing the tramp. This contraption will be 8 feet wide and 20 feet long. I'm putting this project on the front burner now with the weather holding up fairly well.

Here it is, with the center hull just sitting on the trailer.

Making progress little by little.

This weekend will see me modifying the trailer to accomodate the contraption. Then the final adjustments and mounts can be finished up while it's properly on the trailer. Total weight should be a little over 500lbs.

A lot of family health issues have kept this project on the backburner for quite a while. Modified the trailer and have the boat ready for finishing up. Memorial Day weekend is when she'll hit the water for the first time.

I'm hogging the thread, but it's done, rigging checked and a quick cleanup, launching next weekend.

Put her in the water finally last weekend and it was a success! Not much wind, but a thunderstorm was brewing so we headed back to the boat ramp. We caught the gust front of the storm and had rooster tails coming from all three hulls, maybe 15kts, and it felt very stable and solid, no flex at all. I was trying to make the turn to the ramp and had to give the tiller all I had to turn. The sailing pics should be in soon, I'll post them up.

I have a Gcat 5.7 that I recently brought to life as a mate for my 16. I realy like the gcat as I think it sails quite nicly in good winds. Doesn't want to nose dive and sails in the ocean on the waves very nicly.
Your project is quite the mutant.

After much consideration, I'm going to repair the other Gcat hull and use the Gcat instead of the trimaran. The Gcat has more room and the tri just didn't handle well enough, I had to fight the tiller constantly. Too bad I sold my 2 good Gcat rudders, but I still have 3 more that need some work, and the rigging will be Hobie 16, as the Gcat mast is bent. The shrouds probably aren't the right length, but I've got extras there too. I'll need the bottom casting from the Gcat mast transferred to the Hobie mast, but it's welded on there! The Gcat needs new tramps, but I'm toying with the idea of benches along the sides with hard decking instead. It'll still be a mutant, Hobie rigging and sails on a Gcat 5.7.

Thanks for sharing your experiments!
I bought an H16 from the Portland Sea Scouts and found it did not have all the standing rigging. That turned out OK, bedause I wanted to rig single-handed easily, and the standard rig wasn't the answer. I designed an A-frame mast with a crab claw sail I rig by myself in about 6 minutes. I was out several times and had a lot of fun, but being a convert from monohulls I didn't like sitting cramped and in a puddle on the tramp. I designed wings seats for my Hobie 16 and they have been great. My son has trapped out from them and I sit high and dry with my legs stretched out. (I am having trouble attaching images here-I don't see in preview, hope they show up) FrankenHobie, yes, but it works for me!

Working on my own Frankenhobie in Austin TX. Mating a Hobie-18, with a 5.0 G-Cat. Any ideas for crossbeams? I have LOTS of hobie 16 mast sections from past sailing "experiences".
Lane in Austin

How many Hobie masts (or boats) did you kill? Did they die a horrible death or was it an honorable end?