Hobie originally had a licensed loft. They later bought it out or absorbed. My understanding is all Hobie approved sails are currently built and
sold by Hobie (and hobie licensed dealers). Here is the sail
rule:
SAILS
12.1 Class legal sails shall be made from HOBIE
CAT CO official patterns and manufactured and
distributed by the
HOBIE CAT CO or their currently
licensed sail makers unless specified differently
in individual boat class rules
Hobie set out (and based on the number of boats
sold succeeded) to be somewhat different than "class boats" which often have allowable parameters within which owners trick out their boats. Instead Hobie created a "one-design boat" which was intended to keep uniform boat and
ownership costs down (with the nice ancillary benefit to the company of maintaining control of all the major component sales -). Anyway, its been nearly 10 years since I sold my hobie (still miss it) but that's the way I
recall it.
-M