Hobie 33 for offshore?

[john61ct]

Well personally, I prefer visiting with "less developed" indigenous locals, not English-speaking globalized ones, and

would very rarely pay for lodging, except maybe giving the headman a nice bottle, or buying a pig for a village that's hosted me for an extended period.

A slower pace, especially upwind, seems pretty unavoidable given the priorities I've laid out.

And that's just fine with me.

For example, the higher performance (in the racing sense) of a Folkboat is not worth the sacrifice in liveaboard "camping comfort", headroom and carrying capacity.

[Enyar]

I continue to be drawn to these Hobie 33s as a race boat / trailer camper. The goal would be something for beercan racing locally, traveling for one design racing and then loading up the camping gear to trailer camp places like lakes out west, baja, Alaska, bahamas etc.

The corsair/trailer tris probably make more sense but man these Hobies are cool

Originally Posted by Wayfarer1008

A good friend had a great name for this type of cruising, She called it "Sailing with Green Luggage" With a boat like this your goal is to sail from destination to destination, leaving the sailboat at a marina and staying in a nice hotel or apartment on land. This is really a great way to go in that you can take a smaller sailboat, use the money you saved to stay at a nice place and still do your trip. As for your pick of a Norsea 27 you have to remember these boats are dog slow and cramped. Look around and see what you can find.

Originally Posted by puffcard

Good post above. I had one for 6 years. Sails like a dream. Cruising not so much fun. I once did 15kts in front of a squal with just the #3 jib up. The boat was very much in control. I did cruise for a week at a time and that's about all I could handle, 30 years ago. I would only do coastal sailing in settled weather with mine. We have put the spreaders in the water on a few occasions.

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Single handing:

The stock Hobie 33 is easy to single hand, remember its only got an 8' beam and the cockpit is narrower, so everything is in easy reach from the helm. Tiller steering means you can step forward quite a lot and still reach the tiller. Except for sheets & traveller, all lines are led to cabin top and secured at a bank of cam cleats each side of companion way. Jib sheet winches are on cockpit combing, secondaries one each on either side of companion way. This means that your primary working lines (sheets) are very readily accessible from the helm. To work halyards/reefing lines, you need to get to the cabin top...with long arms you could still touch helm and cabin top gear, but not really work a line.

Traveller is in the cockpit so gets in the way for moving forward from helm, no problem when crew is positioned forward of traveller and helmsman aft of it, but must be worked around for single handing, but only when you need to access cabin top lines...all others easily accessed from helm.

The H33 is very narrow beam and deep fin keel. She is designed to go fast and be highly maneuverable, as a race boat should be (you can spin the boat in not much more than a boat length under sail). This means she does not track well, so for single handing you cant count on it to hold a course without tiller input for any time at all. In contrast, more tradational vessel designs, once sails are balanced, can hold course well for a long time, normally long enough to leave the helm and tweek a line...not the H33. This also means she sails at anchor like crazy, not a good cruising trait.


Faster, oh hell yes! Hobie's official max speed number was 17 knots, but look on YouTube and you will find videos of people pushing them to into the 20s...thats really pushing it though...odds of dramatic breakage at those speeds are pretty good.

For single handed/cruising use, two pros are its amazing light air and windward performance. I almost never put the outboard in mine, if there is any wind at all you dont need it. And, worst case, you can skull it easily with the rudder. Ive even strapped long oars on it once and rowed it sitting in the cockpit!

The engine well would be a down side for cruising, its an overly complicated design and engines often get air starved and stalled. A poor design feature in an otherwise amazing boat. The new H33, built by another company, has just an OB bracket, much better idea.

All my H33 sailing has been in inland waters so I cant speak to seakeeping or wet ride.

[Drinky Crow]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Layout and headroom for camping liveaboard?

Offshore? If you are a masochist, sure.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Enyar

I continue to be drawn to these Hobie 33s as a race boat / trailer camper. The goal would be something for beercan racing locally, traveling for one design racing and then loading up the camping gear to trailer camp places like lakes out west, baja, Alaska, bahamas etc.

The corsair/trailer tris probably make more sense but man these Hobies are cool

The H33 could certainly be used for that purpose.

The Corairs of about the same LOA have slightly better below decks space. I used to race on an F31. The "cruising" version of the F31 has a very cramped aft "cabin" and standing headroom for short people. The Corsairs also have loads of space out on the nets. A large boom tent that covered the nets would be a great camping addition.

The Corsairs are pretty damn cool too!

The H33 can be pushed to 20 knots. The F31 is not even breathing hard at that speed.

[MicHughV]

Some years ago, I was in a race to Bermuda, and a Hobie 33 was one of the entrants. Crew was a bunch of young rascals, willing to "tough it out"
They did well for themselves and were in the trophy allocation. I can't remember where they placed, but they went home with an armful of trophies.
Undoubtably a fast boat, with probably a tough handicap.

[Adelie]

They done the TransPac LA to Hawai'i if I recall correctly.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

The H33 could certainly be used for that purpose.

The Corairs of about the same LOA have slightly better below decks space. I used to race on an F31. The "cruising" version of the F31 has a very cramped aft "cabin" and standing headroom for short people. The Corsairs also have loads of space out on the nets. A large boom tent that covered the nets would be a great camping addition.

The Corsairs are pretty damn cool too!

The H33 can be pushed to 20 knots. The F31 is not even breathing hard at that speed.

...the F31, with retractable dagger board and kick up rudder, can also get into much shallower water.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Adelie

They done the TransPac LA to Hawai'i if I recall correctly.

And did they then sail back uphill to SF? Did they arrive safely? Did they have breakage? If so, what? Or, was it sold there or shipped "home?"

Interesting revival of a 2018 thread....

[MicHughV]

Always a problem. My experience has been that most " crew" jump ship on arrival at one's destination.
They feel that they have accomplished what they set out to do, ie, get some blue water experience and had some "fun" doing it, but the ride " home" is considered "work". better accomplished by sitting in a Boeing 747.

[Drinky Crow]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Did they have breakage?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHhg5600Y

[JPA Cate]

Hi, DrinkyCrow,

It's a longish trip back from HI to the mainland. My trips back, on a 30 footer, then on a 36 footer, took roughly 21 days and 19 days. Both trips the wind was forward of the beam the whole way, but the first 3 days out of HI were close hauled. The stresses on a boat from that kind of cycling are different from the drop test. People sometimes get race crew to return the boats, but sometimes get other crews to sort of pamper the boats coming back, by sailing them more gently. Sometimes this is done by not using the racing sails, but older less efficient ones. (Keep the good ones for best, not adding wear and tear.) It is not uncommon for things to break, during racing, and after racing.

Ann