1973 Blue Hobie Rides Again!

Earlier this year we were given another old boat. The owner spoke very fondly of it, and unlike most of the vessels that I pick up, this one had been cared for, cleaned and stored well over the decades. It was picked up a number of months back, and gone through as somewhat of a time capsule of a 70's Hobie 16. The boat had the original main traveler system when sold New, that gave rise to the Murrays Main Traveler kit, our first product that allowed the skipper to control the traveler from a single cleat in the center of the boat. This boat had clearly been sailed in fresh water most of, if not entirely throughout its life. We recorded a series of videos as we evaluated the status of the boat, and upgraded some of the systems to be safe, and or racey. Updated Harken Micro Blocks can be seen hanging from the clew plate on the jib, and upgraded Kissme cars have been installed.   The boat came with original Hobie/ McKibbin sails. The original blue vinyl tramp was in decent shape, but the hiking straps shredded themselves on the drive home. The Sail Cloth was thin enough that it tore multiple times during the initial hoist. The rudder system was non adjustable with non adjustable tiller crossbar. It did include 3 fiberglass white rudder blades in serviceable condition. It had an upgraded mainsheet system and original standing rigging. The original all aluminum mast included the classic H14 style tang with just a single hole for rigging and trapeze. There was some kinking either from an accidental drop, or years of load on the tang, without the re-enforcement of the newer style mast tangs that came out in the mid 70s. We set the boat up with some modern sails, and raced it out in Phoenix. The conditions were perfect and we did well! The next weekend we did some K9 testing with positive results. She lives again!