Hobie 18

The Hobie 18 is an American catamaran sailboat that was designed by Hobie Alter and Phil Edwards as a one design racer and first built in 1976.

Production
The design was built by Hobie Cat in the United States, starting in 1976, but it is now out of production.

Design
The Hobie 18 is a sailing dinghy, built predominantly of fiberglass. It has a fractional sloop rig, The twin hulls have raked stems, near-plumb transoms, twin transom-hung rudders controlled by a single tiller and twin retractable daggerboards. It displaces 400 lb.

The design has a roller furling jib, internally-mounted halyards and adjustable mast spreaders to allow mast adjustments fore-and-aft and abeam while sailing.

The boat has a draft of 2.50 ft with a daggerboard extended and 7 in with both retracted, allowing operation in shallow water, beaching or ground transportation on a trailer.

The Hobie 18 Magnum version has hiking wing racks that give a beam of 12 ft to allow trapezing crew members more leverage in keeping the boat level.

Operational history
In 1980 America's Cup racer and media mogul Ted Turner was racing the Hobie 18 and said, "it's a terrific boat, why didn't they have these when I was growing up!"