Bought one of these in 94, sold it in 07. Great times. Easy single handling. Even though only 3 feet longer than the 18 footer, it is by far, substantially more solid and safe boat having a much wider beam and twice as heavy. I sailed mine many times offshore to Catalina Island 26 miles off the southern Cal. coast. Totally fun with the ability to store provisions both in the hulls and in the cabin top structure. Also rigged mine with a pole and spinnaker. a truly beautiful sailer, so versatile. And she can't sink....... but she can flip over so know what you're doing. Now I am an older guy, 62 and don't like being out in the sun much. I say, if you have the passion and the ability for this, it's somewhat affordable and tons of fun. Gals love um' too. Ha.
My best friend's dad purchased one of these new about 1994. We had a fantastic time on their private lake with this boat. I remember spending a lot of days out on the water on it and a few painful sunburns but man was it worth it. Only bad thing I can say about the boat is that the sail was constantly pulling free at the top of the mast. Had to have it replaced several times. This video sure brings back memories. My friends dad passed away a few years ago. Thanks for the memories Hobie!
Personally Hobie, I think you made a big mistake by stopping production of this boat. My friend had one and it's was the best. Hope fully you will come out with a new, similar boat.
Looks perfect for Southern CA, where (it seems to me) there isn't really anywhere to "cruise" to, so it's all about daysailing, performance, and SPEED.
Hobie, you are the only company that can produce a trailerable catamaran equivalent of the venerable Catalina 22! Make a social, daysailing multihull that hits such a sweet balance of features, that's heavy enough to not require acrobatic trapeze artistry. Give it decent seating options, a creature comfort or two, 22-25 feet long. Bimini? Is there such a boat out there?
Will Bernhardt it's all about social seating for 6, storage compartments like the SC 21, performance hulls, trailerability, bimini option, outboard option... I think that probably means a relatively wide 25 footer..
I’m in the early stages of phasing into retirement. I’m headed to warmer climes from the winters of new york. I would really like a small day sailer to fish, spearfish, snorkel, short hop on water maybe even a couple of days. I was not looking to race the waves, just chill cruise the shoreline, park (anchor) and have a bite or two with wine or beer. The hobie 20 sport cruiser seemed a perfect cruiser with storage compartments. Sorry no manufacturer replaced such a unique craft. Not everyone is looking to race and precariously hang over the edge to keep the boat from flipping or even needing to upright the craft. The elimination of the hobie sport cruiser reminds me of manufacturers selling racing sportcars to owners who if they lived up to the hype would lose licenses.
Sure that is not 1979? Good ole San Diego Mission Bay. Looks like it would be fun to cruise to Catalina. It may be heavy and slow but you would have your cooler when you got there!
I'm not sailing my cat just yet! She's still under construction in my garage. It's a 20ft polynesian styled double canoe built near Sydney Australia... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lHIIsAi3Sf0.html Cheers, Aaron