"For us, it's like saying goodbye to an old friend forever." With these words in an official announcement from Hobie USA, the Americans are sending two of their former flagships into retirement.
According to the Group's management, the production of 17s and 18s is no longer economically viable. For most catamaran fans, the end of the two boats comes as no surprise: with the Hobie FX-one and Hobie Tiger models, which have been on the market for several years, their replacement has long been established. As a one-man boat class, the FX-one is the unofficial successor to the 17 and the Tiger to the 18.
The company management also points out that the Hobie Wave (a type manufactured using a rotational moulding process instead of GRP laminate), which is hardly known in Europe, is the replacement in the leisure sector.
The Hobie 18 in particular made history in the cat world, as it was long regarded as one of the most powerful boats of its kind and was the first step into the world of 18-foot cats for a large proportion of older cat sailors. With sensational film and photo shoots against a Caribbean backdrop for the time, it laid the foundation for the cat boom, also in Europe.
The streamlining of Hobie's product range also marks the progressive change in the company's history, namely the departure from the original centreboardless cat concept. While the 18 was still partly available without centreboards, the two successors have centreboards. Both the Hobie Tiger and the FX-one are also state-of-the-art high-performance models with a gennaker.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
