Have any of you H-18 sailors ever weighed your boat?



As a relatively new H-18 owner, I was incredulous at how cumbersome it was to maneuver this boat on shore. With a bit of sweat I could lug my old P-19 up and down the beach myself. But the Hobie is a tank.



Obsessed, I secured two bathroom scales and put one under each hull. I then pulled all the gear out of my sailbox(sails, dagger boards, boom, etc) and put it on the tramp. I then added up the weights shown on each scale - 475lbs!



I would be interested in hearing from other H-18 owners as to their actual boat weight.



Thanks!

I had a 97 Hobie 18 and I weighed it with bath room scales and it was 400 lbs with sails and rigging. I think the older boats were a lot heaver when resin was cheeper.

pre '83 boats are much heavier. My 81 is darn near impossible to move around on the beach (takes three to four guys just to drag it without beach wheels)

I'd guesstimate my '79 to be in the 425-450 range from the way it feels dragging it around compared to the other boats in our Fleet. Add that to my crew-weight of 350 - 400+ pounds...

I understand that your boat and rig my in fact weigh as much as you say.



But I was under the impression that this method of simple addition of the two scales in parallel is not altogether accurate.



then again,I could be FOS

Well, if the boat is only touching the scales, then a simple addition of the two will give you total weight. But if any of the boat, or extensions, are touching the ground, reaction distribution gets harder to calculate without knowing the CG of the boat.



Shannon Galway

P19MX

I had a 81 18'. It weighed 445. Then I added wings. My 6.0 mystere weighs 380. The two scales is a accurate way to weigh the boat. We used this method at hobie division races. .



Mike

Check to make sure you don’t have any water in the hulls. The bulkheads get block and can hold back the water . While the boat is on the wheels listen for water. My 18 is the oldest on the beach, I try to keep it dry, dry is light. The good news is the 18 are bullet proof compared to my H-20, which is much lighter and very fragile.

Good Sailing

Jon

While the 20's have bulkheads the 18's do not.



Have Fun

Mike

I guess that’s why the glass is so thick, maybe sand is in there (wet sand). The boat should not weight that much. No block, no partitions, one clean shot bow to stern. Thanks for the info.

I have never weighed my 83 hobie 18. But I race against a guy with a prindle 18. he eats me up in light wind. I was told by Gray Overstreet from mississippi that there is a big weight difference between a hobie 18 & a prindle 18. anybody have any info on this????

[color:red]I understand that your boat and rig my in fact weigh as much as you say. But I was under the impression that this method of simple addition of the two scales in parallel is not altogether accurate. then again,I could be FOS



Do the math... better yet draw a free body diagram. Think of it this way...



Place 2 scales side by side, stand on one and it reads your weight. Actually it is holding you up by applying an equal but opposite force and your weight is displayed by the needle owing to the the linear relationship of spring deflection to force applied.... now as you transfer your weight from one scale to the other, they BOTH have to hold up your body weight. You weight no more or less, but the scales will read more or less. The sum of the 2 will always be your body weight.

I heard that the very early H18s were actually fairly light. Then the weight went up until about '83, then they started making them lighter.



Mine is a '78. It's never been on a scale.



David Ho

TheMightyHobie18 1067

Good old Gray! How's he doing- Haven't seen him in awhile-

He is correct- the "old" P 18 is I believe ~330 lbs. rigged- Seems like most of the extra 30 lbs. over the 16 is in the mast!

The P 18-2 (centerboard model) is slightly heavier- Maybe ~350 lbs.?? Hobies used to be heavier than the "comparable" Prindle but had much more sail area to compensate for the weight difference (P 18 has ~ same sail area as the H 16 for example) and the H 18 has boards too of course (compared to the "old" P 18).



Kirt

Water Weight, The hulls absorb water from the inside and the bag the factory puts around the floatation blocks can fill with water.



A dealer showed me years ago that your normal TheMightyHobie18 with a little water in the hulls weighs ~440-450 Lbm. If the bag around the floatation blocks in the hulls has water in it the boat can go 500 or so.



Try

making sure it doesn't leak

storing it slightly bow up

Covered

Drain plugs and ports open

My 18 feels like it has a good amount of scrap steel lost inside somewhere! It is a good one, and dry too, but I would be surprised if it were much less than 475 with all of our crap on board. Heck, the dagger boards must be 30 lbs ea. alone!
I think they would be a lot more competitive if there were a downhill component to bouy racing!