In my experience, the main issue with the durability of the Viking Marine ports is that they are not bedded properly and have been bolted down to a slightly curved surface. This messes with the fine threads and makes them prone to cross threading... and then your crew starts banging on it until they break the thread ring out of it. This was the case with my infusion.

Also make SURE you are reading the size of the port with the lettering embossed under the lid. a 5" port is the hole size...not the outer diameter of the entire assembly. Might save someone from ordering the wrong ones! (been there, done that)

Was on the water Friday and got this picture.

Have seen these ports on a Wildcat and a New infusion. We are putting them on the Capricorn soon.

Nice photo.

Our viking hatches haven't been cross threaded, they simply failed at the lip from age. Bit done with that game! The Benson hatch is made of thicker material, is a drop in replacement for the stock hatch (from what I've been told), your crew can't cross thread it and I can leave the vaseline at home. Oh, and it is only a quarter turn to open, and I'm pretty convinced ~80% of the time water is only getting in there from rain, considering less than 20% of races are in big breeze or waves.

How's the boat holding up? Manage to get it up to speed on the race course?

Just convinced? You sail mostly in saltwater ,have you tasted the water in the hull? Fresh is rain, salt is leaky boat. Simple really, a gifted mind such as yours has a better way I'm sure, like a salinity tester. Don't forget to get samples from inshore and off at all regatta sites to narrow down your leaky regatta location.

YEA -- Me also ; but i'm making New X-Beams for my
Hobie-21se, and opening up the over-all beam from 9.5'
to 12ft. It means that instead of using a H-16 sized
main & jib in those 30+ winds at Mohave, i'll be able
to go with an 18 sized sail, with more stability !!

The first ones will be made of ply & aluminium ; if i
like it, then the ply & metal get replaced with all
composite with Nomex core. The ply is cheaper to test
the concept.

This is WHY i kept asking how a Shark-class cat was made
but i don't need the info any longer ; since the Shark
community was so tight-lipped with there design-plans,
i simply went with a completely different design instead.

Bille

You need to sail somewhere else.

Bille,
You need to contact some of the old Orlando Hobie 21 sailors. Loyde and Louie made a couple of sets of 12' X-bars for H21. I suspect they are sitting around somewhere unused.

wow. there's a few names from way back...

Yea we fixed our rudder issues and now it's sailing great and running with the other boats here. I'm very pleased with the performance after the retune.

I've got a set of SC20 telescoping beams for sale, and I could give you the specs of the solid beams too.

Dave

Hobie 21's have curved beams. The one Loyde and Louie built had the same curve.They were very nicely done. Anadized black. They were used for one midwinters and I don't know if they were used again. The problem with a 12' wide 21 is that when you get powered up enough to fly a hull the nose wants to dive. I wish I had a video of trip Louie took doing a full 360 around the boat on the wire.

Should i be thinking about moving the Mast-base back a
few inches, (or a foot) to counter that ?

Or maybe racking the Mast Back a few degrees ?

I'm Definitely going to open the beam , to 12' ; and
unlike most other sailing lakes, Wind is usually 25+mph
on a normal day here at Mohave.



Yes -- specs please !!

Bille

As the boat gets wider, more righting leverage is applied to the hulls - you see this effect dramatically on the bow. The wider it gets for a given length, the more pitchpole prone it will be. For a boat to perform well up and downwind (and be survivable to push it), a 2:1 length to beam ratio is a pretty good place to start.

Are you planning on trapping off the wings? If not then I could see the reason for 12' wide.
Might be easier and less expensive to reduce sail area. And reduced sail may translate into more speed in high wind.

Boat was bone dry after 2 days of sailing at Tradewinds, light air. Clearly water will come in through broken port holes.

We use a refractometer for testing salinity and confirm water local with a spectrophotometer. $5K in portable instrumentation to do the same thing as a finger and a tongue

Glad to hear it, we had rudder issues as well since the boat left the Chesapeake. Finally got them nailed with some expert help and it's a world of difference, we can keep up with the fast guys now.

Anyone here got a link or E-mail address for those guys ?
Maybe they would part with those X-Beams ?

I'm Not looking for more speed with this project, as much
as the extra stability associated ; sitting on the hull
of a 12' wide cat is actually less leverage form my body
weight than if i were on the wings. Standing on wings
with my prosthetic(s) , is near Impossible for me. The wings
will stay, but only agile people will use them in ((Light))
winds ; and that doesn't include Me !

Bille

I have a refractometer for testing the salinity in artifacts that I've got in electolysis. paid about $40 for it though.