I should have known better than to buy a Hobie....



But I liked the new design of the Hobie FX-One, I like the advertised weight. I liked the set-up. I had not sailed a Hobie since 1989 when I sold my 1985 Hobie 16, and thought maybe things had changed. (My wife and I were tired of all the cuts and bruises). Since then I purchased 3 Nacra's brand new. Loved them all.



I was promised the FX-One in Mid-May. At the end of May the boat was held up in customs. I didn't get it until early June (had to burn two precious vacation days driving back and forth to the dealer trying not to lose another weekend of sailing season). Then I get home and it's the wrong mast or something is wrong with it. Too long by 8 inches. After many phone calls, E-mails, etc., Hobie finally decides the fastest solution would be for me to cut off the top of the mast and re-install all the head fittings. They Fed-Ex the parts, but guess what? Air Traffic Controller strike in France!. So I probably won't get the parts until next week. By the time I'm done cutting and re-drilling, it will be July. I've missed half of the Wednesday night series, the Chesapeake 100 (one of the main races I planned for the new boat), and I'm paying a BIG loan payment for a boat I haven't sailed yet.



I should have known better...



Steve

Hobie FX-One "Tall Mast"

My friend Jean-Noelle owns a hotel on the Riveria and also a dry cleaning business in France. He says that he is not allowed to fire his incompetent employees and his hotel emplyees who would love to work 80 hour weeks during the season and then take the offseason off to play(sail)?, are not allowed to work more than a certain number of hours per week. (I think its 30). Same goes for professionals. The theory is that if you work more than the allowed amount you are really taking the work away from someone else.



You have experienced the result of the "perfect world" where everybody "deserves" a paycheck regardless of the quality of their work. Viva USA!

Hi again,



I'd like to retract some things I said. I shouldn't have bad-mouthed Hobie. The first posting was out of anger without thinking before I typed (I suspect many of us have done that at least once in our internet lives).

I am still angry, but bacuase it is almost July and I haven't gone cat sailing yet. Though Hobie did make the mistake on the mast length, they have tried to remedy the situation. It's not their fault that the Air Traffic Controller are on strike.



With any luck, I can have Rick White completey remove my initial posting.



Steve

I seem to recall an air traffic controllers strike in this country as well. Of course, in that instance, Ron Raygun fired every last one of them.

So much for collective bargaining in our perfect world

When those people agreed to gainful employment as air traffic controllers, they were informed that the job they were accepting was "critical to our nations infrastructure" and that as such they were prohibited by law from engaging in any kind of organized work stoppage. (If you were waiting on a donated organ, would you like to die over .59/hour/)



Each and every one of them accepted the terms of employment, knowing full such issues as pay, vacations, work conditions. I take no position on how good, bad or awfull those conditions were. The relevant point is, they chose to accept them.



At some subsequent time, they decided, en masse, that they wished to retroactively re-write their contracts.



In business, we call this "Breach of contract" and we get a judge to enforce the original contract or award damages apropriate to the nature of the breach.



They abrogated their agreement. Ol' B'movie-dude warned them. Issued ultimatums. Then excercised America's options under the agreement signed by all parties.



The courts eventually held that the agreement provided for their dismissal.



Too bad they listened to "organizers" in our perfect world.



Just my $.03



Ed Norris

Give E'm hell Ed,I'm with you!

A guy down here is still waiting for his FX-1.

They told him it had to go to California first,..then get shipped out to St. Croix. Speaking of shipping,..they quoted him a whopping $1400 USD for shipping.

I believe Performance Cat ship to the Virgin Islands complete from California for $600USD



Bruce

St. Croix



ps...I am not going to tell him about the mast thing,....

Touche! Good Points!

I would continue to disagree, however, with the notion that all aspects of the European/Canadian systems are without merit and that "organizers" have failed to provide substantial gains for American's standard of living.

Steve,

My suggestion is to get all the measurements for the mast. Like distance from the foot to the spreaders, hounds, diamond wire tangs, etc. I'd also find out the weight of the rigged mast. It might even be the right extrusion. This may not be a FX-1 mast. I can't imagine how any company with any QC at all could assemble a mast that was 8" too long. It would be easier to fix the problem now and get the right mast now than later.



Take care, I'd be ticked too if a company wasted that much of my presious free time with stupid mistakes.

Hi,



I got all the measurements from the dealer who has an FX-One at his facility. All were taken from a common point (the base of the extrusion). Everything, including the extrsusion shape (and weight?) seems correct. It's just the last 8 inches. Luckily, this is the easiest place to make the repair. I might actually get the parts today, as the package escaped Europe and is in the states and has cleared customs.



In general, it appears the boat has good (possibly excellent) Quality Control. At least compared to other cats I've owned so far. However, this mistake does seem weird. Maybe they are supplied at specified lengths from an outside aluminum vendor? Since all measurements are taken from the base, the mast rigger at Hobie placed everything correctly. Since the head piece is attached directly to the head, there is no measurement. That might explain it. I gave them the serial number. I hope that I may have prevented this in other FX-One's, because I really believe this boat has a great future for single-handed sailors like me.



Thanks !



Steve

it happens. things slip through. when was the last time you heard of ford recalling thousands (THOUSANDS) of cars over important things?

i recieved 5 mast sections from a local builder that turned out to be two feet too long. just a small miscommunication between shops.:)

OK...now we know they are hard to get, but has anyone sailed one? I am curious as I am on the big side for a I-17 and wondered if this boat would be a good fit. Not selling the 6.0, but it would be nice to have a backup for days without crew.

Steve,



1. you say the dealer has a FX-1 on site,..........well, take that mast until the correct one shows up!



2. I would not touch that mast with a saw,..this is not your job,......you paid for a complete boat,..not a kit boat.



3. Will cutting the mast effect the warrantee?





.....let the dealer handle it,...they get paid for this stuff.



Bruce



St. Croix

Couldn't agree with you more, there. Before unions came along, the plight of the working person was atrocious.



The greedy excesses, hell, amoral abuses, of the industrialists created the labor movement. People were shot for gathering to demonstrate for better pay - - shot by American police. Ever hear of the "riot act"? It was a law that basically labeled any demonstration as being a riot, and permitted the local police to use deadly force to disperse it. Such force was used within a very few days after the law's ennactment; most historians agree the riot act was created to save a single factory from an ongoing or impending strike. The Riot act was read to the crowd, they were ordered to disburse, then they were fired upon.



Hence the popular saying "I read them the riot act"



Horrible, simply horrible. American peace officers shooting randomly into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators.





I have no beef with collective bargaining - - so long as employer and labor group both have the option of finding an alternative.



Modern labor laws, enacted by certain politicians "lobbied" heavily by labor unions, preclude employers from starting over with new employees, once any unionizing has begun. On the other hand, it's not fair to fire anybody who whispers the word "union" either.



In PATCO's situation, there are no ATC's who are not trained and employed by the employer, except various former workers who have "moved on" for good or bad reasons - Since the government offers to train up employees to fill the demand, there is no large body of alternate workers to establish a "fair market value" for the labor. The employer in this case had good and fair reason to offer work conditional on a promise not to strike.



Speaking as an employer, I don't favor the general, economy-wide adoption of this practice. My solution is to treat my people better than the union guys across town. I'm not getting rich this way, but I sleep nights like a baby, and my people seem to feel okay, too.



Keep one hull up.



Ed Norris

I would like to know how you like the boat once have a chance to sail it. How do you like the new tramp setup without tracks on the hulls?

Hi,

Now might not be the best time to ask me about the boat. I'm still pretty angry. On Saturday I tried to hoist the main and struggled for almost an hour. It was just as hard to get it down. I tried again on Sunday, but it almost killed me. I again called Hobie, who asked me if I had the boat into the wind, and was I following the instruction manual - very insulting to say the least. They also said "it's very difficult at first but it works itself in". What they mean is that you form this big notch into the hoisting hook, which I suspect eventually work hardens the stainless steel and eventually cracks. I re-designed it and have a machine shop re-builiding the hoisting hook-mast headboard for me so it might actually work. But then, what do you expect for $11,000.



If and when I actually do sail this boat, and if I don't have a stroke or heart attack dealing with Hobie, I will give you as many details as you desire...



Steve

Steve,

Just wondering if your struggling with a push up main or does it have a halyard?

The FX1 mast hook setup looks very similar to what some guys have been using on their Paper Tigers over here for the last 4 or 5 years. The FX system just looks a little neater. I'd be interested to know the mods/improvements you have made.



Regards,

Phill



Regards,

Phill

Replace the no-stretch line with line of much lower quality that does stretch but does so elasticly.



With this the trampoline is fine.



Although I would run the bungees, which hold up the board, right underneath the trampoline to the other side. And not just from the front of the board to the eyes in the trampoline and than back the the back of the same board.



Why I found that it is hard to raise the board and lower it when you're standing on the trampoline and thus put extra force on the lines (bungees) which jam the the boards into place.



Wouter

Steve,



Forgive me if I say anything "insulting"



I wouldn't go for the hook and ring option as you might loose precious downhaul boom clearence which you need to get the sail really flat in strong winds. Some sailors even remove the downhaul hooks to get extra downhaul travel length.



I must say that the system needs attention but it does work well when you do it right.



Here is the way I do it (and also have done it many times while on the water on a rocking boat)



Place the sail in the track and make sure that :



-1- the return line of the halyard is inside the masttrack. This one often flips out if you're not carefull.



-2- the halyard figure 8 knot AND the hook and on the same side of the mast.



Point two is very important and often done wrong. It simply won't go in if you do it in any other way as the halyard will wrap around the hook and prevent it from going higher than 3 inches to the masthead.



-3- Hoist the mainsail hook past the masttop. This should be fairly easy when you do point -2-. If not ? Than lower the mainsail and do it again you probably foiled up the hook and knot anyway OR forgot to put the return line of the halyard inside the mast track.



-4- When the hook is past the masthead. Pull on the mastrotator and rotate the mast to the other side than where you hook was when it slid up the mast. Example; If your hook is on the starboard side of the masttrack trhan rotated your mast by pulling the mastrotator to port. Do this while keeping the tension on the halyard preventing the sail from sliding down.



-5- Pull on the downhaul eye when the hook is position right above the hole in the masthead while slowly releasing the halyard. The hook should fall in smoothly. In the beginning it will take a few tries before you got the timing right.





Getting it down.



-1- jank on the halyard to pull the hook out of it's well.



-2- rotated the mast to other side than when you rotate it when you hoisted it. Example when your hook slid up along the mast on the starboard side than rotate your mast to starboard to make sure the hook clears it's well and is free to slide down.



-3- pull on the downhaul eye when keeping the mast rotated. The sail should fall down the first few inches after which you can let go off everything and pull the mast down on your trampoline.





I tend to fit the boom after I've hoisted the mastsail but others do it before they run the sail up the mast. What ever you like best.



Good luck Steve and I can give you some more tricks on setting the rudders and other stuff if you appreciate that.



Wouter

Hi Wouter,



Thanks,

Did all that, EXACTLY as you said. Same steps, same technique. Maybe I'm just getting too old for this sport. A kayak or a jet ski is sounding good about now...



I'll let you know how my-redesigned part works out when I sail tomorrow in the weekly Wednesday eve sail around Robin's Island.



Steve