Hobie Cat, Hobie Cat, where are you bound? Silently streaking over the sound. Your sails standing high, Proudly contrast the sky, It’s not just a boat; I know it can fly!
When she gets up to speed, She’ll sing you a song. But if you’re weak in the knees, You’d best not go along. For there’s always a thrill, And sometimes a spill! Hobie Cat, Hobie Cat – go where you will!
–
The world that we know dwindles down to size on the shoreline behind us. We sail along on the song that is the wind.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the only piece of poetry my father wrote. Whatever possessed him to pick up a pencil and write this, I’ll never know. However, I would bet that it was the result of long hours chatting with one of his sailing buddies until they had it down pat; Followed by him writing it out. I see no errors or erasures, and I know his handwriting well enough to suspect that he simply wrote it out straight through. The last verse – oddly indented – looks like it was written separately, or at least later than the first two verses. I think it’s the better of the three, and I fear it might be a song lyric… but I’m not searching the ‘Net because I like the idea that he wrote it.
In 1977, Bruce Constantine and Rick Hollister took these photographs using a mast-mounted camera on a Hobie 16.
For the photos, the camera is mounted ON the mast. So you’re looking down, along the mast. Interestingly, here they’re stepping the mast on Rick’s Hobie.
This is a shot from another day, but it gives you a better idea of how a Hobie Cat works.
Do you understand? Looking straight down. That guy is standing, horizontally, on the side of the Hobie, to hold the boat flat. So it DOESN’T FLIP OVER.
Ok. Two guys standing on the side.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Smile any wider and the tops of their heads would fall off.
Bruce W Constantine
“‘s cool. Ain’t nothin’.”
Rick Hollister
“Haha! You will never be THIS cool.”
These guys were fast friends from high school, and Rick was a wizard at machining, model making, and miniature domithinguses. Rick built a camera mount for the Hobie Cat mast complete with remote controls.
The Cat in the photo is my dad’s, hull number 7557. Rick had hull number 718, and I’m guessing they used my dad’s Cat because it had tricolor sails; Rick’s 718 was a snappy, all-white. (At the time, these tricolors were the MOST colorful you could get. So my dad named her “Spectrum.”)
First in the world! These guys did this in 1977. Nearly 40 years ago. Bring it Internet; Who did this before ’77?
These Cats — these specific two Cats — were tuned. Noone, and I mean NOONE ever beat them on boat speed. Yes, these guys raced them for realsies. (Hat tip to Jim and “Budda”!) If memory serves, Rick was a better yachtsman, and used to beat my dad on average.
Tuned? We’re talking about: file-shaped rudder trailing edges, tuned battens (i.e. sanded specifically to control how and where they flexed to control the sail shape), altered rigging mast-attachment-height, extended tracks for jib/main sheets, adjustable mast rake. FAST. I was told they once pulled a water skier. From a standstill.
In later years, my dad and I used to go sailing for fun, and other Hobie 16s — Hobies with SIX-digit sail numbers would slide over to say hello. We regularly met Hobie sailors who’d think we had lost numbers from our sail. Anyway. These newbs would slide up on us as we’re farting around. My dad would snicker quietly, and then yell, “Go!” So they’re already up to speed, moving faster than us. We’d flatten out on the trampoline, tweak this, adjust that, and SPECTRUM would smoke. their. NEWBY. ASS*S!
Bonus round: My dad used to say he had a drink with Hobie Alter at a bar. (But now I’m just showing off.)
I need to start writing my memoirs. I think I just might…
