Watching Hobie Alter and Sheldon Coleman Sr., having a good time, and gleaming with so much pride, was a very satisfying feeling, for everyone who had worked on the Hobie33 project... We are going to back up, a little bit, and give you a little background of the project, so you will be able to see, what great talent went into the design, and fabrication of the Hobie33. Dana Point, is a small town along the Southern Calif. coast between L.A. and San Diego. A lot of firsts in the watersport industry, have roots here. The first mass produced surfboard, was designed and manufactured here by Hobie Alter in the early fifties. The first surf movies, by Bruce Brown, also from Dana Point, followed, and after the release of his movie, The Endless summer, a full blown, world wide surf cult, had emerged. The time was summer of 1968. Hobie had just finished the molds, for a 14ft catamaran. This was followed in 1970, with the introduction of the famous Hobie 16, which would become the most produced boat in history. I can remember seeing a guy named Hoyle Schwitzer, with this funny surfboard with a sail attached to it testing it out down on the beach. This would later become the famous Windsurfer. I can also remember a guy named Clayton Jacobs testing this crazy little boat that you stood up on and rode it like a motorized ski. This would later become the famous Jet Ski.

The Hobie Cat Co. started out as a small company named Coast Catamaran Corp., in Capistrano Beach, California in 1967. This is a small town located next to the city of Dana Point. My adventure with Hobie started in the summer of 1968, working in the metal shop building the first Hobie 14's. Little did any of us know that the events in years to follow would lead to the Hobie 16 as being called the "most produced boat in history" by Showboat Magazine. (Year 2000 Chronology of Yachting Events). Coast Catamaran Corp. was purchased by Coleman Co., the lantern and equipment company, in the early 70's and was renamed Hobie Cat Company. At this time, Hobie Cat was producing 15 - 20 Hobie Cats a day. In a couple of years to follow, Hobie Cat would be producing 35 - 40 boats a day, year round. Coleman Co. was run by Sheldon Coleman Sr. at the time. He and Hobie got together and came up with a concept for a trailerable 33 foot, one design racing sailboat. This would become the Hobie 33. Hobie was left alone to design the new boat and assembled a crew to develop it. Sheldon had to go earn the money for us to play with! The innovative construction techniques used in the Hobie 14's would become standard building techniques for probably 3/4 of all fiberglass composite boats built today, 34 years later.

This is Hobie's great contribution to the marine industry, the sandwich, or cored construction method. This is what allowed Hobie to design and produce lightweight and fast sailboats such as the Hobie Cats and the Hobie 33. Hobie also designed new construction methods for building the complete floor structure system which would also become the standard and recognized way of building structural components in boat building today.

The beginning of the Hobie33 project was pretty exciting. We started with a Santa Cruz 27 called "Redline" and sailed it for about five or six months, entering races and just getting the feel of the life of a monohull sailor. Hobie Cat ,being the largest catamaran builder in the world,needed a little bit of input from the monohull world. From the Detroit area Lewie Wake,and his cousin John Wake, were hired, to give Hobie Cat, input from the yacht racing world.

After Hobie had sailed 'Redline' for awhile, it was time to start the first prototype boat. This boat was to have a flush deck,with a cockpit, and a long fore and aft box that the mast was stepped to.This will give you a good perspective of how Hobie designs things.This long box on the deck with the mast stepped to it went all the way through the boat.This was so that we could move the keel, and the mast both fore and aft to experiment with the balance and trim of different hull shapes .I can remember bringing the prototype boat back to the shop,and adding more here and taking a little off there,then returning to the harbor two or three days later with a new hull shape to test...this drove the bean counters crazy!

This prototype would be known as the "Gray Boat ",and before we cut it up it would win every race it entered.This boat was a great test platform for Hobie to develop the hull design that would make the Hobie33, twenty years later, still one of the fastest boats on the circuit. After Hobie hit on the perfect combination of hull design,it was time to start the hull plug and mold for the production boats. This would make the bean counters very,very happy .I have to take the time now and then to mention the people that made up the R&D crew, that helped Hobie develop the Hobie33.First of all Phil Edwards,who is probably Hobie's closest friend on earth,was responsible for shaping the foil sections for the rudder and keel.Phil was actually the first famous surfer and the first person to ever ride the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii.Phil also designed the Hobie 18 along with the Hobie skiff.Bud Platten,an incredible engineer,assisted Phil with the development of the Hobie 18,also worked on the H-33 R&D team.

To give you an example of Buds dedication to engineering,he had built a racing ten speed bicycle. Some of the parts were titanium,and he would build four or five parts and then choose the best one to race with.This would make the bean counters absolutely nuts! In the engineering department,the great Vince Bartalone,who is responsible for designing a line of cruising catamarans,known as CSK catamarans. Henry Arce who was from the aerospace industry,and George Clayton,a great composite engineer,Eric Witte, who owns the Hobie33 known as "Crash" on the east coast,and Bill Brice,who was our master machinist. I got to run the plug and mold making crew,which consisted of the hottest tooling guys that we could get our hands on.And there was Sheldon Coleman Sr. back in gods country Whichita,Kansas making money for us to play with. This drove the bean counters over the edge!!!

To be continued.....