The Hobie Tri Foiler

[RippR101]

I want to see one at 80" w/ 100' masts. I figure that 40'-50' of beam is enough to keep it stable. Maybe give it a little higher stance out of the water so it will clear the tops of swells... then take that sucker out and wreck it going for an all out world speed record. You would have to shoot for 70 mph... and hope you hit 60 mph...

[fiddler2u]

I hope to build something like this.

[tonyboysax]

there,s a few u tube vids with the trifoiler in rough conditions-and it handles it quite well and still has good speed

[leggy555]

haha great fun :) i dont see why it would not handle waves any worse than a foiling moth, anyway people how sail fast boats hate waves :P ie; i16. 49er, A Class, moth's,.... not fat things like lasers and 420s

[bobrec3GTI]

Greg Ketterman

[dumon13]

this boat cant sail on a normal sea condition, it would break at the first wave

[1DanielChristensen]

that's insane. why did they stop making it?

[ratatratrratatratr]

It's a "special interest" boat. That and the relatively high price kept sales low - only about 200 were sold over six years. At that volume, it's hard to justify keeping it in production.

[fneuperger]

Used they are $10 to $11k. See the hobicat forum on the company web page. There is a trifoiler section as well as classifieds. 3 or 4 sell every year.

[swedeboy11]

how to you adjust the sail positions?

[MetaView7]

the apparent wind is so far forward, you hardly need to adjust the sail position.

i.e. you sheet in to go downwind !

[ratatratrratatratr]

Physically, there's a mainsheet in the cockpit that's connected to the sail link - the bar that connects the booms.

[robmward]

This boat is for people who love to rig sailboats...

[ratatratrratatratr]

I'm not sure whether that's meant to be a derisive comment or not. Truth is it goes up *really* quickly and easily - about 15 minutes, comparable to rigging a cat. The rig is, um, "unique", though. More like a hang glider than a sailboat.

[pdqsailor]

Say what you want about the video but it was enough to get me to find and buy one. I can now say from first hand experience that the boat is amazing - I have gone 32.5 knots solo and 29.6 with a passenger on board. Dan Ketterman is great to work with at Hobie and his Brother Greg designed the boat. It is one robustly built boat to go that fast and not break apart.

[jeriatric]

The record was broken, I believe, by this trimaran;

Hydroptere. You can Google the name to get a video of the record run. Unbelievable speed for a sail boat of that size.

[jwallis123]

i dont think the hobie ever had the worlds fastest record, just the worlds fastest Production sailboat. Hydroptere isn't production (at least I really dont think so), just a one-off build.

[tauheke]

Yes the video didnt do justice to a great product.

[superchac]

buenisimo el trimaran!!

[Huckaby]

Exciting boat with a sterile video (no offense).  This boat deserves better. :) Windrider Rave hydrofoil sailboats are still available. See my Rave video.

[BryanMorton]

The ad is somewhat like a middle school sex ed movie. Poor marketing might have been the boat's demise.

[ChuckManiac]

LOL! The narrator sounds like a gay marketer during the 70s. Just like those drivers ed video that is like so old, they're showing Model T cars.

[ratatratrratatratr]

Okay, give the video's narration a rest. It's okay. The *music* they used for the videos... well, that's another matter.

[wsdakota]

Where do you get these wonderful toys?

[BryanMorton]

Unfortunately, I think Hobie has discontinued the Tri Foiler.