Hobie Cat

I have been sailing Hobie Cats for a few years now since joining a sailing  club at Jericho Beach.  They are fast and a lot of fun to sail. You usually get wet even if the waves are small.  We have two in our club, a 16 foot (above) and the original Hobie 14 (below).  The smaller one has only one main sail, and is made to sail alone. It's not as heavy when putting in and hauling out of the water on a dolly to and from the boat yard.  The 16 has a main sail and a jib and is usually sailed by two people.  Although you can trapeze (standing over the water on a raised pontoon held by a wire from a waist harness to a point high up the mast) on both of them, I have not yet learned how to do that.  

  

 

Hobart "Hobie" Alter was the pioneering designer of small catamarans who mastered new boatbuilding technology of synthetic materials. He started out as a young surfer and shaper of wooden surfboards in Southern California in the late 50s.  He moved on to catamarans,  and wanted to design one which would be much lighter and able to be launched from the beach by one person.  To keep the boat light, Alter used foam-fibreglass sandwich construction (a process he pioneered with surfboards), a trampoline for the deck and asymmetrical hulls - flat on the inboard side and curved on the outboard side - in place of centreboards to reduce lee-way. The asymmetrical concept originated in Micronesia and was used by Hawaiian catamaran designers of larger catamarans.  The Hobie 14 was introduced in 1969, weighed 215 pounds with a single 115 square foot fully battened sail and it revolutionized small boat sailing.   

In 1971, Alter produced the Hobie 16, a two person asymmetrical hulled, sloop rigged catamaran that became even more popular than the 14.  With more than 140 000 boats built,  it is the most popular small catamaran for recreational and racing purposes.  You see them at beaches where people sail, all over the world.  It weighs 320 pounds.  Both jib and main sails are fully battened  for a total of 218 sq feet.  As with the 14, it is intended to be sailed from the beach through surf, and to be surfed back in on the waves to the beach.  A trapeze is often used by the crew and helmsman.  Several other models were introduced over the following decades, an 18 with dagger boards, a 17  foot and a 20 foot catamaran. 

The early days of a Hobie 14. 

trapeze sailing

 

A Hobie Wild Cat, the newest high performance racing machine.

A trademark of Hobie Cats that I love are the  multiple colours of the spectrum on their battened sails, with a huge variety of colours from older to newer models.  Most of the Hobie Cats at the Jericho Sailing centre are the classic Hobie 16s.  There are also several 18 footers as well as a few  newer models that I am less familiar with. 

Went out one time and forgot to put the plugs in the back of the pontoons!  Had to get 
towed back by the Jericho Sailing Centre's zodiac.  "You'll never forget to put those
 plugs in again" they laughed  as I crawled into their  boat. 

A newer, easier  boat to sail called a Hobie Cat Wave with molded plastic
hulls.  It was designed for beach resorts.  I have sailed them at  
a beach resort hotel in Cancun. 

 

Discovery Sailing Club's recent aquisition, a Hobie 18  refurbished 
by a friend of mine who sold it to us.  I baptized it with the name
"Banana Split".

  

A regatta of Hobie 14s in Australia.

Amazing custom sails  on  boats down in Florida.  

I was on a sailing trip in the Ionian islands of Greece when we came into the town and bay
of Vassiliki, the home of Joe, of Joyrider TV, the famous you tuber of Hobie cat sailing. 

Hobie 16s racing in the UK.

Indigenous Australian Art

Over the years,  my work layovers in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have enabled me to see a lot of Aboriginal Australian art in museums and galleries.   I am always impressed by the diversity of paintings and mediums used by these artists and the differences from region to region in the vast nation that is Australia.  This variety ranges  from dot paintings on canvas with acrylic paint to natural pigment on bark, stone and wood carvings and basket weaving  as well as more modern expressions of art such as installations, video and digital renderings. 

 

The majority of paintings, both traditional and new,  have  a palette of browns, ochre, red, orange and yellow.  Not surprisingly, these are the dominant colours of the soil in the desert and bush of the outback as well as the prominent  red orange sun, a noticeable part of Australian skies and landscapes.

As you can see, many of the  paintings seem to be completely abstract.  However, artists are often depicting the "dreamtime",  the story of Aboriginal spirituality and existence. They are shown from an aerial perspective. The narrative follows the lie of the land, as created by ancestral beings in their journey or during creation. The modern day rendition is a reinterpretation of songs, ceremonies, rock art, body art and ceremonies  that was the norm for many thousands of years. 

this piece was a sort of metal etching

Then there are paintings which have the stories of people or animals with in them.  They also reflect some mythologies and stories of ancestors or of daily life. 

This piece, the artist Tony Albert contrasts the strength and dignity implied by the word
"hunter" with a debased view of Aboriginal people and culture as represented by the kitsch 
and 'camp' tourist souvenir-ware featuring 'portrait' heads.

This painting is essentially done with fingers,
as would be done on someone's body.