The first Hobie Pearl in the UK
by Hazel Beard, Hobie Cat Centre 30 Apr 2009 11:21 BST
The first Hobie Pearl was commissioned this week in the UK and Jeremy Evans from Yachts and Yachting came to try it out so look out for his forthcoming review. The staff at the Hobie Cat Centre have had great fun trying it out and have been happy to discover that the Pearl is a fantastic boat which has surpassed even our high expectations.
The boat has been designed to be easy, convenient and comfortable to use so you can enjoy the pleasure of sailing without some of the usual pitfalls. It has the most user friendly gennaker system that we have ever come across, the 17m2 gennaker furls and unfurls quickly and effectively at the front of the boat and even the furling line retracts automatically under the boat, no annoying halyard ropes to get caught round you legs whilst you are trying to cross the boat.
The trampoline seems vast and uncluttered and the top of the hulls are covered with soft neoprene which looks fantastic and is incredibly comfortable and of course provides great grip. The boat has plenty of buoyancy and space to happily accommodate 4 adults without becoming sluggish or feeling crowded.
The boat has pivoting centre boards which are a great solution for sailing around the UK coastline, the centre boards are easily dropped down when needed by simply releasing a rope and when you want to raise then just pull on the line, they also flip up inside the hull when the boat touches the bottom preventing damage.
Our other favourite feature was the fantastically simple mainsail uphaul which is on a 2:1 pulley and is simply tied off on a cleat to fix in place. This makes rigging and derigging and even on the water reefing easy.
Click here to take a look at the specifications and more photographs.
The Hobie Pearl – what a pleasure to sail. For more details call the Hobie Cat Centre on 01202 671661 or take a look online at www.hobiecatcentre.co.uk.