Hobart Alter
Hobart Age (nickname: Hobie ) ( born October 31, 1933, Ontario, California, † March 29, 2014 in Palm Desert, California ) was an American surfboard manufacturers and yacht designer.
Curriculum vitae
Growing up in California began age in 1950, the surfboards used by him in the garage of his parents' summer house in Laguna Beach, California from balsa wood to build themselves. In 1954, he opened with a starting capital of $ 12,000 the first surf shop under the name Hobie Surfboards.
At age companies met other talented surfboard manufacturers such as Phil Edwards and Reynolds Yater. After plastic foams and fiberglass came on the market, he hired the shaper Joe Quigg from Hawaii, Ralph Parker and Terry Martin, the great experience in the construction of surfboards brought and stood for a revolutionary design. After a long series of experiments and testing, the company achieved in 1958 a breakthrough in terms of agility and strength of the surfboards. The new boards had names like Speedo Sponges and Flexi -Fliers and sold, not least because of their designs with weekly 250 pieces very well. Economic success was accompanied by the sporting success of his age and Hobie Competition Team.
Together with four friends rose age in 1966 in the boat building one. In 1966, constructed the world's first age beach catamaran Hobie Cat 14 ( the 14 stands for the boat length of 14 feet) and built in 1968 the prototype of the plastics known to him. Yet his great experience he benefited with the surfboard production. The asymmetric ( banana-shaped ) hulls were constructed without a sword, but with an automatic steering, fold in ground or beach touch. In a Fock been omitted. This makes handling the catamaran in the water and on the beach is very good, the whole construction is very robust.
The re-design Hobie 14 was a success from the start. Wayne Schafer organized in the very first year of sales in a regatta in Newport Beach. The resonance in the press, in particular an article in the U.S. magazine Life under the title The catamaran that can fly, made known to the Hobie 14, his creator Hobart Age and the so-called Hobie Way of Life.
The success motivated age to further developments of the Hobie Cats (see overview). Meanwhile, the Hobie Cats are the world's largest beach catamaran class. However, all attempts to impose a Hobie type for Olympic boat class in sailing. Preference was given the faster tornado.
In 1971, the first Hobie 14 came to Europe. That same year, the U.S. subsidiary shipyard Coast Catamaran France began in French Hyères with the production of Hobie 14 and 16 for the European market.
Sporting successes
The Hobie Competition Team was so successful that it was a particular challenge in the 1960s to beat it. Hobart Age sponsored the successful surfers in the East and West coasts, including Corky Carroll and Gary Propper.