Providenciales Hobie Cat Sailing

You'll definitely want at least an introduction before taking a Hobie Cat out on your own.

Hobie Cats are small and easy to sail unsinkable catamaran sailboats. Many resorts on Grace Bay offer complimentary Hobie Cat use for guests, and rentals are also available at a few different locations.

The name Hobie Cat comes from the combination of catamaran (two-hulled boat) and the name of the inventor of this small craft: Hobie Alter.

Hobie Cats have two plastic sealed hulls with a trampoline-style deck stretched between them. The usual mast height is about 20 feet (6 m), and the craft has a boomless main sail, which makes for safer sailing for novices. The average resort Hobie Cat can comfortably carry from one to four adults.

If your accommodation doesn’t offer Hobie Cats, a great way to access water sports equipment is to get a day pass at Club Med Resort.

Learn to Sail!

It’s quite easy to learn to sail a Hobie Cat and most beginners can learn the basics in an hour. Some resorts provide instruction free for guests, but it may be necessary to pay for this depending on where arrangements for the sailboat are made.

Because the hull is sealed, it’s not possible to sink a Hobie Cat that’s in proper condition. In the event that the sailboat flips, it can be righted in the water with little difficulty by the passengers.

Hobie Cats are an excellent way to introduce children to sailing, as they’re technically very easy to control and require very little strength to sail under tame conditions.

Above: Hobie Cat sailboats from Club Med Turkoise off of Grace Bay Beach.   Top right:  Top left:  Amanyara Resort Hobie Cat sailing off of Northwest Point, Providenciales.   Bottom right:  Top right:  Sailing off Grace Bay Beach.  

Locations

Grace Bay is an ideal sailing location and is really the only place Hobie Cats are normally used in the country, as most of the main resorts are located on this section of the coastline. Long Bay on Providenciales also offers great conditions, but there are only a few privately owned Hobie Cats in the area.

Resorts and rental businesses usually don’t want the Hobie Cats sailed out of sight for safety reasons, so this often limits sailing to within about a one-mile radius of the launch point.

Although the boats are relatively small, Hobie Cat transport across land to different launch locations isn’t really available.