Providenciales Hobie Cat Sailing
Hobie Cats are small, unsinkable catamaran sailboats that are easy to sail. Many hotels 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 mainsail, 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.
Locations
Grace Bay is an ideal sailing location and is the primary place Hobie Cats are used in the country, as most of the main resorts are located on this section of the coastline.
On the south-eastern side of the island at Long Bay Beach, two boutique properties, H2O Resort and , have a limited number of boats. Long Bay typically offers great conditions due to being on the windward side of the island. At very low tides, the depths close to the beach can be too shallow for the rudders to be completely deployed, yet this isn't a significant concern.
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.
Local Businesses
