Description
The Hobie 12 Mono-Cat (officially the Hobie One-12) is a rare and short-lived 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m) single-hull beach cat designed by Hobie Alter and Phil Edwards in 1981 as an experimental “missing link” between the Sunfish and the Hobie 14. Only about 200 were built between 1982 and 1985 before Hobie quietly discontinued it.
Built from the same tough rotomolded polyethylene as the Hobie 16 hulls, it weighs just 135 lbs and features a fully battened 85 sq ft mainsail on an unstayed, two-piece aluminum mast, a kick-up rudder, and a small retractable daggerboard. The cockpit is open and wet, with hiking straps and a single mainsheet led to a swivel cam cleat on the aft deck—pure Hobie simplicity. In typical Hobie fashion it is insanely quick for its size: planes upwind in 10 knots, screams off the wind, and is stable enough that a 10-year-old can sail it confidently.
Despite glowing magazine reviews, the Mono-Cat never found a big market—it was faster and more exciting than a Sunfish but slower and wetter than a Hobie 14, so it fell between stools. Today the few surviving examples (mostly in California and Florida) are cult favorites that still embarrass modern dinghies at stoplight races.
