The Hilu

outrigger An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts ...

is a personal size, beach launched sports boat in the sailing canoe style. Hilu was AMF's production version of a boat variety more commonly found in designs hand built by outrigger aficionados. Hilu utilizes

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

pontoons and carries a single polyester

lateen A lateen (from French ''latine'', meaning "Latin") or latin-rig is a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore-and-aft direction. The settee can be considered to be an associated type of the same ...

sail mounted to an un- stayed

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

mast. Unlike most of the sailboats in their catalog, the Hilu was commissioned by and expressly designed for AMF. ''Hilu'' is the Hawaiian name for the Black Striped

Wrasse The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into 9 subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, most of them le ...

, a species of reef fish, apparently alluding to the Polynesian heritage of the sailing canoe. This added yet another species to AMF's creel of sailboats named for oceanic wildlife. Disambiguation Note: After AMF acquired Alcort, Inc. in 1969 they named their sailboat product line the "Alcort Division", spring boarding off the strong name recognition Alcort, Inc. had built up over its twenty-four year history developing and marketing beach boats.

Characteristics

The Hilu is a tacking outrigger. The hulls are of unequal length and

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

, the mast is stepped in the larger of the two pontoon hulls. The Hilu is sometimes mistaken for a catamaran or a

proa Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the ...

, however it is neither. A catamaran has two identical hulls, a

shunts rather than tacking and jibing to come about. Hilu tacks and jibes as a normal sailboat, it has permanent fore and aft ends rather than a permanent

windward Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

and leeward side, and it does not " shunt" to come about so is more akin to the Malibu Outrigger of the 1950s. Due to the asymmetric sailing behavior, Hilu is not quite as easy for the novice sailor to master as some of AMF's other beach boats.

History

To create the Hilu, AMF commissioned an industrial design/commercial art group in Farmington, CT who had no prior experience with boat design. Upon its debut, experienced sailors were not impressed by the way the Hilu sailed. Hilu never received the same level of acceptance by the sailing public as other AMF boats, particularly the Sunfish. This may have been due to its design not being quite so novice friendly, it may have been the experimental nature of AMF's attempt to bring something different to the commercial side of beach boating. With demand falling far below the popularity of its AMF cousins, the Hilu lasted only a few years in the market place.AMF Hilu Blog http://www.rvharvey.com/hilu.htm

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20100722150720/http://backbayboatworks.com/outrunner.php - Similar boat available today * http://www.tacking-outrigger.com/ninja_pro2.html - Similar boat available today * http://www.signaldesign.net/different22.html - Similar boat available today Multihulls 1970s sailboat type designs