Tips on how to rig...
When I take my mast down to trailer the boat, I rarely unattach the rigging from the mast or the boat (only at the end of the year). I leave the shrouds and trap wires attached and coil the wires on the tramp, I then jam the trap handles (dogbones/handles) into the dagger board case. To keep the wires on the boat put them under a foot strap, and lash them to it with a bungee.
Before you drop the mast un-tension one of the side stays to the top hole of the chain plate and leave it untill the next time you set up the boat. Leave the other side, as it gives you a referance for what hole the pin needs to go in when you raise the mast the next time.
When you raise the mast attach the forstay in any hole, it wont matter, you will tension it accordingly in the next few steps.
Re-tension the side stay so it is the identical to the other side.
Take one of your 4 trap wires and head to the front of the boat put all your weight on the trap handle, you can use a trap harness if you need to. move the forstay as far as you can into the furler and repin in the top hole of the furler. I always use the bottom hole for the jib, to keep it as close to the boat as possible.
I add a short piece of line to one of the trapeze wires, take it forward and while pulling it taut, I use my thumb to "mark" the line where it touches the pin that holds the bridle to the bow tang.
Then, while holding the "mark" I made I walk it to the back and once again, while pulling it taut, I touch it to the outer curve of the deck where it rolles over to the lip, behind the rear cross bar and on the outside of the boat. This gives a refrence that is the same for all hobie 18's no matter what the shroud lengths are.
A medium air starting setting should be about 4 to 6 inches behind the back of the rear crossbar. Further forward for lighter wind or heaver crew, and further back for more wind or lighter crew.
Raking it further forward will reduce your pointing ability, but give you superior performance downwind.
Raking it further back will improve your pointing ability but reduce your downwind performance.
Adjust the shrouds accordingly and keep them fairly tight, the 18 is not a sloppy boat like the 17 or 16.
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Bill 404 21 SE