Woes Hoisting the Mast!

What is the proper way to hoist the H18 mast? I'm new to Hobies, and I purchased an 18 two weeks ago and took it out today (well, I tried to) for the first time. I rigged the boat prior to purchase with the former owner, and he attached the trapeze wire (from one side only) to the hook on the trailer winch and raised the mast with the winch with me guiding the mast up from the rear. However, when I attempted this maneuver today, the trapeze wire broke from the strain. I suspect this is because the guy on the winch put tension on the winch line before I had manually raised the mast from behind.

I cut the broken trapeze wire off and tried again with the other trap wire, this time lifting the mast before pulling on the winch line. This worked fine until about 30 degrees from horizontal, then the strong crosswind pushed the mast to starboard which unfortunately broke the mast base plate. End of day

What did I do wrong?! Should I use the trapeze harness wire attached to the winch line to raise the mast, or maybe the larger forward stay (?) associated with the jib? Should the boat be head to wind on the trailer when raising the mast in heavy air?

Thanks for your help!

Two people, one at top of mast one near the base. move mast & position base & connect pin. person in back lifts to above his head. person on tramp lifts mast to vertical. person who was in back moves to front & pins forstay or bridle wires.

I have a EZ step but never use it because I can't seem to get it to go up without wanting to go sideways breaking the mast hinge base.

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1989 Hobie 18 Worlds Boat, Magnum Wings & Spinnaker
1987 Hobie Holder 20 #273

dale.vanlopik"at"att"dot"net

It will take some practice before you develop a technique to raise the mast of your HC-18 comfortably. You may break a few more mast bases so purchase spares.

You can man-handle a HC-18 mast up with two people. Once the mast is moved into position and the hinge pin is connected at the base, you should position one person at the head of the mast and one on the trampoline next to the back cross bar. The person at the head of the mast should lift it above his head and begin to walk toward the back of the boat supporting mast (hand-over-hand), until the person on the trampoline can get the mast up to his shoulder. The person on the trampoline can walk the mast up to vertical. (If he needs help the second person should climb on the trampoline to help raise the mast to vertical. Once the mast is in the vertical position lean your weight against the mast to hold it in place. The second person can now let go of the mast and attach the forestay to the top of the stay adjuster which extends from the roller furler assembly. Remove the mast step pin only after the forestay has been secured

I normally use the trailer winch to assist lifting the mast:
To assist in this procedure I have mounted a pulley near the top of my forward mast support on my trailer above the winch. I run the winch line through the pulley and attach it to the forestay using a spare dog-bone. Then I attach the trapeze lines (both sets) to the forward cross bar (out near the hull) on both sides of the mast using a 1â€

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John Latimer
'79 Hobie18 - Magnum
Sail#4854

Holy crap thats a lot of info, unfortunately not helpful to a guy that wishes to raise his mast by the winch. First off, do you have a pulley at the top off the mast stand to get leverage over the mast? Secondly, are your side stays really slack? I raise my mast everytime with the winch and have never broken a base. I like to run my rig tight so my sidestays are 3 holes or so from the bottom, I must use the boom and blocks to tighten it down. I always leave one side adjusted tight and loosen the other side 2 holes or so and reattach, the mast can't move far. I intially used the forestay to raise the mast but found it difficult to disconnect the winch and connect the forestay to the furler. I now raise the mast with the main halyard, mine is dyneema cored so its very strong. The mast must be manually lifted until the angle is right for the winch to continue the lift, in most case raised overhead while standing behind the rear crossbar. I have the crew simply keep the mast centered while I raise it, they don't need to lift just hold it steady. Get it up, attach the forestay, release the halyard and its done.

What I did was make my forward trailer mast support telescopic. That way when I attach the winch cable to the fore stay the pulley at the top of the forward mast support is way above the level of the mast hinge (base) This allows me to raise the mast with the winch no problem at all. Like a previous poster I attach the trap wires to the front cross piece to stop the mast from moving sideways. I just made extensions to to the trap wires out of the same wire material and clip both ends to the dog bone while wrapping the wire extension around the forward wind hinge bolt. It works great and its no problem. If only I could remember to always put the mast hinge pin in

i have a different system...

get the mast in place (with hinge and pin in) and then me and crew get on the tramp. we both muscle up the mast (as shown in the owners manual) and then i jump off and put a quick pin in the furler. Just dont lift by the diamond wires....

I use a quick pin for fast pinning but also use a shackle to really secure it.

when i dont have crew and no one on the beach to ask for help i use my e-z step. It was the BIGGEST pain to adjust and get to work but i now have it dialed in and it works fine.

Just my 2c worth, and to add to the above experienced gang.

1. Pin the base of the mast.
2. Attach the shrouds, yes, one side a bit looser maybe by 2 holes.
3. Make sure there are no overhead electrical wires around.
4. Attach the forestay to the bridles and drop the clevis pins into the bow tang holes, ready to pop out and attach, once the mast is raised. (That is, the bridles are unpinned from the inside front of the hulls, but ready to be pinned when the mast is raised. We find it easier to pin these than to attach the forestay to the roller furler. When we de-rig at season end, that's how we take them down, and we store the rolled up jib with the forestay and bridles on the mast, inside the club house. Different, I guess, if one is trailering.)
5. Raise the mast, using EZ or hand-over-hand, to vertical. We use a combination of hand-over-hand AND a 40 foot length of line attached to the halyard hook end of the main halyard, with one person on each trapeze wire to keep the mast centered. But then we are a cooperative club, and we have lots of spare bodies around to help.
6. If few bodies are around, or you don't want to ask strangers for help, then try tilting the H18 forward, like by dropping the tongue of the trailer. Don't forget to secure the trailer so it won't tilt backwards. With the H18 tilted forward like this, once the mast is raised, it won't go anywhere, (except to lean forward,) and you can then get off the tramp and pin the bridle wires.
7. Double check and tape all clevis pins and ring dings.
8. Rig, sail and have fun.

Hope this helps.

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2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

I just did it for the first time (solo too)

1. pinned mast base
2. attached shrouds to mast and boat
3. attached traps to mast and lashed to foreward crossbeam
4. used EZ step and the trailer winch
5. attached bow bridles
6. remove pin in mast base, unlash trap wires and clip them to the bungies, andremove the EZ step. That takes 2 minutes.

So far so good! It was fast enough I might do that even with help around.

Dan

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Dan St. Gean
'82 H 18
'96 H Wave

Hey, I'm a newbie in general to the hobie world and for that matter my hobie h18. I also wanted to be able to raise my mast single handedly, safely, and all before i knew this forum existed. So i just went to the hobie catalog and ordered one of their "Mast stepping" kits and went forward with a small modification on my trailer. Now i do it all the time by my self and with a few small tweaks it works very well for me now. Good luck

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Wes
92 Miracle 20 + magnum wings

The mast can be raised by hand either with one (strong) or two people. This is the easiest method, as you don't get into using winches and trap wires, etc. One person goes to the tip of the mast and lifts to help get the person on the tramp get started. The person at the tip of the mast can then jump on the tramp too and both people raise the mast, or just the one person on the tramp if he is strong enough. Once the mast is raised, the one person jumps down and pins the forestay.

However, I assume that since you said hoist, you mean to raise the mast using a winch. You basically did it right, however you are correct, the mast must be initiallly raised a little before you start winching, otherwise the load on the winch cable gets very high. Also, you should not be breaking mast base hinges. I've sailed 18's for over 20 years and have never broken the hinge. The person on the tramp has to make sure they keep the mast in line. If it is windy out, make sure the boat is pointed so that the wind is either directly ahead or directly astern.

sm

i solo my 18 mast most of the time i sail. i use an electric winch with a remote cable. and i can run it from the tramp as i guide the mast up. i do use the forestay cable with a clevis and then pin it as far into the furler as i can then i reattqch the clevis to the bottom protrudeing part of the adj bar and use a small ratchet tie down to pull the forstay tight into the its running position.

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paul
1981 Hobie 18 "Knot A Clew" sail #5445

My son and I got the mast up on the new (to us) 1978 H18 w/CompTip. Problem was, the hing pin wouldn't budge after it went up. Well, now what? The mast is up, and the pin won't come out. Winds were light, so we sailed over to the doc anyway. Boat's up on its new bunks overhanging the water. Bottom line, it's a necessary evil that I learn how to drop and re-step the mast in it's new home, but I'd like to postpone that for a little longer. I don't want to sail in heavy wind with the mast hinge pin stuck like that.

Ideas?

Cheers,
Peter

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Peter DiPrete
'78 Hobie 18

So, I talked to Andy at Wind Toys, and he suggested tapping the hinge pin out, which I did with a punch and a small ballpeen hammer. The pin is definitely bent, but it came out.

The curvature suggests the ball is higher than it "should be", as the hole in the step and the mast hinge are off by ~ half a diameter.

He suggested using a small-ish phillips head screw driver as the hinge pin in the future. I think I will, but it will have to be really strong, considering it will have to be half the current diameter.

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Peter DiPrete
'78 Hobie 18

I know that mast stepping has been discussed ad nauseum but man that is 4 or 5 minutes of sheer terror! That mast has such a long moment and weighs so much and the hinge is so flimsy (my sailbox came complete with 2 broken ones in it) that if it came crashing down it could really hurt someone not to mention the damage it would do to the boat or a nearby car. (Imagine the note you'd have to leave on the windshield?)

It's probably easier with the boat on the ground but we have to trailer in and out. SO:

I replaced the pin with a U shaped clevis and rigged a cable to the Cheetah so the person working the winch won't have to eat it if it breaks during the process. Then I ran some ropes around the mast above the spreader on each side and and hooked them to the the jib sheets (fully forward). We prop up the the back of the mast at the crossbar and lower the tongue of the trailer so the mast starts at about 30 degrees. Then I literally step the mast up. I put a little slack into the jib lines and then winch until the are in tension. Repeat until done. It works but it's time consuming and nerve racking. There's got to be a better way.

The EZ-Step looks (on paper) to be the right idea but I've not read great things. The Idea is to create two points near the sides of the boat that share the same axis as the hinge. attach the trap lines there and let the whole thing rotate into place. The gin pole means you have to winch in more line to get the same result therefore less strain on the line and it redirects the forces so they're a little safer. Theoretically there shouldn't be any load at all on the side lines but in a in a gusty swirling 20 mph wind all bets are off.

What about a three point harness that attached at the outer wing posts and the bridal chain plates. Cables to the top and bottom of a 6"pvc gin post that sits over the gooseneck. Slide a bolt through the gooseneck so it stays in place. Connect all the cables and the rear trap wires to a welded ring on each side. Use the front trap wires to winch and make the pole the right height so that the clevis connecting the front trap wires to the winch is on top of the pole.

Does anyone think this would work? Are the wing posts and chain plates strong enough or would I be putting my boat at risk? Any engineers out there?