Why would someone move the shroud/forestay attachment point?

In the ongoing saga of the hunk of junk I bought, I noticed that the previous owner moved the attachment point for all shrouds, trapezes, and forestay about 8 inches down the mast. Why would they do this? There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the old attachment point. Was this some kind of modification for performance? I measured the shrouds and the forestay, and they're each about 6 inches shorter than the official measurement. It's odd, though, because the swages look original, or at least professionally done.

Has anyone seen this, or know why someone would modify the boat in such a way?

No one has seen this before?

I've seen a lot of un-informed, goofy a$$ed stuff done to Hobies over the years
but never anyone lowering the mast hound

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1984 H16 "Mister Rogers"
1984 H14 "Sundays"
2000 H20 "Jet"
Sheet In, Max Out

That is strange.
Maybe the original shroud / forestay / trapeze mounting point was ripped out and the holes left were too large to re-rivet so it moved down and the original holes filled?

Weird though.

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Hobie 14 Turbo (~1979)
Hobie 16 Carumba (1983)
Hobie 16 1990 (storm damaged)
Hobie 16 1996 (my latest)

I can see it from a racing/performance standpoint. With so much mast rake, lowing the trap wires and shrouds would move them forward overall on the boat, but not by much. I mean really, our hobie masts don't stick straight up, but rather are raked backwards. This explains why you get that feeling when trapped out of something pulling you towards the back of the boat, especially as crew.

When sailing downwind, this would also allow you to push the boom on the mainsail out slightly further, so you can point down slightly further as well.

But honestly, this small change in performance probably isn't much at all, and not worth the hassle of re-doing it. I, like the others on this topic, would still declare this quite abnormal.

I'd probably go with paragon's assumption. It was probably ripped out at some point.

Just two cents,
-Evan

Maybe he accidentally bought Hobie 14 rigging and didn't want to return it?