Halyard Hook Loose

I noticed that the halyard hook on my H16 comptip mast is loose and can wiggle around.

Does anyone know if the rivets for the hook have any type of internal backing, or is this just riveted directly into the fiberglass? If it has a metal backing inside the mast then I’m not too worried about this, but if the rivets just go into the fiberglass, then I’m concerned the hook could pull out.

sm

Well, I’ll answer my own post…

I ended up pulling off the mast head and confirmed that there is no internal backing for the halyard hook rivets. I’m glad I opened it up, because I think these rivets eventually would have pulled out. I’m amazed that Hobie doesn’t have any backing on those rivets.

When you pull off the mast head, there is a thin fiberglass “plug” glued into the comptip a few inches below the mast head. I was able to pretty easily pry this out using a flat head screwdriver to expose the inside of the halyard hook rivets.

I removed the rivet heads using a combination of 5/16” drill bit and 3” hand grinder to take off the rivet heads and then drive them into the mast with a punch.

Then I installed new rivets with stainless steel washers on the inside of the mast and a liberal coating of silicone caulk. It later occurred to me that instead of rivets, I could have just used #10 stainless machine screws with washers and nyloc nuts. Regardless, the hook seems good and solid now with the washers installed on the rivets.

In place of Hobie’s fiberglass plug, I made new plug using 2” thick rigid insulation foam (Home Depot). I cut it to closely match the inside profile of the comptip, pushed it into the mast a few inches, and then sealed around the edges with silicone. Then I riveted the mast head back on.

sm

Ahem,... you should now post a "thank you" to the original query.

_________________

'89 H14 'Jaws'
'85 H16

Steve:
The original owner of my 2015 H16 installed a spinnaker, and the rivets holding the eye strap near the top of the comp tip have pulled out.
(A loop of dyneema from the eye strap goes down to the spin halyard pulley.)

For the repair, would you recommend #10 S/S machine screws/washers/nylocks?

How difficult is it to remove the casting and plug at the top of the mast?

_________________
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.'

The type of fastener is really going to depend on the amount of access/reach you have inside the mast. I don’t know how far down the spinnaker tang attaches, but if you use screws/nuts, you will need to be able to get a wrench on the nuts. For the halyard hook, its only a couple inches from the too of the mast, so wrench access would not be an issue. A #10 stainless machine screw would be equivalent diameter to the standard 3/16” rivets. Getting some type of backing plate or washer on the fasterners would be preferred to prevent pull out.

The hardest part about getting the head cap off is removing the rivets. Sometimes they want to spin while drilling them out. I found that carefully using a 3” angle grinder to remove the heads works really well on spinners. Then drive the rivet shanks into the mast using a 3/16” straight punch. The plug was easy to remove, I literally just jammed a large flat screwdriver under its edge and pried it out. But yoh will need to come up with some type of replacement plug when re-assembling.

sm

TY, as always, good advice.

BTW, while the spin is 'fun', it is not necessarily faster as we have to sail 'deeper' to make it work well.
So the VMG is more or less neutral.
It is extremely useful, after racing, to get us back into the Club.

cheers

_________________
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.'