Trapeze shock Cord

I am putting a second trap wire on my 16 and wanted to poll you knowledgable folks on the different methods for shock cord placement.

I have seen hobie's with eyes mounted to the hull aft of the shrouds and short shock cord mounted to these eyes and also seen the traditional shock cord under the tramp side to side. I am tending towards mounting to eyes on the hull, but curious if there are any drawbacks I may have missed in this method of setup.

Thoughts?

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1985 Prindle 16

Short cords would not give enough stretch. You need the 7' length, so all the way across is minimum.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thanks Matt

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1985 Prindle 16

Agree 100% with Matt. Without that amount of stretch you are going to be very limited in how much movement you are going to have. Also you will feel the pull as you move around. Not something you are going to want to bother with while helming and handling the mainsheet. Plus, where are you going to put the eyes? I don't like the idea of holes in the sidebars or the hulls.

New boats come with grommets in the tramp, very near the shroud location at the sidebar.

The trap shock cords are strung through those. Makes for less wear on the shock cord vs. running them over a carpeted/neoprene sidebar.

I only run the crew's trap like that and still run the skipper's trap around the sidebar.

Are those grommets reinforced? I haven't seen this yet and I'm interested in doing this mod to my aftermarket mesh tramp. What do you think my chances are? You wouldn't happen to have a pic would you?

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

Look at the way Dave Bell installed his trapeze bungees,that system looks nice...How about some more photos Dave...

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Bill 404 21SE

Like this?


The grommet is not reinforced, although it is installed through the tramp edge reinforcing.

Thanks Mbounds! The picture is very helpful. I will look at mine to see if I can install one in the doubled-over edged tramp material too.

Question: I see that you have one grommet for one bungie cord, but the second is wrapped around the side bar. Why is that? Is there anything keeping you from installing the second grommet? Also, I see you doubled the stop block on the one line, why is that?

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

The driver's trap is around the crossbar to allow it to come back to the driver's position. Otherwise, the shock cord pulls you forward - the direction you least want to go.

Also, in light air, I'm sitting in the front corner with the tiller up against the outside of the shroud. The stock location of the second grommet is behind that, and I just don't don't like how it interferes with my sailing style. Even the one grommet that I have, being a little further inboard, snags my life jacket to the point where it's annoying. Most of the time when I'm racing, I wear a rashie over everything and that helps.

If you weigh over 180, the doubled stopper block prevents a swim from a broken single stopper. Don't ask me how I know this.

Nice, thanks buddy, appreciate the input and the DETAIL.

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

Get rid of the gigantic 1/4" shockcord for 3/16 Solcore. On the new boat I ran the shockcord from one side, forward to the dolphin striker, to the back beam, back up to the dolphin striker then out to the opposite side. There's ~20' of shockcord there to accommodate trapping from the shroud to the rear foot strap with no pull and it has survived a handful of trips to the end of the pole. Downside is it has to come from a fixed position, instead of just straight across like you've got it.

The stopper here is just a donut cut out of UMHW with a hole saw, which does not hold up to the big boy crews apparently, they'll pull the sister clip through the UMHW eventually. I've started making the stopper donut out of aluminum. If that fails I'm not sure what the answer is, I think that's unlikely though. But its light, doesn't snag on things, has a hi/lo, and is ridiculously easy to make.

One major bummer to my typical setup is that the bungies really dig into the nifty neoprene rail kit I just installed. It's a little disheartening to see those dents after I just installed the rubber.

I obviously don't want to ruin the rail kit and will unhook the bungies more often, but other than that or the grommets I don't know what my options are. I did see a rig that takes the lines out to blocks that are installed at the topsides outboard edge, but I don't like the idea of drilling through the hulls like that, and it looks like it could make it awkward to hook up, of course that could be appearance only and might work just fine.

MBOUNDS: You say that one reason for the cutaway of your rail cover is to "encourage" the skipper's rig to return to the skipper's spot, but it looks well forward of where I'd expect that spot to be for the skipper and also it looks parallel with the crew line coming though the grommet. Wot up wit' dat?

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

It's just a "parking spot" for the trap when it's not being used. It usually needs "encouragement" to go there.

Matt,are you using a carpet on your rails?Do you prefer that over the neoprene?Better grip and longer lasting?I still like Dave Bell's setup for his trapeze shock cord. ..Dave show us a good view of your setup,thanks...Bill 404 21 SE

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Bill 404 21SE