Mast rake by default?

I have a 26 year old H16 and she flies. Recently I have purchased new halyards and shrouds as mine were wearing a little ragged.
The new Jib Forestay is 3.5 inches longer than my original.
I am told by the distributor that over the past 15 years Hobie has determined that a greater Rake on the mast is the way to go and has been making these forestays longer for quite a while.
Really? Just wondering if this truely is the case.
Thanx in advance.

Raked back is the way to go. He is absolutely correct. The boat will point better upwind but it loads up the rudders more. The old rudder hardware did not allow rudder rake adjustment. If your boat is pre-1983 which it sounds like you don't have the rake adjusters. This means that as the wind increases you will have to pull like hell on the tiller to keep the boat form heading into the wind. So you may have to put the new side shrouds at the top of the chainplates on each side to limit the weather helm.

If you are double trapping and sailing big wind you will probably want to add a rake kit and maybe re-drill your rudders to rake them under the boat more.

cheers
Bill

Sounds like a bit more than I had anticipated getting into.
Can't I just pull up tighter on the Jib and reduce the rake on the Main?
Is that safe? Can the Jib carry that?

I really don't know anything about raking the rudders. And with the new
Jib Forestay length the Shrouds on the side are pretty loose without
moving them to the top of the adjusters.

The jib is designed to hold all of the forestay load. You can set the new shrouds higher and pull forward with the jib halyard.

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

Thanx for the info.
Any chance you can point me to some documentation on raking the rudders?
I would be interested in looking into it.

I'm sure that raking the mast in order to be able to point higher is a must for those who race competitively, but for those of us who are recreational sailors mast rake is unnecessary. If you rake your mast your boom will drop lower leaving you with little room while changing sides on a tack. Not very pleasant for those of us who are getting older & losing flexibility.
We had our Hobie Dealer special order longer shrouds last year so that we would be able to continue enjoying our sport in our Golden Years.
Our H-16 still goes very fast.
Speed & Comfort!