Sheeting the main and other questions..

Another question while I'm learning the 16...

Took it out today for the first sail, '81 H16, pretty light wind. When I sheeted in my main it went block to block what felt like way to easy. As the breeze picked up it seemed like I should've been able to sheet in much more. My shrouds are in the top holes and I think my jib halyard is tensioned pretty tight. I have what I believe are the original blocks, 2 on the boom and a double on top of the bottom block. What can I do to be able to sheet in more?

Other question..

When the wind picked up my jib would flutter pretty bad at the top even after sheeting it in as tight as it would go. Same question I guess

First step is to make sure you're tensioning the rig correctly. A boat of that vintage should not have excessive mast rake issues - unless you've replaced the standing rigging lately.

Second step would be to invest in a low-profile mainsheet system.



This is the classic symptom of a jib that's blown out. You can have a sailmaker do a nip/tuck on the leech, but it will never be as good as a new one. New rigging can also make this worse - new jibs are cut differently than jibs older than 2000 model year. They accommodate more mast rake.

Thanks for the info. Kinda figured that might be the case with the jib. What's the correct way to tension the rig?

Put the jib up first, before the main. The rig doesn't have to be tight, just snug. After raising the jib and tensioning the rig, grab a shroud with your fist and twist. You shouldn't be able to twist more than 30 degrees or so.

Once you have the jib up, measure your mast rake - using the tail of the main halyard led from the top of the mast, pull snug to the top of one bow tang bolt and hold the spot with your thumb/index finger. Go to the back of the boat and pull the halyard tight along the transom. The spot you marked should be between 6" and 16" below the bottom edge of the transom. On a Comptip halyard, there's 1" between the black ticks on the line, making it easy to measure.

Couldn't understand a thing....

Can anyone tell me of a good video for measuring mast rake or make one yourself??

I don't have a Hobie fleet to ask to...

I don't blame you as 'saileze' can sound like gibberish though it makes perfect sense after awhile. Let me attempt to translate...

The main halyard- line which goes to the top of the mast, through a sheave or block, and allows you to raise the main(sail) is thus hanging from the very top of the mast- a good place to measure down distances on the boat from the slanting mast.

You take the end this hanging line to the very front top of one hull/bow where the cable rigging for everything connects (called a tang)- pull it kinda taut and mark that distance on the line.

Then pivot that same line back to where the rudders mount and measure the difference. Since the mast is tilting back (raking) the marked distance from the bow should fall from 1 to 2 feet below that point in the back. I always measure from top to top of the hull at both points.

There's another way which might make more sense- since the halyard is hanging down from the slanting mast- if you clip on a vice grips or something with some weight on it and let the line hang straight down like a plumb bob there will be some distance between it and the slanting mast. I've seen some descriptions that a 'good' starting rake distance should be around 48" from the mast at the height of where the sail feeds into the mast. Does that make any more sense?

_________________
Raise your sail one foot, and you get ten feet of wind.
起你的一只帆，和你10英尺的。 -- Chinese Proverb
William D. Latinette @ Latrobe, PA, USA w. H14 Turbo X 2... [email protected]

Best translation ever.
Thanks wildlatin, really helpfull

The problem was English saileze, had it been in Spanish I'd have understand.

Wow - am I reading this right that we should have 4' of mast rake? That sure seems like a lot! Are you sure the hulls were horizontal when you measured that (mine don't necessarily sit horizontal on the trailer)?

That's about right, although I've never measured the rake on my 16 that way. You need to level the boat first (make the sidebars level). On the 14, the weight hanging off the halyard will be over, or a bit aft of, the main traveler track.


The advantage of using the first method is that you don't need to level the boat.
This is my old boat when it was new in '98:

Using the first method, the halyard had 16 ticks (roughly inches) below the bottom transom point. There's a bit of downhaul on - you can see how the Comptip has flexed, but I'm still not block-to-block on the main (that space between the blocks would disappear in any wind over ~ 10 kts as you sheet in harder).

I measured the mast rake with the jib up as described, I came up with 12 inches. I put the 4:1 off of my 14 on and seemed to be able to sheet in tighter, but that's not the solution to my problem. Is there anything else I can do besides spending a wad on the low profile stuff pictured above?