Raising the Main

After many years raising kids, I'm back on the water with my brand spanking new Hobie 16. My previous Hobie was a SC21 sport cruiser. Loved it's main halyard system. I plan to design the same exact system for my new H16. I suppose all I need is 2 blocks, 4 rivits, and V-cleat. If anyone is aware of a kit out there please let me know before I build my own.

I would not change the halyard system the lock at the top is very important. Passing the load down the side of the 16 mast will cause additional compression and pre-bend (bow) the mast. Read the hoist info and a bit of practice. Not hard to do as designed.

http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=371

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

Roger that. I did not consider the compression issue. I will utilize the standard system. I just wanted to be able to quickly drop the main on the water in the event of a squall. Probably prudent to get off the water!

I read the link. That was extremely helpful. Did I understand it correctly? The post seems to indicate that the mainsail luff is curved. Could you confirm this for me? A perfectly straight mast is bad? Also, what is the correct angle of the mast to hull? It appears to raked way back with only the forestay. For example, if I dropped a plumb line from the top of the mast it would intersect the aft tramp about 1 foot forward of the rear cross bar.

And lastly, my brand new tramp is already popping out of the sidebar track on both sides. The flared end is forward, per the assembly manual. It appears to me, that, flipping the sidebars would solve this problem because of the large space separating the rear crossbar from the tramp.

Yes, the luff of the main is curved. Otherwise, the sail would not have the proper shape (it would be too flat).


With no load (sail or otherwise) the mast should be straight, but as soon as you put the sail up and put some downhaul and/or mainsheet tension on it, the mast will bend - that is completely normal.


That sounds about right. Depending on the age of your boat (newer boats have little tweaks that allow more mast rake), you should have as much mast rake as possible while still being able to sheet in both sails and not have too much twist in the sails.


Hobie Cat does not recommend doing that because the slot in the back is a place where toes can get stuck / broken. You could reverse the sidebars and wrap electrical tape around the open hole to prevent that. Not that I'm recommending it.

How the trampoline is laced can cause this issue. The trampoline needs to be all the way forward in the side bar. If the aft lace is tightened too soon... it slips aft, so pull forward... tighten the center lacing at just the first set of grommets. This locks the tramp forward. Then loosely tension the aft... tension the center and finish with tensioning the aft lacing.

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

that was a good tramp tip. Thanks !

Got the mainsail working nicely. Boat is very speedy. I bit much for my little family. My dealer indicated that a T2 main may fit inside the 16 luff track. Do you know if this is the case?

My goal is to go boomless for family outings.