New Mast Raising System

The safe and effective way is to wait for the EZ 111 system. The mast on the Getaway rotates, so it is not compatible with the other systems. The Mid August change from the July date is a pain, but what to do?

It would be great if Hobie would just change the mast foot design to accommodate a regular mast raising system. Yesterday,..for the second time I accidentally rotated the mast the wrong direction after a long day of heavy wind sailing. Ahhhh crapp! So,.... back up it went and then back down. Fortunately the mast foot bolt was already pre bent from my first screw up that it didn't cause anymore damage.

Here's how I step my mast by myself and have never had a problem. I roll the boat off the trailer and onto cat trax. Then I roll the boat down to the beach. If there is a fairly good incline in the sand, I use that. If not, I leave the boat on the wheels, but I slide the wheels toward the back of the boat. What you are trying to achieve is the boat tilted down hill at a fairly good angle.

Once the boat is pointed down hill, I attach the shrouds at their slackest setting. I also attach the jib. I pin the mast to mast base, walk to the back of the tramp and lift the mast. It comes up and past vertical because the boat is sloped downhill. Gravity and the shrouds hold the mast in place. I take my hands off it and watch it for a second to make sure it is going to stay put. Then I climb down and pin the jib. Then I tighten both shrouds.

I reverse the whole process when I take it down. Hope this helps. The hard part is moving the boat back up the beach by myself. But I think I may have found an easy way to do that.

I haven't had much luck with these devices. In fact I broke a mast base while using the EZ Step, and finally gave up (I should sell it) and returned to muscling the mast up. Cheaper and faster.

I've read of someone using an electric winch with a extended remote control. This still leaves you with two hands to control the mast and two to hanle the remote control, but I'mnot a chimp so I never figured out how to do it!

Good luck.

Are you still on schedule for mid August availability Matt?

Not going to be ready till... I hope by late September. We "just" now have gotten a sample part out of the tooling for the mast fitting. That should be approved and hit production this month.

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

After being a water skier and power boat owner for 35 years, a neck injury stopped that activity a couple of years ago. This is also my first crack at posting to a forum, so we'll see how it goes. Having learned to sail as a kid, and using a Wave at vacation resorts the last few years we took the plung with a Getaway this past May. However, after one time in front of the house attempting to muscle the mast to position, I knew this was not an option for my wife and I. After investigating the EZ Step, I decided to build my own. I'll describe it the best I can here, and will send pictures to anyone interested. I mounted a small electric winch on the winch mount, and a battery on the trailer. I use a battery maintainer when the boat is garaged to keep the battery topped off. There is a pulley on the winch cable that mounts just below the crutch that raises the pulling point a couple of feet above the winch and gives better leverage on the mast. I replaced the forward bolts that hold the wing seats in place with eye bolts and use a short length of line to secure the trap wires to these bolts. These lines want to be a little loose as they tighten as the mast is raised, but prevent any major side to side motion as the mast is raised. From the back of the boat my wife lifts the mast to a point I can grab it standing on the trampolene. I raise it shoulder height so there isn't too much strain, and keep it sideways, and she simply pushes the button on the winch and up she goes. I added a cleat to the mast crutch and have been using the main halyard to hold the mast forward while we pin off the jib. I have a short line I tie off the trap wires to the base off the mast to keep them out of the way. Coming down, we reverse these steps, making sure to not stop the winch until there is plenty of slack in the line so as not to over stress the mast base. We've been out 6-7 times, and so far, this has been the answer for us.

Would like to see pictures, please. I have been trying different ways and have a small elec. winch. The eyebolts are a new thought.
Thanks, Bill
coopserv at yahoo dot com

While the electric winch helps, it still takes two people unless you can manage lifting the mast off the trampoline, then using the winch controls, while keeping the mast sideways...

I used to get the H16 up in a jiffy by myself, the Getaway mast is another story, and I don't want to depend on having a crew to go sailing. When the wind calls, I want to be out, crew or not!

Xavier is right, this is for sure a two person task. Hasn't been an issue for us as this boat for us has been about getting back on the water together, and when my wife can't or doesn't want to go, I have friends that are happy to go.

I have found that as long as you can get the mast up by yourself then it can be done singlehandedly. What I do is attach a line to the main halyard and run it through the cradle on the trailer. I keep a loop in the end of the line so that I can hold onto it easily. Once the mast is up, I pull in the line and it tightens, basically turning the halyard into a forestay attached to my trailer head. I then can quickly attached the jib.

Are you still on schedule for late September availability Matt?

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2007 Getaway

Hey Matt, you out there? Any updates ?

Hey guys,

There's been a slight delay... it's coming though. Hobie is on it. They want to make sure all of the bugs are worked out before it hits the market. It may be a few more months.

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Sail Revolution
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Thanks Jeremy!
Always better to wait and get it right.