New Spinnaker Fix

Yesterday I brought the boat out into the driveway to test the concept of the new spinnaker fix. That is, cleating the halyard line tight before trying furl the main in order to stop batton/halyard line snags. I simulated the clearing of the halyard line and still got snags. Is the new cleat solution working successfully for anyone?

Greg

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

Greg, I think it is only going to assist when the spinnaker is in the snuffer, where a floppy "backstay" has the potential to get wrapped in with the sail during furling. Not a perfect fix, but at least promising a reduction in the percentage of wrsps.

Incidentally, the mentioned cleat fitting is the wrong way round for those of us who chose to fit the spinnaker on the port side (the starboard side is busy enough with mainsheet, furling line and centreboard/daggerboard. At least on my 2012 TI, there were already threaded holes on the port sdide of the crossbar).

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Tony, my point was that I tried this with the spinnaker in the snuffer and secured the halyard line as tight as it can be. Still I get snags. I was sure this would work, logically it should. But it doesn't in my hands. My question is- did it actually help with anyone's snags? Tony, have you tried it yet?

Greg

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

Sorry Greg, only sailed once this year, and used the spinnaker with zero issues. As I said, Hobie's solution is only going to offer a minor reduction in percentage wraps IMHO

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

So how bad is that snag issue? Im thinking about getting a spinnaker for the TI and have heard that happens but its not that hard to deal with.

Also, can the spinnaker be installed so that you can still collapse the ama on the side the spinnaker is on?

Where I sail, being able to easily collapse the ama's is still very important to me..

Thinking more about this, I believe a very practical solution is to suspend (using zip-ties attached to the rear of ther mast topper) about a 6-8 foot length of lightweight plastic underground watering system pipe, containing the backstay. This would make the top batten of the mainsail more likely to slide over the backstay, while also hugely reducing (if not totally eliminating) the possibility of the backstay getting wrapped zround the mast during furling.

I already have a 20 inch approx. piece attached as above, and don't recall the last tangle.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

It’s a minor annoyance Walt and if you are careful it can be avoided. The upgraded parts are at my Hobie dealer but I haven’t considered it a priority. Trimming the battens so they are flush with the mainsail helps, as does furling the main to the first batten. Most of the time I furl the main fully anyway as there is a performance hit caused by the main shadowing the spinnaker. The spinnaker completes the TI as far as I’m concerned and makes downwind sailing so much better. I’ve taken to motoring upwind on days I wouldn’t usually go out and enjoying the ride back under spinnaker. Great fun!
To collapse the AMA with the spin on you would have to undo the two strap buckles that run AMA to AMA but you shouldn’t have to undo any of the rigging. I store mine with the rigging in place and just move the spin bag to the hull.

Thanks for the info! Sounds like a lot of fun.. Just yesterday I started on that boom experiment and will try that for a while but if if its "reasonable" to collapse the ama on the side the spinnaker is mounted on.. sounds like I should get one. Hope to see one in person soon.

That small piece of plastic water tube over the top end of the backstay also sounds like a good idea.

That’s the solution I used. I just took a 10 ft length of 3/8” dia pvc waterpipe attached to the back of the mast topper with spectra string. The rear stay line runs thru the tube. Of course I also shortened the battens, ( I also put tape over them).

Thinking about this a bit more if you just undo the straps they would be difficult to redo ‘on water’.
You may need to increase the length of the straps or add a clip in extension so that they remained clipped but loose enough to fold the ama.

??? The problem you guys are addressing is not the problem or the snags that I am talking about. The backstay issue is just a nucence easily delt with by all the methods you mention. I'm talking about the forstay batton snag that occurs when quickly fuling the main. This snag is what the new cleat was attempting to address, not the backstay issue.

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I’ve never had a forestay snag problem Greg, as far as I know. It’s always the back stay that gets caught on the top batten of my ‘10 TI.

Unless you have a 2016 AI like Greg has you can't understand how serious the snagging issues are.

I've owned about 7 different styles of Hobie adventure/tandem islands dating back to 2008. On the adventure islands previous to 2015 I could fly a jib or spinnaker without any "grabbing" issues at all. Back then I had many different flavors of jibs flying and never once had the main or battens grab my front halyard/forstay.

I bought the Hobie spinnaker initially for my 2016 Adventure island and had too many issues with tangling. I sold the AI and bought a 2017 TI and still have snagging issues but I feel they are not quite as bad as they were on the 2016 AI. Not positive but that's just how it feels. However, saying that I still ended up completely revamping Hobie's system and I fabricated a spring loaded topper arm that keeps the front halyard/forstay well away from the main. ESPECIALLY when the spinnaker is in the snuffer bag. Too many bad things can happen when your sails are deployed and get critically tangled where you must demast with half a mainsail flopping in the wind with tight tangled spinnaker wrapped lines making the demasting all the more challenging. Not fun - I've experienced that.

When the spinnaker is flying, it's wonderful. It solves the problem of weak downwind floppy sailing. However I'm still not sure it's worth the bother. It's probably worthwhile for the older TI's and AI's for sure.

Jim

Thanks for the insite Jim. The squaring up of the head of these newer sails is contributing to the snags for sure. That thicker fore batton does not wrap around the mast nicely on the firat wrap around the mast. You see that with slow motion video as it wants to flair out.. I have come to accept that fo now I have to live with using my Sharktube modified mast topper which stops the snags compleately. When Hobie decides to eliminate the issue for everyone once and for all, they will do it by lengthening the mast topper to about twice as long as it is currently . It is the only real solution that works faithfully

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis