Hobie Island Spinnaker Kit Updates

Stringy I had the same tangle happen with the wife and I. We actually removed the mast on the water and removed the topper until we finished sailing for the day. I am trying to get the free upgrades now with a few ideas to try too.

Another option would be for hobie to cut a new sail with the offending section removed and sail added further down the sail where there is plenty of clearance. This could also give a little more sail area down low to actually lower loads on the mast, just a thought.

Just thinkin out loud here, has anyone tried cutting that first batton about 6” from the end, placing the short piece into some rubber tubing, then putting it back in. Or just removing the top 2-3” alltogether of that first batton, or alternately replace that top 3” with stiff rubber tubing.
Just a thought
FE

Trying some lateral thinking here....

I bought a 3 foot long piece of very lightweight 1 inch diameter pvc garden watering system pipe, which I will attach to the rear of the mast topper with loose zipties, with the backstay running inside.

Theoretically, (with the top batten shortened to just fit inside the sail), the friction between sail and backstay will be greatly reduced.

This won't prevent hang-ups like those shown in Stringy's photos, but there will be a greater chance the sail will slip past the backstay.

The pvc pipe weighs next to nothing, and was cheap enough to be worth a try....

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

I’ve given up trying to clear the halyard from the head of the mainsail. Anything I added to the topper made it unbalanced and the topper would fall off, either when raising the mast or adjusting the halyard. I can live with the mainsail hitting the halyard and just loosen the halyard when necessary to keep the mainsail shape.
To avoid the occasional catastrophic halyard tangle with the top batten when furling, my sailmaker modified the sail so that the batten is now inserted from the foot of the sail and tension is adjusted with Velcro. The top of the batten pocket has been sewn over so nothing can catch the halyard.





I’ve also added bungee to the webbing at the head of the mainsail and through bolted bungee buttons to the upgraded topper extension. This stops the topper falling off when dropping the mast on the water.

Great stuff!!

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

To keep the topper from falling off just put a small piece of velcro in the topper with the opposite piece on top of the mast. Excuse my typing just had major shoulder surgery so the one finger thing is ti.

Wow Stringy! You did it. You found an elegant solution to the problem. Is it working out without fail? Any issues with this mod effecting sail shape when partially furled or adding new complications when furling?

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

No issues so far Greg, but I’ve only had it out twice since the mods. Sail shape hasn’t changed and there are no differences when furling, except there is no batten sticking up to catch the halyard!
It doesn’t solve the problem of the halyard distorting the head of the unfurled mainsail when tacking/gybing (which your pipe fixes) but I’ve accepted that’s a small price to pay for the benefits of the spinnaker, whilst keeping the topper uncomplicated.

My pex pipe solution does not address the sail shape issue when tacking either. Its just a tangle solution. You have a clever fix there.

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

Well as I suspected the new upgrade for the mast tip rotator is far from high enough to fix the issue with sail/batton getting cought when coming about.
So instead I made a long mast tip extension. Some carbon tubing that i cut open at the lower end and laminated to fit the tapering at the mast tip. It slides over the tip by 10" (very tight fit as it is molded on the mast-tip) and it raises the tip rotator about 28". With this considerable lift the batten/sail passes with no contact at all.



I still need to test this on the water but it seems ok and the process with adding a furling foresail in the future can continue again.

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Wow Husse, I knew it would have to be high to clear that batten but wasn’t thinking that high!
Looking forward to your on water testing results! Your fix eliminates the furling and the halyard distortion issues.
Unfortunately it lessens clearance for bridges or tree branches when close to shore.

Meanwhile, after around 20+hours of sailing I can report that reversing the batten and sewing up the top of the batten pocket has eliminated tangles. I’ve had zero furling issues, but the halyard still distorts the top of the main when tacking/gibing.

Thanks for the input Stringy. Love the way you handled the issue. Nice work!
Yup I was kind off suprised myself that it took that much extra height to clear the backstay completely. Looks a bit weird but I just have to get used to it I guess.
The top of the extension fits the rotator very tightly so it wont fall off. I hope taking the mast down out on the water will still work when needed for passing under bridges and dodging lightning/storms.
My first design was "only" around 15 inches high and I was rather sure that that would be more then enough but .... nope! So I had to extend the extension! LOL!
The backstay line is also acually mounted a little bit higher up in the rear as well when I have the riser bar mounted. This lifts the line a few inches in the rear but I am not sure if it really matters up in the top as the line is pretty long. Maybe only halv an inch or so at best is my guess.

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

If you move the return pulley for the spinnaker to the far back of the boat you might be able to lower that mast topper a little.
We wrapped a couple loops of spectra string around our rudder gudgeon, then attached the rear stay pulley to that string, (directly over the rudder pin).

Just an idea that’s all
FE

Thanks FE. The angle of the backstay as it runs down to the top of the riser bar puts the "connection point" just behind the rudder so its allready as far back as possible.
Apart from the increased height making the clearance for bridges lower ( 28" ) I hope there is no other practical drawback with the mast top extension. It will still be pretty easy to take the mast down if needed.
I am working on the idea for a furling forsail/jib that will be easily lowered and tied to the hull when the mast is removed.
The increased height is good for the top nav-light because it reduces the risk of getting obscured by the sail.

I have seen a few DIY builds of rotator mast tips that has a much longer back end so it will clear the better without extending the masttip as much as I had to do.
I will try this out first, hope it works ok! ☺

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

As one of the "silent Americans", I need to clarify that my silence was caused by the fact that I had not installed the spinnaker on my Adventure Island yet. Just did, this weekend, and will try it next weekend.

Is is fair to assume that the snagging (and obviously *nagging*) problem happens on AI's as well? Mine is a 2018 model.

Update: Yep, it does snag. Probably even more than the TI (the AI is shorter, thus the gradient of the backstay steeper, and the "collision zone" with the main is larger).

Not something I really want to use regularly, when I am sailing in areas of heavy traffic, and changing course every minute or so: a recipe for entanglement.

I just find it very strange that there was no mention of this (or the need for DYI to shorten battens, etc.) in the Hobie brochures or literature in general; just very generic and broad statements of caution, almost guaranteed to taunt everybody (even novices like me) to get one. After all, this is not an occasional occurrence: the backstay WILL snag your main, the top batten WILL hook your backstay, the snag is almost certainly a very nasty experience for the rider, etc. All predictable failures.