reef halyard hook

I have a hobie 18 SX mast and have been sailing with one reef. The sail slips down when sailing when cleated. I am considering putting a second lower halyard hook "61610101 HALYARD HOOK H18/20 COMPTIP" on the mast so the sail is hooked in not just cleated. Are there any issues I should consider doing this. Will this hook fit 18 SX mast.

Not sure I understand your question.
I have owned and sailed both H18SE and H18SX, and there is no reefing system for the main sail.

The main sail 'hangs' from a 'hook' at the top of the mast. That way it never 'slips'.
If you use a halyard to both raise and secure the main sail, you are loading the mast under compression, which is not part of the design.

Perhaps you can use different words to explain what you are looking for.

I suspect your H18 may be missing the 'hook'.
If so, order the part from your local Hobie dealer and install it.

Are there other H18 sailors near you? Have them take a look at your H18.

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

An additional hook would / could damage the sail when fully hoisted if the mast were to counter-rotate.

I think a "pig tail" attached to the halyard shackle to lower the sail below a locked ring might work, but would be hard to get hooked and unhooked.

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

Agreed, Matt, a pigtail might work.
However, that also means new a grommet or tack plate for the tack of the main, and how would the clew plate work?

I think RickR would be better off to have two mainsails - one regular, and one that has been cut down one or two panels, with new tack and clew plates, and with a pig tail.

Funny, I had rarely problems in high winds with the H18, I found it to be a very stable craft.
If there was a problem, we would furl the jib and de-power the main.

I did have problems with my racing.....from pushing too hard.

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

I have also considered the potential for adding a second, lower hook occasionally. But the problem, as mentioned by others, is that the lower hook would most likely contact the sail when it is hoisted to the full height and the mast rotates. One possible solution would be to accept that the hook will contact the sail and have a sail maker add a reinforcement panel at the appropriate location to prevent the hook from poking a hole in the sail.

The other problem with this approach is that the “comptip” hook is designed to only attach at the very tip of the comptip. Since the comptip is tapered, the curvature of the hook will not sit flush to the mast anywhere but at the very tip. Even if you modified the hook by opening up the curve, you wouldn’t want to mount the second hook anywhere else on the comptip since there would be no backer behind the rivets, they would almost certainly pull out of the fiberglass under load (the aluminum mast head casting backs up the rivets at the tip). You could potentially install the old-style halyard hook (from an all-aluminum mast) down below the comptip (assuming you could find one of those old hooks that have now been out of production 30+ years) but that would mean lowering the sail 8 or so feet to reef. That would be a very large reef.

Unfortunately, there just doesn’t seem to be any simple, clean method of reefing a sail with a halyard hook/ring arrangement.

sm

I had reefing points put in on my Getaway mainsail.
I have a 6' pigtail that I tie between the head of the sail, and the halyard shackle. This works well. I'm not sure how easy or difficult it would be to unhook your shackle ring with a similar setup, since the Getaway has a different halyard system.

_________________
Yet another Bob!
"Firefly" - 2012 Hobie Getaway with wings and spinnaker
"Icebirds" - 1974 Skeeter iceboat
Too many canoes and kayaks

Thank you for your responses.
I have a 98 T-Gull 23 Tremolino Trimaran that has a Hobie 18 SX mast. The original sail came with one set of reef grommets. I never used the reef since I was younger and wanted to go fast. Last season the main lower panel ripped and I had a new sail made. While I was waiting for the new sail I cut off the bottom panel of the old sail and sailed reefed. I guess I am getting to be an old Fart since I like the mellow performance sailing reefed and not submarine the amma or sailing with the main depowered up against the stay in 25 mph gusts. The old sail is dead and I am reefing the new sail.
With that said the problem was the main luff would slide down slowly about 6 inches.after I pulled the downhaul tight.
Then I considered the lower halyard hook but I agree that this might damage the sail.
QUESTION
What is the "pigtail" that was mentioned. This might be a solution?
I think some of the problem is the halyard line in that it is stretching.
What is the best 1/4 in 8 mm non stretch halyard line that is easy to grab?
I looked at west marine and they had alot of lines.
Thanks Rick

I say a picture of the pigtail for jib. That might work for main, Rick

A pigtail would be a short extension line or wire cable that you install between the halyard ring and the head of the mainsail which would effectively lower the sail the required amount for the reef while still allowing the ring to engage in the mast hook. The problems with this approach are 1) you have to fully lower the sail to install or remove the pigtail (i.e., you can’t easily put in or shake a reef on the fly) and 2) the halyard ring really relies on the head of the mainsail for stability when rotating the mast to engage or disengage the hook. Since the ring would only be attached to the pigtail, it would likely flop around making hooking and un-hooking difficult.

sm