H18 - Replacing mast rotator

When we bought our new (used) 1988 H18, we knew we would have to repair or replace a few things, including the badly bent rotator bar. (We understand that a previous owner had a high-speed oopsie, which is why his wife insisted he sell it! His pain = our gain). My metal fab. client said not to straighten it (typically by heat treatment,) as s/steel will lose its strength, and can fracture. Who needs that?
So I bought a used bar, (price, condition and delivery were excellent,) and it arrived with the 4 1/2" bolt (#8040111) through the hole in one arm, and the compression sleeve (#61490000) securely attached on the 'inside' of the hole. Hey, is the sleeve aluminium? Is the bolt S/Steel? This is surely an instant recipe for galvanic action. Design flaw? Masts do eventually take on water, especially knowing the way some people sail.

Is it likely that the same thing has happened inside the mast? Guess so.

My dealer (Fogh in Toronto) says to drill out the rivets holding the compression plate (on the side of the head of the bolt,) loosen off the nut at the other end, and then slide everything out. Then destroy the compression sleeve, put on a new one, and re-assemble, including re-riveting the compression plate.

Has anyone else done this repair, and has anyone any bright ideas as to how to separate the bolt and the compression sleeve without destruction of the sleeve? Or do we simply buy a new bolt, nut, and sleeve, junk the old one and go from there? We want to sail, not spend days/weeks repairing or waiting for new parts.


Good winds

_________________
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.'

Whoa! Here is what I did when I switched from the old style mast rotation control yoke (MRCY) to the new style. Basically you are doing the same thing just might be using the old style for the replacement.

Currently, I am guessing that you have a bent rotator installed on your mast. It has a bolt, compression plates, and a compression sleeve that is inside the mast. You also have another MRCY that came with a bolt and compression sleeve.

Here is what I did on mine. I took the bolt that came with the new MRCY (actually in my case I had to buy a new bolt) and used it as a guide for installing the new MRCY. I took the nut off the one in the mast, pulled the bolt out slightly just enough to allow the old MRCY to slip off the threads of the bolt, and slightly twisted the old MRCY out of the way. Then I took the new MRCY and slipped the new bolt into it, then through the diamond wire turnbuckle tab (diamond wires must be loose to accomplish this) and then slipped the new bolt into the compression plate, mast, and the old compression sleeve in the mast. This keeps everything lined up enough to install the new MRCY. As you pull the old bolt and MRCY off you must slide in the new bolt at the same time. As a result, you will be installing a new bolt and a new MRCY, but will continue to use the existing compression plates, compression sleeve, and diamond wire hardware (tabs). Also, the bolt will now have the head and nut on the opposite sides. This doesn't effect performance as far as I can tell (the bolt doesn't have the thought process to know if it is in left to right or right to left).

If I lost you anywhere, just let me know and I will try to send you pics of what I am talking about. Hope this helps!

After all that (unnecessary) fussing, we mounted the replacement Rotator Bar in under 2 minutes 18 seconds. Everything worked beautifully in good winds this weekend.

It took me a couple of weeks to realize the real problem: to install the (used) replacement unit, I first had to remove the bolt and compression sleeve that came with it, and I thought the sleeve was galvanized to the bolt. After hammering and boiling and all sorts of high jinks, I realized that the sleeve was stuck as the bolt was bent! No wonder it would not move. So off to my client’s workshop, they cut off the head of the bolt, and the Bar was ready to mount.

This winter, I will upgrade the mast by adding the compression plates.


Thanks Matt and Karen-Ann and everyone for all your help

Good winds!

_________________
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.'

Maybe John doesn't need the photographs but I sure do. Although any added mast rotation device is H16 class illegal, I want to add one to my boat for everyday sailing. Would appreciate anythng you could send me to [email protected]

Thanks in advance,

David

David,

Are you planning on removing the rotation stops on the mast base so you can over rotate? Or, are you having problems getting your mast to ratate to new the new tacK?side?

_________________
hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

Just want to be clear here... the rotation bar is NOT class legal on a Hobie 16. This was only accepted for the Hobie 14.

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

Thanks to all for your input. And to John Eaton, no, I'm not having any mast rotation problems. Yes, I'm planning on removing the rotation stops on the mast base so I can turn the mast to 90 degrees for downwind sailing. Any other input ???

Thanks,
David