tpdavis473 wrote:
Perhaps he is only being overly cautious...but it isn't even a broken stitch...it is a dropped stitch. Even he admitted he knew the sail was held together with adhesive as well as the stitches. Apparently, though, the concept of lock stitch is beyond his (no doubt extensive on anything other than sailmaking) knowledge base. I suspect he is unfamiliar with the work of some sailmakers who eschew stitching altogether since modern adhesives are adequate--especially for tiny sails like the Hobie jib.
I admit to having no awe of others' expertise-especially when they espouse opinion contrary to my experience/expertise. And to top it off, he was so impolitic as to call my expertise "foolish".
This is not a "dropped stitch":

That is a broken thread (actually broken in two places).
I know perfectly well how a sewing machine works and what a lock stitch is.
The seam tape adhesive on Dacron Hobie sails is there only to facilitate the stitching - to hold the material together in alignment until the sail is stitched. It's not structural.
A Hobie 16 is not a Getaway and is not an AI. There's been a body of knowledge built up over the past 40+ years that you haven't been exposed to since you stated "A year ago I was a new cat sailor." You've made a number of posts that illustrate your ignorance of the way a Hobie 16 works:
tpdavis473 wrote:
That's on a batten pocket, right? Looks to be toward the leach. Ignore the loose threads. The batten takes all the loads.
Um, no.
tpdavis473 wrote:
Even if they are holding two pieces of sailcloth together. They see no loads because the batten is tensioning the cloth between the leach and luff (or end of the pocket and the leach if the batten is not full length).
You didn't know that Hobie 16 jib battens were full length?
tpdavis473 wrote:
It's easy enough to add a short line extension to the halyard and cleat normally if he does have the tongs...being a 1975 boat, though, I suspect he has all aluminum and no tongs.
What? A Hobie 16 has always had "tongs" (I assume you mean the halyard latch) and cleating off without latching the halyard is a recipe for pulling the cleat out of the mast.
tpdavis473 wrote:
Personally, I prefer to hook the tack grommet with the Cunningham. Of course, that assumes the boom is fixed to the mast so it doesn't fall out.
A Hobie 16 does not have a gooseneck fixed to the mast. It slides in the mast track. There is no cunningham. Only a downhaul.
tpdavis473 wrote:
I also use a 2:1 on the clew grommet when I have a boom available for a turning block at the end--that way you can pull aft AND down to get both foot and leach tension.
And that's a great recipe for ripping the clew grommet out of the sail, considering that any US-built sail with reef points is 30+ years old now.
tpdavis473 wrote:
I admit to having no awe of others' expertise-especially when they espouse opinion contrary to my experience/expertise.
That pretty much says it all.