Sail head repair questions

My H16 main and jib heads have been corroding for a few years now. On the main head, the grommet has essentially corroded away. The head plate itself looks OK. On the jib, the shackle that was riveted to the head grommet has separated due to rivet corrosion.

On the main, can I just replace that grommet? MattB mentioned an INOX grommet as an upgrade in a different thread; the tack and clew on that sail have nice SS grommets which seem to be in plastic (no plates), but the head is as you see below.

On the jib, new sails seem to have that upper grommet whipped to the top thimble with cord rather than having the shackle that I have. Is there an improvement to be made up there, beyond just knocking out the corroded rivet and whipping the grommet to the thimble? The grommet itself looks intact but there's a bit of corrosion which may just be from the old rivet. What do new sails have here? The last photo seems to show a crack in the inner diameter of that grommet so I guess it should be replaced.

I plan to send the sails off this winter for some general maintenance, and if there are parts I can supply that would be better than what a sail shop is likely to have on hand, I'll do that.

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'00 H16 #104691
'78 H16 #32692 ex-rental [gone]
Old Holsclaw trailer
My Hobie 16 pages

Haven't had to deal with a sail loft in a while, but, when I did, it was customary that they had appropriate SS grommets (I believe the ones at the corners of the sails are actually called cringles) and the appropriate equipment for pressing them. Unless I'm mistaken, older H16 mainsails didn't even have one in the headplate.

On the jib, the whipping cord is there to set the luff tension. At some point on new sails it was moved from the tack to the head....less chance of wear/damage up there I presume? At any rate, you should have such cord at the tack and should probably just replace the shackle.

How old/worn are these sails? I ask because, other than the shackle at the jib head, I don't see anything that requires immediate repair. If they are fairly old/worn, I'd be hesitant to put much money/effort into them. Might be better off replacing the shackle, nuking these 'til they explode, and saving the extra coin toward a newer set?

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16

Cringle, yes. Thanks.

I didn't specify, but these are from my 2000 (the '78 is gone; I will update my sig). I think they're pretty decent but I'm sure racers would disagree. There is a bad patch in the main luff rope binding about a foot above the gooseneck that really annoys me, and a place or two where the battens have worn through as well. Basically the luff rope and the head cringle are the only things it would go out for. I was just wondering if there was a really awesome cringle that Hobie would use, better than what the sail loft might have. For instance, the plastic-based ones like the foot of the sail has would not corrode against the aluminum head plate. But if it's being repaired maybe a new head plate would be in order. Does that come with a cringle?

I don't think the jib needs any fabric repair. Just that shackle or whipping, and ideally a new cringle there as well as the existing one seems to have a crack. Same question.

Would love a pic of what new sails have there.

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'00 H16 #104691
'78 H16 #32692 ex-rental [gone]
Old Holsclaw trailer
My Hobie 16 pages

Sent you a PM regarding pix of my sails.

On the main, the head has just a regular looking SS cringle....the tack has the extra plastic layer (not sure why). No idea whether a new headplate would come with the cringle or if the cringles can even be purchased from Hobie. (Maybe contact your dealer or M. Miller?)

The cringles at the head and tack of the jib appear to be identical. And I was mistaken about the luff tensioning line.....mine's at the tack, and there's the shackle at the top (just like yours). Maybe the owner switched them for some reason on the other set you saw?

Sorry it took so long to get back to you!

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16