I hoping someone can help steer me in the right direction, I'm new to beach cats altogether and trying to make sense of this set up...
Here's what I have, I came across an old (70's I'm guessing) Hobie 14 at an auction over the winter and brought it home! Hulls seem to be in good shape, crossbars and tramp good, mast and standing rigging look good too, but that's all I got with it. No boom, no sail, no main sheet/blocks. I have since acquired most of the missing parts (I think). But of course I have never talked with the previous owner (or anyone else) about how they set it up.
Now here are my questions...
First, when I stepped the mast for the first time, I have a VERY loose rig. The shrouds came with a seven hole chain plate and the pins where already in the third hole from the bottom. When I connected the forestay to the bridal, I assumed I would have firm tension in one of the middle holes, but even straight into the bottom hole the shrouds are not tight at all, tons of play. I moved the shrouds to the lowest hole and now the rigging has almost no slack, but not at all what I would expect. It's also seems to have a ton of mast rake now with the shrouds all the way down, but not sure how to properly measure the mast rake. After a lot of reading on the web, I did see it mentioned that on the old 14s' the rigging is supposed to be very loose. Can anyone confirm this? Any suggestions? My first thought was to shorten the forestay, but I realize now these are factory items that should be the proper length already. Does anyone know how long to should be, I haven't found a wire chart with this info.
Second issue. I bought an old boom from someone parting out an old boat It came with the old style blocks, and he through in the swivel cam cleat that was mounted on the aft crossbar. When I got home, I see my boat does not have the swivel cam cleat and doesn't look as though it ever did, no holes in the cross bar. I know the racket block of the mainsheet connects to the traveler car, but then from most pictures I've seen, it looks like the mainsheet also goes through the swivel cam cleat. Did the old boat not have this? Do I need to add it? The one I got with the boom has a black plastic mounting plate, but it doesn't seem like it fits this boat. If I were to mount it, it would be tilted forward and the forward screw hole look like it would go right though the bolt rope of the tramp. This also seems redundant to me, as the lower block has a cam cleat. What is the purpose of the one mounted on the crossbar?
Any advise would be most appreciated!! Looking forward to getting this old boat out on the water soon!!
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