I would love to see how the trap. wires are used on the mast

I would love to see how the trap. Wires are used on the mast stepper. I have a wench to raise the mast but it would be nice to have the lines to steady it. I considered buying the hobie stepper but I have heard that they don’t work very well on the 16.

My girlfriend won't step the mast for me anymore.

Check this link. http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=7368&highlight=step

I changed bungees to two each side, in case a bungee breaks. You will need to figure out what size bungee works with your trap wires.

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Alan
'86 H16, Sail #89057

Thank you thank you that is a great help when I finish mine I will post some pics. Hope you don't mind me stealing your ideals

I made something similar for my H18, only instead of using bugies to extend the trap wires to the front cross bar I made two lengths of wire with thimbles on the end (the same wire the trap wires are made of. The length I uses was twice the gap between the end of the trap wires and the outside of the cross bar. All I do is wrap the new wire around the cross bar and then using a clip attach the two thimbles to the end of the trap wire. Works great and my family as well as my back are much happier because of it.

I will try and take some pictures next time I step the mast. The problem is I store the boat with the mast up so it is not often I get a chance to take pictures and I always forget the camera.

How much slack do you have in the connection to the cross bar from the trap wires. Would I be able to use a tie down strap snuged down? Or will I need some slack.

I don't really know how much slack there is, and don't need to since I use bungees.

I guess I could use a cable instead, if I had a good fixed attachment point at or on the corner casting where the cable length to the mast (trap wire + temporary extension) doesn't change much. Geometry and the curve of the cross bar causes the distance from the corner casting to the mast tang to be longer when the mast is up than when it is down. Theoretically, with a properly positioned attachment, the length of cable needed to connect the trap to the attachment point will change by only a few inches with the position of the mast. Maybe I will figure out a good way to do the attachment so I can replace the bungees with cables, since the solid rubber EDPM bungees deteriorate fairly quickly. I don't want to permanently mount anything to the corner casting, however.

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Alan
'86 H16, Sail #89057

Well I did it today and I found out that you need some slack in the connection to the trapeze wires. I will most likely use the bungees and a nylon strap as shown in these pics in case the bungee would break. My set up is crude but I just used what I had. I started it up with the halyard and finished with the forestay and the wench. The weather was beautiful and I was going to take it out as soon as I had it figured out. Then the rain came. I need to make a mast prop to hold it in position and I need to do away with the cushion and make a mast cradle. Thanks for the replies they have helped greatly. Well I see that pics are not straight forward I will have to do some reading to learn how to post with photos.

upload picture to photobucket.
select the picture you want to post
at the bottom of the page it has generate html codes
select the one that says message board
copy and past them here


Instructions stolen from another post thanks

Heres the pics This is not complete and was done with what I had laying around the house. I cheated and used the winch once the mast was up high enough. I will post more pics when I am done. thanks for the ideals!