Jib halyard?

Hi fellow T2 sailors...haven't seen much discussion lately. Hopefully we've all been out on the water and enjoying our rare but awesome cat. Has anyone looked into a method of taking the jib down with the mast up? I'm considering adding a small block and line as a jib halyard, and using the main halyard to hold the mast while I unpin the forestay from the furler and hoist or pull down the sail. Thoughts?

Haven't had the need! But I do use the mainsheet-to-bridle method to hold the mast up while I add/remove the furled jib and forestay before/after sailing. It sounds like you then would need a dedicated forestay for holding the mast up during sailing, and a separate jib halyard, just like on the 16.

amfoyle, thank you for the response. I am curious how you get your furled jib up and down the mast? I hadn't considered the option of just removing the whole thing.

The only good way to remove the jib alone and have it work properly would be the zipper method like the 18. But removing the whole rig with drum would be to set it up like a 16 as Amfoyle suggests. You could fined a used 16 jib halyard on ebay and add the cleat and pulley to the mast. After hoisting the jib, you'll want the temporary forestay (cable or rope) out of the way of the furler so you will need to disconnect it and tie it to the bottom of the mast while sailing, shouldn't be a problem just remember to reconnect before unpinning the jib.
Are you going to store the boat with mast up? That will determine how strong your standing forestay needs to be.

This has been a great season for me, I love this boat. Just about every weekend was perfect for sailing so I got in a fair share of it.
I have notice while flying a hull she slows down more than any other Hobie I've owned. On GPS she got to 5.2mph, later that day after the battery died, we were slower, had to be below 3mph but can't verify it. My goal next year is to slow her to a stall while in the air, not that I think I can keep it there but it was so cool to be almost stopped and up as hi as possible.

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Buxton
18' T16 Silent Lightning (16' T2 Hybrid)
11' H16 White Lightning
79' H16 Green Lightning

Thanks for the responses. I don't have an H16 to compare to and I've never owned one, so I am having a hard time picturing what I need. Unfortunately my stock T2 doesn't look like the parts manual at the top of the jib so that is no help either. amfoyle, if you are able to pull your jib down on a stock T2 I would very much like to see your setup. Thanks again!

I think I led to some confusion. I raise the mast and hold it vertical with the main halyard (with a snap-on extension) while I attach the furling jib to the bridle, the jib already being attached to the mast before raising. Halyard and extension then get detached, and off I go! I then reverse those steps at the end of a day's sailing.
So I think you need the Hobie 16 "plan" to raise/lower your jib. You could YouTube H16 rigging and you'll see there are plenty of examples to see how the front of the H16 is initially held with a forestay once the mast is raised and then with a tightened jib+wire attached to the same shackle on the mainmast for sailing. Sorry for the confusion!

Thank you amfoyle that makes sense. I am looking at putting my boat in outdoor mast up storage so I'm trying to figure out how to protect my jib sail.

1. Use the jib cover supplied by Hobie that says "not intended for long term storage". Not sure what that means, but they also permanently attached the jib to the forestay so they don't leave too many options.
2. Find a way to detach the forestay, slide the jib off, and some method to hoist the jib over the forestay to get it back up. Not sure this would be good for the sail.
3. Have a zipper sown into the jib - not sure if this is even feasible or might risk ruining my sail, which may be the last of its kind.
4. Figure out how to hoist the jib next to the forestay, perhaps like the H16. I will try to dig into this further. In general, it looks like a 4:1 block system to hoist the jib, tension the rig, and hold the mast up. Is that correct? Doesn't this lead to 60-80 feet of line that needs to be stored somewhere? Does it risk the rig falling down if someone uncleats the wrong line?

I haven't owned many other cats so I always appreciate any input.

Thanks!

Mistro, Mast up storage for the summer, use the Jib snorkel that came with your boat, it will be fine. The reason it's not long term storage is it's open at the top, water, bugs and debris can get inside, so you don't want to keep it wrapped up for 6 months of storage because it will never dry out. If you use your boat at least 1 a month, get the jib out and open to the air, you'll be fine. We have 24 dry slips for cats at Lake Arthur and 1/2 of them wear snorkels.
If you still want to remove it completely, next weekend I have 2 16's, a getaway and my T2 to breakdown for storage. Since my boat is already rigged for the 16 jib, it shouldn't be to hard to figure out the T2 jib set up. If the weather is good and I have time, I'll check it out and video what I can.

_________________
Buxton
18' T16 Silent Lightning (16' T2 Hybrid)
11' H16 White Lightning
79' H16 Green Lightning

I've decided to use the job snorkel and see how it goes.

On a related note, anyone have any input on how resilient the T2 plastic hulls are to sun damage? Do they need to be covered? How long can I expect them to last if they are not? I've seen Waves and Getaways spend years outdoors and seem to handle it. Can I expect the same from the T2? I'm in southern CA, so we see lots of sun and our sailing season is pretty much year-round. As always, any help is much appreciated.