H18SX Mast Weighs 50lbs... (comptip)... is that heavy ?

A buddy and I get darn near a hernia putting that thing up....

"Seems" too heavy, but I don't know. For comparison my H14 all metal mast is 30lbs.

What's a standard 18 mast weigh?

What's the right weight for an 18SX mast?

Thanks.

Sounds about right. A 14 has a much smaller diameter and shorter length. The 16 is about 40 lbs as I recall, so 50 for the SX is reasonable.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

With a Hobie Bob, the mast could weight even more.

It's not so much the weight, as the effects of leverage.....

We've used many methods to raise the mast at our Club. Best seems to be to use two sets of Cat Trax, one under each cross bar, and lots of flat, unobstructed room. (Typically, we store our boats for the winter in the parking lot, and that's where we will rig them again in about 3 1/2 months...roll on Spring!)

Pin the mast to the mast base at the centre of the front cross bar, carefully unwind and attach the shrouds (or side stays), and get the forestay and bridles ready. Tie a spare mainsheet (or a 50' piece of line) securely to the forestay, and have someone hold the END of this piece of line, preferably a heavy-set beer drinker, (we have some of those). Then have someone else raise the top of the mast off the tramp to about 30 degrees, and start to ROLL the Hobie backwards. Keep the mast centred, it should not be allowed to sway to one side or the other more than about 10 degrees.

Once vertical, pin the bridle wires, and you're done.

There are many variations on this theme.....
Downhill skiing or shinny hockey tonight? Let me think...

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Why does it make since to remove the bridles instead of just removing the one pin above the furler? I have heard you guys say this more than once and I don't get it. Why wouldn't you attach the bridles and the furler before raising the mast, its so much easier. And two people can easily raise a SX mast, I can do it solo if its tossed up to me. I find the easiest method is to use a winch on the mast support, hang a block from the mast cradle on the support, hook to my halyard ring, lift the mast till the winch angle is right and crank it up while holding the mast from swinging left and right, hook your forestay and its done.

I can see a couple reasons for doing this-

First, after many years of not doing this, I recently realized that I really prefer to take the bridle wires completely off the boat when trailering and store them in the boat box. This makes walking around the boat easier since there's nothing to duck under. More importantly, it eliminates the need to tie the bridle wires up for trailering. And I think the worst thing you can do on an 18 is to connect your jib blocks to the bridle wires and pull them straight back for trailering (like is done on a 16). This puts a sharp bend in the wires right at the bow tangs that I think can weaken them.

Two benefits to connecting the bridles rather than the forestay when raising the mast- 1) if you use a winch, it gives you something to tie the winch rope to. And 2) I've seen a lot of people struggle trying to pin the forestay when they have to simultaneously hold up the furler box, align the holes in the forestay and bridle, and then get the pin through. Pinning the bridles would be a lot easier (especially for shorter people).

sm

Absolutely agree with pinning by the bridles.

In our case, it's because we don't want to lose (or mix up) bits and pieces.
Unpin at the front of the hulls, then the bridle wires, roller furler, everything, stays together for winter storage. Then months later in Spring, we don't have to ask 'have you seen the bridles?' etc

Plus, we always round up a bunch of mono-hullers to do some of the grunt work, and pinning a bridle is within their capabilities.

later, have to plan skiing for the weekend

_________________
2015 H16, with spin,
SOLD 1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947 "In Theory..."
'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

There are many ways to skin a cat.... or mast a cat posting.php?mode=reply&f=13&t=21220#
What I have done in the past and it works, is to make a gin pole. Very simple. You take a 2 x 4 say 6 or so feet long, or whatever, cut a slot in it to fit over the front (side on a Tiger because you twist the mast initially) of the mast not too far from the base of the mast. The gin pole then stands up. (vertically) Then you run the bow shroud to it and continue down towards the bow. You can connect a rope to the top of the bridle wires to make it easier but basically you can lift it that way single handed from the front with the gin pole essentially being like a helper. The gin pole basically converts the initial raising into a downhaul situation. in that you are pulling forward and down.

The only improvement I could think of that design would be to put the gin pole on the crossbar by the mast base and have side stabilizer (triangulation) to keep it raising straight by keeping the gin pole 90 degrees to the xbar and keeping the mast in the correct plane.
This is how they raise telephone poles in the absence of machinery.

Cheers Al

_________________
Cheers
Alan

I also prefer to remove the bridles/furler when trailering. It also keeps the plastic furler parts out of the sun while in storage.
You need to identify port/starboard on the bridle wires for reinstalling, otherwise the furling line will lead forward instead of towards the crossbar.
I addition to marking them, I leave the port shackle on the port tang, and the starboard shackle on its bridle. This 'idioit proofs' the bridle orientation when rigging. Seems like overkill, but having done this once and not noticing until all rigged w/ sails up, I didn't want to repeat this mistake.

OK... ok... I DO... have the murrays.com, or whereever.... gin pole mast raising thing....

but it's such a PITA to setup...

faster and well.... faster... to just get a buddy and hernia the mast up.

But... yes, I've used the gin pole and raised the mast by myself pretty easily.... the ESSENTIAL part of this route is you MUST NOT let the mast sway side to side (as usual, but harder to manage when you're alone)....

main thing I'm noting is that when I help my other H18 (non-SX) buddies.... their masts are noticably lighter....

oh well.... I'll just be happy w/my squaretop pentex.... gin pole...

double triple check my mast is sealed..... probably reinstall the bob I took off last season... and get a 10 foot righting pole.
give a man a lever long enough... and a place to stand..... he can move the world.

Well, if you have a buddy with you, the fastest method I prefer is to attach a ~50' x 3/8" line to the forestay (line has a S.S. clew hook tied into it to quickly hook through a hole in the furler chainplate). Line is led forward, laying over the top of the tow vehicle. You lift mast quickly to waist level, buddy pulls on line form in front of vehicle at the same time, using the momentum you started to keep it moving. It's an easy pull for him, after mast is more than 30 degrees up. Your job is to just keep it from swaying, let buddy do the lifting.
This method is more controlled than the straight 'Iwo Jima' / hernia method.

I used 2 bathroom scales, one at each SX mast end; they indeed totalled 50#.

Well it's good to know that your SX mast is also 50lbs.....

Myself, I just got on the scale... weighted myself... then picked up the mast, weighted again, took difference....

Thanks!