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PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:46 pm 
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Unfortunately, the part of Maine where I live has almost no Hobies. I have seen one on the shore of a nearby lake, and I am thinking about ringing their doorbell even though I don't know who they are.

buxton wrote:
Is there another 16 sailing anywhere near you that you could ask to hoist your sail and see if it goes up right in their mast. Tape a coat hanger to the end of your main sheet and feed/pull it up the track, see if it hangs up or has excessive drag. Need to figure out if it's the mast or sail.


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 7:56 pm 
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Location: New Hampshire
dunebugmi wrote:
We discussed lowering the sail. It is easier than raising, but still stops and sticks in some sections.


If it stops and sticks going down, it is binding somewhere. Especially if it is binding in the same place.

dunebugmi wrote:
I have been thinking about putting the mast on the ground, and running the sail's lower cord up the mast track, and then running the luff cord through the boom track.


I'd flip the boat on its side with the mast up. That way the sail track will be off the ground. Personally I'd grab the head of the sail, get it into the slot, and start walking backwards down the mast, pulling on the head of the sail. As soon as it binds, I'd look both at the track where the head of the sail is, and where the sail is entering the track (the material could be bunching, increasing the diameter of the bolt rope.

dunebugmi wrote:
There is one other hobie in the area. I don't know who they are, but maybe I could cold knock on their door and ask for help.


CRANNE took over the Maine catamaran scene. It is not terribly active, but the contact info on this page -- http://cranne.org/Home/Contact -- might work. I'm outside of Concord, NH, and Fleet 448 is down in Rhode Island.

jclarkdawe wrote:
It would be nice to find someone with some experience to see what's going on. One question of you that I don't think has been asked is how well does the sail come down? Is it stubborn about coming down as well as going up? If it hates coming down as much as it does going up, it's probably binding somewhere.

Way to check that the track isn't bent somewhere is take a bolt and grind it down so that it slides into the track at the base. Slide it up the track and see whether it binds or becomes lose. The track should be a relatively constant gap without change. Way to check the sail is watch as it feeds in and see whether there are areas that bunch. Sometimes threads break and material will gather.

Have you tried hooking the nub with no sail on the halyard? It's worth some practice to get the feel of the process without the complication of the sail.

I have two sails and one of mine hates having the lower gooseneck inserted into the mast. I end up in the same situation that you do. A large screwdriver inserted through the gooseneck gives me something to grab. Tightening the mainsheet will sometimes enable the downhaul to pull it down. Worse case scenario is some days the gooseneck just barely goes in and the downhaul will hold it in place. Worst case scenario I can think of (which I've never had to do) is take one of those zip ties and wrap it through the gooseneck and around the mast and tighten.

Before you cut your sail, find someone who can come look at this. I don't know where you're located, but usually there's someone close by.

Jim Clark-Dawe


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:14 am 
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Location: New Hampshire
Dunebugmi,
I sent you a PM, I am heading to northern maine for labor day weekend. I will be bringing my 16 with me. Maybe we could meet up and hopefully I could help you with your. I have a spare mast if that turns out to be the trouble.

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84 14T Redline #67 Blue Hawaii faded but still working!
82 Yellow hull16 '81 Boomer nationals 20.9 on GPS
83 White hull 16 No sails "Clean and Purty Now!"
87 White hull no sails no tramp


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:25 pm 
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Looking at the pics again, along with the fact that the plates seemed to have been installed too close to the bolt rope, I'm wondering if the bolt rope was repaired with new tape that is thicker than original or possibly covering the original. That bolt rope is in really good shape but the tack of the sail shows wear that is typical for its age and possibly goes under the tape. From a different thread of yours:

Image Image

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:05 am 
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Interesting idea; I hadn't considered a possible repair to the luff tape. I'll measure that thickness in a few places.

AntonLargiader wrote:
Looking at the pics again, along with the fact that the plates seemed to have been installed too close to the bolt rope, I'm wondering if the bolt rope was repaired with new tape that is thicker than original or possibly covering the original. That bolt rope is in really good shape but the tack of the sail shows wear that is typical for its age and possibly goes under the tape. From a different thread of yours:


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:39 am 
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Location: New Hampshire
I had a bolt rope where the material at each batten had a little looseness. Nothing you'd see when you were looking, but it became evident as you were raising the sail. The material would bunch as it entered the track, causing the sail to jam. The track is a bit tight so it will force any loose fabric to bunch.

This is why you have to do everything very slowly here. In my case, releasing pressure would cause the cloth to relax and would no longer show the problem.

Jim Clark-Dawe


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 04, 2019 6:17 am 
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Hi all, this thread is wrapped up now. A1cnc helped me fix the sail!

The problem was in the battens having too much tension. This created some kind of bunching/warping in the luff cord.

After releasing the batten tension, it slips up the mast with ease. Gravity alone will pull it down the mast when the halyard is loose (no help needed). The dry lubricant also helped.

Note: the last 6 inches is still difficult, and it can be seen visibly that the cord bends outward for some reason. My fix for this is to hold the boom, push it toward the mast, and then push the cord up. The cable swag then easily seats in the hook.

For reference, if any future readers are curious, we measured the sail tape and cord with a micrometer:
my sail:
tape: 0.031 inch
cord: 0.336 inch

a1cnc sail:
tape: 0.027 inch
cord: 0.329 inch

Someone posted a cross section of the mast somewhere in this thread or one of the related threads. The cross section is helpful to compare these measurements to for clearance.

Finally, the gooseneck was somewhat difficult to downhaul with no mechanical advantage, but with one extra pulley it was easy. It was easy to seat the gooseneck into the mast track even under the downhaul tension.

Thanks again for all of your help!

https://imgur.com/s8ZYaDz


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:16 am 
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Location: Jersey Shore
Based on the picture you posted, it looks to me like your battens are now way too loose. There shouldn’t be any wrinkles in the batten pocket area when the battens are tensioned correctly. Snug them up enough to take out the wrinkles and then go no farther. If you set them too loose, you run the risk of having the battens slide back in the pockets and then the forward tips of the battens poking through the sail.

Regarding downhaul, you should be using at least 3:1 purchase to have enough power to set the downhaul properly. Modern H16’s use a 6:1 setup. You can also use the mainsheet system to help pull the sail down.

sm


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 11:32 am 
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This thread has been a huge help! Thanks for those who have posted.

I now know what to work on, but I have one question. I am new to having a comp tip and have had some of the previous mentioned issues. One that hasn’t been mentioned is that I have a pinch in the plastic of the comp tip luff track approximately 2.5 feet from the top. Attached is a picture. I doubt this is normal but it’s symmetric so I’m questioning myself. I was going to take a heat gun and remold it but wanted to toss it out there for further suggestions before I fix something that’s not broken!

Thanks,
Chuck

Well apparently I don’t know how to post a picture. While I get that figured out, do y’all have any advice on the narrowing?


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:08 pm 
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Location: Sodus NY
The pinch in the comp tip track is caused by tying the mast down across the track or some thing similar. Fold some cardboard up and slide it into the pinch so it spreads it open. Leave it overnight and it should be fine in the morning.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 6:50 am 
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One other thing, that was just posted on JoyriderTV, is that you should wet down the bolt rope, either with a hose or even a little spray bottle, and it slides much easier through the track. I haven't had issues raising my main, so haven't tried it, but Joe says it makes an unbelievable difference in the effort required to raise the sails.

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1979 Hobie 16 "Orange Crusher"
2017 Hobie 16 "Cayman" sails 114795
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2020 7:01 am 
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Hi @dunebugmi,

Thank you for sharing your experience.

I just purchased a 1979 Hobie 16 and have been having similar problems.

I just joined the forum and am glad to be part of the Hobie community.

8)


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