Hey there! I'm new, but been lurking around a little bit. This forum is a literal treasure trove of information.
I learned to sail on my grandparents' old Barnet butterfly. If you haven't seen them, they're fun single-handed catboats based on a 12-foot scale of the C-Scow. Very simple, not terribly fast, but exciting in the right conditions.
Last August I started looking for a sailboat of my own, and started out looking for butterflies (since I'm familiar with them). There were a couple outside my price range, then I spotted a 1978 Hobie 16 from a guy off of Craigslist. The boat had no soft spots on the hulls and the tramp and (I believe original) tequila sunrise sails are in great shape, so for $400 I figured I could at least resell the sails for at least that much (based on the condition), so I went ahead and grabbed it. So far it's been a great boat to sail. Even flew a hull a couple weeks ago, which isn't an easy feat in Colorado (We don't have great wind out here along much of the front range).
I did need to invest in a couple of parts, including a couple new mast cleats, a new mast-head, and mast base. I'm also wanting to replace the shrouds and the jib halyard soon-ish, but those are lower priority.
Eventually though, I'd like to get a trap system. The boat didn't come with one when I bought it (at least not as far as I can find), so I have literally no parts for the trap at all. Pictures I can see lead me to believe that the wires hold up the shock-cords, which is what you hang off of while out on the trap; is that the case? It seems to me like it would stretch the shock-cord out a lot to have your whole weight supported by it, which is why that seems wrong to me, but I could be misinformed or incorrect here (about a number of things).
Can someone help me out with that? Alternatively, if someone has a boat out in Colorado/Denver area and would be willing to teach me in person, I'd be happy to supply a 6-pack or similar compensation for a quick lesson or two!
_________________ 1978 16, "Bifrost"
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