H16 Bent Dolphin Striker

Total newbie to the Hobie forums, so sorry for any ignorance. Anyways, I've been sailing a '79 H16 for about a year now and just bought a better '80 H16 about a week ago. However, it appears that the dolphin striker post on the new boat is bent inwards about 10-20 degrees from vertical. It doesn't move at all, and it appears to be frozen in the cross beam (that's to be expected though). I know that the dolphin striker takes a lot of stress from the rigging, but I'm wondering if the post needs to be replaced before sailing again (I've taken it out once already)? Could it be bent back straight using a bit of heat? If so, would there be any problems with doing so?

I believe the previous owner attached the bottom of the downhaul to the dolphin striker rod instead of the mast cleat, which slowly caused it to bend in from the stress caused by the downhaul/sail. The previous owner rigged the downhaul so that it would reach the dolphin striker rod perfectly.

Any help would greatly appreciated!

Without knowing more it’s impossible to tell. Are there any cracks/damage to the crossbar? Is the mast step damaged or dislodged? Is the striker rod tight or is it loose? Is the striker bar going across under the crossbar tight or loose?

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H16 2002 "Islands" Sail No. 107432

Should be straight or straightened.

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

I would not apply heat. You risk damaging the surrounding area of the aluminum crossbar. Drill out the mast step rivets and pull it out that way.

sm

There’s no damage to the crossbar that I can see, the mast step doesn’t move and is not damaged (other than normal wear from the mast), the striker post is tight and rod are both tight. I suspect the striker post is frozen to the crossbar.


Ah, that makes sense. I could definitely try that… how would you do it? Drill out the rivets then pull both the mast step and the striker post out? Or try to unscrew the post from the mast step?

Not entirely sure how to post phots to these forums directly, so here’s a link to a google drive folder with photos of the striker post: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... HQhuRlwSV8

This might help:

This was written up in the Hotline:

http://www.hobiecat.com/support/pdfs/h16-step-replace.pdf

Not that hard to do usually, but corrosion around the post, through the crossbar, can make it tougher.

Image posting FAQ: https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8574

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

you might find as I did that the post is not bent. Very hard to bend SS. My step had lost its thread and the DS was not properly tensioned (I just bought it) so the DS post had dropped out of the step and was moving about under load pivoting on the point where it enters the lower side of the front beam.
Dropped the mast, managed to reseat the DS post into the step and then add mast and retention so that there is no movement in the DS post. I may still need to replace the step.

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Hobie 16 2008.
Sailing in Hong Kong
I first got hit in the head by a boom 50 years ago. Been sailing ever since