Mast tang

After almost 3 months of quarantine and beach closures, I finally got to take my 1984 H16 out for a few hours of sailing last week. I was sailing in a good wind and waves in the Gulf of Mexico off of Honeymoon and Caladesi Islands in Florida.

Unfortunately, my mast tang failed, but thank God it didn't happen while I had just been sailing. It wasn't till after I had put the boat back on the trailer, lowered the mast, etc. and was getting ready to drive away when the main shackle pulled through the mast tang and landed on the tramp with the shrouds and forestay still attached.

Had it pulled through while sailing or while stepping or unstepping the mast it could have caused major problems. If it had happened while sailing, I could have drifted to shore with the sea breeze and then probably reconnected the main shackle to the other big hole in the mast tang and limped back to where my car and trailer where on the Dunedin Causeway.

I had spent the week before this happened adding more gelcoat to the keel, doing minor repairs and checking everything over. Either I missed seeing a crack in the mast tang or it gave it up after 36 years of great sailing, I'll never know.

Fortunately I was able to quickly get another mast tang from Tackle Shack (my local Hobie dealer) and was back on the water again in a few days. After 36 years of saltwater sailing the rivet holes in the mast were as good as new. It took a little time to get the 12 new 3/16" SS rivets and rivet caps to align up with the holes in the mast and mast tang. I also put a coat of 5200 between the tang and the mast to keep water out and minimize corrosion.

_________________
Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

Soooo lucky! Wow! Must have been hanging on the lower part looking like a hook.

Do you do mast up storage?

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

I believe Hobie makes a tang with a reinforced tip (extra plates welded on each side) for the Tiger. Wonder why they don’t make that the standard tang on all boats.

All of the tangs on my boats have wear where the shroud shackle attaches. I think this is at least partially due to the mismatch in diameter of the hole in the tang compared to the diameter of the shackle pin. The pin being much smaller tends to point load the tang and wear into it. To combat that, I put a small section of stainless tube over the shackle pin to effectively increase it’s diameter and prevent wearing into the tang. But the reinforced tang would be a better solution.

sm

I have to trailer my boat so the mast is only up while I am sailing although I have only owned this mast since 2007 (prior to that, I have no idea whether it was used on a "beach cat" with mast up in Panama City Beach, FL). It is the all aluminum black anodized design. My original "1982 +/-" boat was a "Frankenstein" so I have no idea how old the mast tang is.

You would think that the lower hole in the mast tang would normally only have a downward force from the main shackle due to the upper forestay and shrouds. Not sure how the normal mast rotating changes the direction of forces on the main shackle/mast tang.

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Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

Glad that no one was hurt and that you are safe.

This is a good reminder to all of us to do a periodic and thorough check of all fittings and shackles.

Question - why 5200 and not Tefgel?

_________________
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.'

Only one tang change for the 16 in its history. From a single hole to this one. Not common at all this type of tang to fail, so lots of use. The M20 and Tiger had a stronger tang due to the larger rig and larger loads.

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

Can the 20 tang be installed on the smaller boats (16, 17, 18)? Are the mounting holes in the same location, or is it a different tang all together? Just curious about the potential to upgrade.

sm

Same tang. Just added plates welded to the sides for more main shackle strength.

30690001


20690000

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

I run a very sweet 2015 H16, a great racing boat, and this year, we plan to mount the Hobie 16 spinaker that came with the package.

(We had such fun on my old SX18 when we mounted a Tiger spin....)

Would you recommend we upgrade to the 'plate' style of tang?
I doubt that the loads on a H16 spin are as much as they are on an F18 style boat, but I thought that it's better to check....

_________________
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.'

I have not seen many (hardly any) of these tangs fail, but why not?

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

John: My H16 spin experience is with a (Euro?) kit that was installed on my 2008 boat. It was installed in ~2010, I bought the boat in ~2013, and I promptly removed/sold the spin kit. Things may have changed since then and/or I may be missing your point, but I don't see how a spin will affect the loads on this tang. My spin halyard/retrieval line was rigged through a swivel block attached to a H14 tang that was mounted well above the regular tang: https://media.hobie.com/item_attachments/20999020z52.pdf

Before removing the kit, I wanted to make sure I had installation instructions for the buyer, but there was a lot of confusing/conflicting info out there (old vs. new?, US vs. Euro?). Therefore, I prepared my own step by step installation/rigging instructions. These include pictures of the hardware on my boat before it was removed, numbered references to these Hobie illustrations: https://static.hobiecat.com/digital_assets/40998010.pdf, and notations where my instructions differ from the illustrations. I just sent you a copy of my instructions via email. Hope they are of some help!

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16

Thanks for the feedback Matt.

This doesn’t seem like something that would be worth outright replacing. But on a boat where the tang is 20-30 years old and/or worn and in need of replacement anyway, it sure seems like spending an extra $20 or so on the reinforced tang would be a nice bit of extra insurance for very little cost.

sm