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 Post subject: Pitch pole a Wave?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:09 am 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:25 am
Posts: 17
Location: Maple, Ontario
My first post here. I recently bought a brand new Wave. After sailing monohauls on and off for years I decided to try a cat. I wanted something that I can leave at the cottage and not worry about too much.
I was out on Lake Simcoe which is North of Toronto this past weekend. Saturday brought winds of 15K+, waves of 3-4ft and I decided to go out and see what I could do with the new boat. It was my 5th time out and I knew I was in for some fun. I was able to fly a hull in no time which really surprised me given the fact that this is more of a family (heavier) boat. I was having a great time until I caught up to a wave and pitch poled the Wave. I wasn’t thrown forward but now have a nasty bruise behind my leg and I didn’t realize what exactly was going on until I was holding on to the tiller bar and going under. While I struggled to get my leg out of the strap and made my way back to the surface I concluded that this is not what I came out for.
I couldn’t believe it when I popped out of the water and all I could see were the bottoms of both hauls (turtled). I quickly jumped on the overturned tramp and shook my head. I’ve read the forums for awhile and had not heard of this being possible in a Wave. To my extreme delight I was able to turn the boat over with great ease, grab the mast and pull myself out. The whole ordeal took no more than 2 minutes and I was on my way. Great to see the Wave hold up to the pounding it took this weekend and even better to see the Hobie design help me get out of a terrible predicament.

I couldn’t believe how the boat wanted to pitch pole and felt even worse that it caught me early. Live and learn I guess.


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 Post subject: Pitchpole
PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:36 am 
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Site Admin

Joined: Tue May 27, 2003 12:44 pm
Posts: 15027
Location: Oceanside, California
Yep... cat... short cat... lots of sail power... pitch pole. Welcome to cat sailing!

Now you know what can happen. There are a few things to help prevent a pitch pole:

Mast rake aft. Adjust the mast aft as far as possible while still being able to sheet the sail.

Keep you weight aft... waaaay aft. I sit under the tiller in windy conditions.

Get a main traveler system. By traveling out the main, you can reduce the loads on the bow while retaining forward power.

Brace. Brace for a stuffed bow. If you can retain your position, you can often sheet out and recover rather than doing the whole pitch pole flip.

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


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 Post subject: pitch poled a Getaway
PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:01 pm 
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Site Rank - Captain

Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 2:28 pm
Posts: 91
Location: Chicago
My bro and I were in No Carolina 4 years ago and rented a Getaway. We'd never been on one. My first question to the gal at the rental shack was whether they were prone to pitch pole. She said emphatically no, they don't pitch pole at all. The bows did look pretty big. About 30 minutes out we were hooting on a broad reach, all 430# of us on the back corner of the tramp (no trap wires). I was looking at the occupants of another boat and not paying attention when BANG, my bro hit the mast and I caught the side stay on the way by. I must say the boat was easy to right (once I unhooked the rudder from a crab pot bouy), but my entire upper arm turned purple and black that night. Lessons learned: don't listen to people who've never done it and pay attention to what you're doing. On my H16 I make use of the travelers a lot.

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1989 H16
2009 H16 squaretop


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:10 am 
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Site Rank - Captain

Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:28 pm
Posts: 73
Glad to hear the wave is easy to right from tutle....the 14 is deffanitely not.

I saw in the hobie catalog these little plastic planer wings that go on the bow of each hull and help prevent pitch pole.


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