p porter wrote:
The newer boats have a tapered casting. As the casting is placed on the pylon, it gets tighter the further it goes in. You can tell the tappered casting because they have the integrated jib traveler turning block. Some people still glue the newer boats but I have found it completly unnecessary.
As a boat gets older I have had to rerivet the corner castings to maintain stiffness.
Years ago we would epoxy the corner castings to the cross bars as well as castings to pylons. Glued boats are very difficult to take apart, if you should ever need to replace a hull or a cross bar.
Hi Porter,
Thank you a lot. Tapered castings sounds like a nice improvement, I think that's what I'll look for.
Besides windsurfing and kiteboarding, my sailing has been very limited, so I've got a lot to learn. I tried for a good while this morning to figure out what an "integrated jib traveler turning block" is on the web and the H16 assembly manual and parts guide on this site. I know what the main sail traveler does on the rear crossbar generally. For the jib sail I found the cheek, downhaul, jib clew, and jib sheet blocks, but not the turning block, maybe cause it came later. I am going to learn the terminology, but I probably won't really get it until I put a hobie cat together and see how things work. I'll try to find out what the integrated turning block is and when it was introduced. Looking for a boat, it may be useful for me to try to find out if I can what year these changes took place, since my understanding is so limited now.
I really appreciate the help.
Stu