Cracked Batten Pocket End Caps

Hope you are having a good holiday.

I just returned to Mexico to begin my Getaway sailing season after 6 months on land.
While cleaning up and setting up my Getaway I noticed that several of the mainsail batten end caps are chipped or cracked. These are square white plastic with about 5 rivets and are fastened to the luff end of each batten pocket.
Any experience or advice on how to repair and/or maintain these?
Do you loosen the battens after each sail and then re-tension at the next sail?

Regards
Lew

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Lew

Yes, loosen the batten ties after sailing and certainly before long term storage. The issue is mainly stretching the dacron sail material, but could damage the pocket protectors if loaded over a long period. The plastic could distort and fail.

The protectors are not difficult to replace. You would drill the rivets out and install the new caps / rivets using a flairing tool / center punch and hammer.

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

Happy New Year Matt.

In addition to batten tension, could salt corrosion of the rivets produce enough pressure to crack the corners of the pocket end cap? The cracks propagate out from the rivet holes. It would seem that the rivets could use a good fresh water wash regularly, especially after a capsize.
Is there a Hobie part number for the caps or are they only available from other suppliers?
Thanks for all your help.

_________________
Lew

That is a Hobie custom part only available from us. We did have some materials issues at one time on these that may have contributed to the problem. How old is the boat?

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

My mainsails on my 17 and 18 (both from around 2007/2008) have issues with the luff caps cracking. One of the caps on the 17 was real bad so I replaced it with a non-Hobie cap (the style with 4 screws that Hobie used before these new caps).

You have to be real careful when you drill out the rivets in the cap. Its not like drilling out a rivet in a piece of metal. Once the drill takes the top off the rivet, it wants to jump all over the place. I ended up basically destroying the old caps (not a real big deal) to get them off. And you have to be real careful not to damage the sail in the process.

sm

Matt
The Getaway was purchase new in Jan 2008. I believe the hulls were produced in last part of 2007.

Do you have a part number for the Getaway batten pocket cap? I can't find any reference to it in the cataloge.

_________________
Lew

Many parts details are the same as H16 or other models, so looking at the other parts pages...

Batten pocket protector kit (1 pair of caps and the rivets) # 12480001 "Hobie" Protector Kit

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