Hey. I've been sailing my hobie 14 turbo for about 3 mths and just loving it! Slowly sorting things out and seriously having fun doing it. God, I didn't realise what I've been missing these years! Anyway, can someone give me some advice regarding mast rake. Having a jib on my 14 and using the halyard instead of a shroud to set the angle of the mast, I just don't know what angle or tension to cleat the halyard off at. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks. By the way, great forum... especially for me way down here in New Zealand!
Hey
With mast rake people say if you rake it as far back as possible it will make you go faster and point higher wrong. I have just found out you can point as high with your mast all the way up and still point and go the same speed. With speed and hight comes experiance. Over time your skills will improve and you will go faster and point higher.
Jules
I am going to have to disagree with Jules on this one.
NZHobie, I think you are on the correct track. You want to start with your forestay in the top hole of your adjuster plate. Tighten your side stays as evenly as possible. Then throw your main sail up and see if you can still sheet in block to block or not. If you can sheet in block to block but your sail is not very tight, loosen up your side stays and tighten your fore stay one or two holes. Then test it again.
The idea is to get your mast back far enough where you can almost sheet in block to block, but still have a good amount of rake and have the main sail tight. Then depending on the conditions, you can do fine adjustment of your mast rake with your jib halyard.
The aft angle of your mast is an important performace tweak on cats. Once you have your mast set where you want it, you might want to think about adjusting the rudder rake also.
Well Jules,
you are the only one who doubts what 100s of sailors have found...
Mast rake is best when you are just able to sheet in block to block with a 6:1 ratio mainsheet.. For more info there is the nice tuning guide by Bob Curry in this forum.
C U Fritz
Thanks to you guys who replied...great help. However, I forgot to mention that my boat doesn't have a front shroud...at all! I'm picking that I DEFINATELY should have one, because I can only tension the whole rig via the jib halyard that holds the mast up...which to me seems not logical at all!??
Does anyone know where I can read online or buy a rigging guide or similar for the 14 turbo?
Thanks again for replying
Hey
What i ment is alot of people i know try to over rake their masts thinking this but if your main goes block to block while flatening your sail thats the best way to sail. Say person A doesn' have much experiance and another person B has more experiance and the same rake and same set up all over, which would win with pointing and speed.
When i was in melbourn racing we all set your boats the same way to prove experiance is most important and we found out the more experianced guys would point better and sail fatser. But when you have them both, skill and experiance you should do well.
Jules