Sailing last Tues Lake Champlain, nice 10-12 knts in my H16 '82 (will all new rigging last spring), beautiful sunny day, beam reach, just decided whether to trap out and ...."snap"....the little 6 inch section of the forestay between the mast tang and the jib sheet block broke. As the sun shone brightly, my rig just fell backwards. Then all was quiet on this peaceful day.... 
I packed up, rowed for 30 min with my little extendable paddled before finding a ride 2 miles back to home. Home safe and sound. 
Anyone else with similar stories.
If nothing else got damaged, but your pride, I'd consider you had a sucessful day! A little paddling never hurt no-one.-But a bent mast would be a major HURT!
I had a side shroud come loose. I didn't realize anything was wrong, until I tacked and the mast fell over. -No damage. Captain and crew floated with beers in hand to the nearby shore, and promptly re-masted and continued sailing.
No damage, then no drama.
It just so happens that I had been trailoring my H16 back adn forth between Montreal and South Hero, VT alot over the summer and always keep a few extra bungies on the tramp "just in case". Once the rig came down, it took less than 10 minutes to remove and roll the sails, remove the 4 trap lines and stretch/bungy them to the base of the mast, remove the side shrouds and also bungy them to the mast base and voila! All was "neatly" arranged on the tramp. I suppose this curious sense of "a job well done" would have been better placed if I was standing beside my boat on a trailor and not in the middle of the lake. 
That being said, for those of you who dread such an occurance, it was rather easy doing the above and the 3 or 4 extra bungies that were available (stretched on central tramp lines, out of the way) came in very handy to pack everything away so nicely.
To round out the story, my rescue boat was a pleasant couple in an older Zodiac-type rig with an even older motor. Once hooked up and ready for tow, their motor wouldn't start!! (you know - let's help rescue this guy in trouble and wait, motor doesn't work!). Anyway, the motor wouldn't idle so once finally started (10 min later), I had the ride of my life back home at somewhere arouand 20 mph, struggling to keep the boat straight and the mast float out of the water.
All 'n all - a nice story over gin/tonic an hour later
Ron
Hi Everybody, I'm New here and would like to share my mishap on the lake. I was out on a small lake in upstate New York on my 79 H16 with a friend sailing on a reach in about 10 knts. We were both just hiking out a little and the windward hull was just starting to lift when POP!!! My starbord hull had a major failure. My crew mate luckly was holding on to the trap handle and took the pressure of the mast keeping it from comming down. Quickly turned into the wind and stopped. Upon inspection I found I now have a 1 foot by 1 foot trap door on the top of my hull at the chain plate.
Worried that water would flood the hull, we carfully lowered the main and let the jib take us gently back to shore.
Looking at it at home I found mildue on the fault crack behind the chain plate area that tells me that it had been cracked there for some time.
Any one have a used starbord hull near central New York?
Will try to attach picture ( new at this )
Just bought an 81 TheMightyHobie18 have not been out yet but still need to fix my 16 - Any suggestions???
Thanks, Mark
YOW!!! You're going to have to epoxy that down again (just slather it all over the area where it has ripped away and then put some cinder blocks or some kind of weight on it to press it down firmly.
Then I'd get some fiberglass cloth and put 2-3 layers down over either tear, and at least 2 layers along the inside of the hull-deck joint there where the chaimplate-backing-rod sits. Then I'd go get a longer rod to use in place of the existing one. Probably twice as long.
That's what *I* would do anyway. Yow. That smarts! Good luck.
Well I had my first 'mast drop' this weekend. The wind was great, just around 15knots, both out on the wire 
A friend had decided we should race to a bouy out near to where the ships wait offshore. On the last tack to make the bouy all was good until...'peacefully' the mast decided to take a break.. The swell was small, and packing up everything took 20min. Luckily a 40ft cat was motoring past, and towed us back in light drizzle to the beach. Nothing appears broken and no-one got hurt..so I'd put in the 'experience' chapter and look back on it with a smile 
The cause: the threaded pin below the 'toggle twist' that goes through the lipped hull to the small bar under the lip sheared completely. Think I'll just replace both now in case
Not exactly a diamasting but similar nevertheless.
While single handing my H16 on a beautiful day with about 8 knots of wind, my trapeze wire snapped.
I managed to hold on to the mainsheet, using hobiegary's "DUMBASS" (Dragging Under My Boat Automatic Sheeting System) technique.
Hello Mark,
check out
http://www.ohyc.com/html/tbone.htm
for an example of a major hull repair. Perhaps you can fix your cat, too.
H77
Thanks H77
Very encouraging!! I have a little experience with fiberglass repair and auto body work. The location of my damage is the tough part. Maximum stress at the shroud connection point. Am going to also use Jamie's suggestion and make longer rods for under the lip the help distribute the stress out beyond the fracture points. I was thinking of painting anyway. Thanks for the pictures and help - Great Job on your 16
Happy sailing, Mark
Hey Mark,
the link I posted was some information I came across when I was looking for Hobie-16 repair instructions on the web. Afraid I can't claim the credit for having done the repair myself
Happy sailing to you, too.
H77