mask rake

I have sailed monohulls, and you do not want to rake your mast perpendicular to the boat on a H-16.

The 16 will pitch pole and will not get up wind very well without considerable mast rake. Most folks get their mast "In the Ball Park" by taking a measurement with their halyard, with the main up and hooked. Pull your halyard to the center of the bridle wire boat on either hull, mark where it hits the halyard, then walk to the stern, your mark should fall 11-14 hash marks below the bottom of your stern. Once you get your mast to this point, you can rake forward or back a little to get your boat to handle right for your wind conditions, crew weight, and sailing style.

David

Good advice from Hobie Dave.

The H16 rig is tensioned by the jib halyard. Mast rake will be determined by shroud length and pin placement in the chainplates. Until the sails are up and the jib halyard is tensioned, any measurements are irrelevent.

Is there any rule of thumb as to a good starting point for the placement of the pins in the chain plates? I just purchased a 16' and am trying to get it set correctly for optimum perfomance. In the past, it seems that everything is set correctly until I sheet in and then I gain excess slack in the shroud wires.

Thanks!

I have my shrouds pinned 3rd hole from the bottom, but all of the wires are not the same length. It is a good idea to be sure both of your wires are the same length, before you start. Then just set it somewhere near the middle of the chain plate and check the rake with your halyard.

the goal is maximum mast rake. the limiting factor is the mainsheet blocks. the jib halyard controls the rake. the forestay needs to be long enough to allow the mast to rake back far enought so the main blocks are almost touching when both sails are up and you are actually sailing. use additional shackles or a pigtail of cable (mine is about 6" long) to lengthen the forestay. higher wind strengths require more tension on the jib halyard. when you are sailing upwind your mainsheet blocks should be almost touching each other and the forestay should be just slack, with all the load on the jib. the side stays should be slightly slack on the leeward side. too much tension on the side stays makes for poor mast rotation. hope this helps!

Hobie Dave & Marsh,

Thanks for the input! I was hoping to sail on Saturday and give your suggestions a try, but no wind......bummer!

I disagree a little bit here. The jib halyard tension and the shroud chainplate pin placement work together to define mask rake. Whether the main blocks will go block-to-block is a by product. First, for the majority of wind conditions, the jib tension should be fairly tight (1 to 2 inch deflection of the shroud). From there, you can then set the shroud chainplate pin to effect mask rake.

My boat is set up with the pin at the third hole up from the bottom of the chainplate (I believe my shrouds are a "normal" length). This gives me a good combination of mast rake and weather helm but I can only reasonably sheet to about 1 inch from block-to-block. Lighter teams have the pin in the first or second hole and can sheet block-to-block very easily. I do not think it is a good idea to back off jib halyard tension in order to get block-to-block. I may have misunderstood what you were saying.

the goal is maximum mast rake. the limiting factor is the mainsheet blocks. the jib halyard controls the rake. the forestay needs to be long enough to allow the mast to rake back far enought so the main blocks are almost touching when both sails are up and you are actually sailing. use additional shackles or a pigtail of cable (mine is about 6" long) to lengthen the forestay. higher wind strengths require more tension on the jib halyard. when you are sailing upwind your mainsheet blocks should be almost touching each other and the forestay should be just slack, with all the load on the jib. the side stays should be slightly slack on the leeward side. too much tension on the side stays makes for poor mast rotation. hope this helps!

marsh hawk

shrouds are sidestays. all they do is limit side to side movement. the forestay controls mast rake until the jib is tensioned, then the jib wire, tensioned by the jib halyard, should carry all the load and control rake. my forestay may have 2"-3" of slack for light air and as much as 8' of slack- before i leave the beach-when i anticipate heavy air. the amount of slack is controlled by tensioning the jib halyard. when i am sailing hard on the wind my blocks are almost touching and the forestay is barely slack, with the jib wire carrying all the load. the windward shroud is loaded and straight, the leeward shroud is slack.

Hawk,

You mention that you have 2 to 3 inches of slack in your forestay. When I sail, I end up with between 4 to five inches of slack in the forestay. It just floats around up there. I have the jib locked into the third hole on the chainplate. Should I move to a different hole? Which direction? Sorry for the rookie questions. I just bought the darn boat and am still figuring it out.

Thanks-

John

slack in the forestay is good. that means your jib wire is as straight as possible . now you want to look at the distance between the blocks of the main sheet when you are sailing hard to windward. the space between the upper block and the lower block should be minimal, with lots of tension on the main sheet and sail. if you are "block to block" before the jib wire is fully tensioned then your jib wire will slacken and your jib will become too full. the forestay will straighten and the jib wire will curve. thats slow upwind. if you fully tension the main sheet and you have space- more than 1"- then you dont have maximum mast rake, which is also slower upwind. optimum is some slack in the forestay, jib wire carrying all the load (straight as possible) and main sheet blocks almost kissing. most racers use a 6:1 mainsheet system that allows more rake than the older 5:1 stacked system. am i making sense?

slack in the forestay is fine. now adjust the jib halyard till the main sheet blocks are almost kissing when you are sheeted hard in on the upwind leg, then you will have maximum mast rake.

Makes sense. Thanks. Does it make sense to make these adjustments when rigging the boat? Boat facing into wind, both sails up, sheet in main to where the blocks are just kissing and adjust the jib accordingly?

the main sail needs to be fully loaded, head to wind wont do it. did your mono have a backstay? the main acts like a backstay upwind, thats where the jib wire tension is coming from when youre sailing. thats why it needs to be adjusted for different wind strengths. the tighter the main is sheeted the more tension on the jib wire. a tape gauge placed on the mast next to where the jib halyard wire ends- near the base of the mast, when you have the jib up and tensioned- can give you a reference. set it up, sail out , go hard upwind, and look at the forestay-jib wire . is the forestay slack? ok. are your blocks almost kissing? perfect! mark the height of the jib halyard wire on the tape gauge on the mast. if not perfect, mark it anyway and use it as a reference for adjusting the halyard. fall off onto a broad reach, or go back to the beach. have your crew or you re- tension the jib, tighter for less rake, looser for more rake. one inch increments of adjustment is plenty. repeat until its correct (jib wire tight, forestay not loaded), sheeted in hard and blocks almost kissing. write your estimate of the wind strength next to that mark. now youre set! looser for light air, tighter fot heavy. ok?