Hi Folks,
Bought a used Wave and it's great. It even came with a jib kit and that's kind of fun--except that the jib rigging seems, shall we say, odd.
What's apparently been done (and I don't know if by the prior owner or someone else--and that doesn't much matter, I guess) is that there's a short pigtail cable with swedged loops in each end that attaches to the mast tang along with the shrouds--so far so good. There's also a crossbar across the front of the hulls (which seems like it could be typical since the class rules say you can leave the crossbar in place).
What appears to have been the original forestay has been permanently attached to the end of this pigtail cable (the lower swedged loop goes through the loop at the top of the forestay wire). And the forestay wire itself runs through the luff of the jib and ends in the forestay adjuster (hence my suspicion of it's origin. There's nothing remotely like a jib halyard other than a bunch of string that's been wrapped through the wire loop and the grommets at the tack and head of the jib to keep it moderately tight along the luff edge. The string has been handsomely secured by many turns of electrical tape. There's no adjustment of the luff tension at all.
The bridle and forestay have been replaced by a pair of forestays that are attached to the lower end of this pigtail cable (bad term, but don't know what else to call it) by a quick-link (as in what's used for hooking chains together--sort of a low-budget carabiner). These forestays' lower ends are eye-bolts that go through the crossbar near its ends and are fastened on with a pair of nuts under the crossbar.
Since the forestays connect to the standing rigging below the head of the jib, they can get in the way of the jib and certainly don't look like they'll contribute to long life for the fabric near the head of the jib.
This set-up is awkward and seems really odd. In general, there's almost no tension on the forestay wire that runs through the luff of the jib unless you leave the eye-bolts quite loose. (And when you do that, the leeward shroud has what seems like an rather surprising amount of slack....) And surely there's got to be a better way of attaching the port and starboard forestays than laboriously spinning nuts onto an eyebolt....
Moreover, the tack of the jib appears to me to be too high--it seems like the jib needs to ride lower. (It's got this 9-hole adjuster plus the string mess below it's tack, so the tack's at least a hand-span or so above the crossbar). The result of this is that the jib sheets end up putting tension on the clew of the jib at what seems like a really awkward angle (the jib sheet cleats are located at the middle trampoline cable brackets and the sheets end up at this very open angle with the clew grommet and it seems like it's very hard to trim the jib with any kind of finesse because the anles too open). My impression is that if the jib itself rode somewhat lower on the foreward rigging, that the sheets would have a shallower angle (at least when the jib is sheeted in tightly on a beating tack) and you'd have a better range of sheet ajustment.
At any rate, if any of you Waver's who fly a jib when not participating in class-sanctioned events would be so good as to give me a careful description (or, even better, post a diagram) of your set-up, I'd be most grateful.
Also, just for my info, does flying a jib make the Wave more suseptible to burying the lee hull and capsizing? It seems like it'd almost have to given that the force on the jib is out there in front of the main. Am I just making this up? (But hey, I was impressed at how easy it was to right [and so was my eight-year-old daughter who fortunately was wearing a wet suit]. My ol' 14 tends to bury its masthead in the mud of the shallow lake I sail in most often after a capsize [very hard to right without help when that happens]. The Wave's Bob is most welcome!)
Thanks much!
John (who's wishing he were on the water now)
HI,
I am on the road in an RV and connection is better than phone, but still a bit slow. When I get back to Key Largo, I will try to answer your questions,
Rick
Finally back home and happy with my DSL.
OK, I was about to go into a lengthly dissertation and realized it is all on the page linked below.
The Hobie jib set up does not work at all -- you cannot put any load on the forestay as it will simply bend the pole between the bows. So, be sure to take a look at what you can do.
Here is the link:
http:/
Good luck,
Rick
Hey, Rick,
Very cool! Thanks for the info. Was there some kind of search that might have led me to that? What you illustrate is pobably a bit more elaborate than I'll manage, but it gives me some ideas for how I can change things.
Is the Hobie-supplied cross-bar made of steel? (I'm guessing not; what I've got is a square-cross-section piece of steel. It would be moderately hard to bend...)
Thanks again!
John
John,
I just noticed your post about the "conventional" way to rig a jib on a Wave. And I don't know whether Rick really answered that, because he was telling you a better and different way to do it.
What you have on your boat does not sound in any way normal. The basic Wave has a forestay and two sidestays that all come from the same point on the mast. The forestay comes down and attaches to a very high bridle that attaches to the bows. The point at which the bridle meets the forestay is way too high for the tack of a jib.
So when you get the jib kit for the Wave, it includes a round tubular, black anodized crossbar that goes across in front between the bows. It has a little eyestrap in the middle of it. That is where the tack of the jib attaches. The forestay does NOT run through the luff of the jib.
For the jib halyard you have a little block up there on the mast where the other stuff is, and the halyard runs through that little block. All you do is attach the tack of the jib to the eyestrap in the middle of the front crossbar between the bows, attach the halyard to the head of the jib, raise the sail, and cleat it to one of the cleats at the bottom of the mast. Totally simplistic.
Unfortunately, because of the fact that the jib is not attached to the forestay in any way, the luff of the jib tends to sag off, and there is really no way to keep it tight enough. But Hobie Cat did not provide this jib option with performance in mind -- it was just to give another person on the boat something to do. A factory representative told me several years ago that they were surprised to find that the jib actually increased the boat's speed by 10 percent.
It sounds like the person you bought the boat from was doing some creative rigging to try to make the jib more efficient. Or else he just did not know how it was intended to be rigged and overcomplicated it. Or else none of the stuff is from the factory, and he made it all up from scratch. Sounds like it is not a factory spreader bar in the front. And sounds like the jib is not a stock Wave jib. And it sounds like he has modified the entire forestay rigging.