Well... took the cat out for the first time yesterday. As someone who has sailed small mono-hulls (Zuma's, Sunfish)in the past, only 3 letter come to mind... O!! M!! G!! I have never experienced such speed and exhiliration!! It was amazing.

As a newb a few "issues" did come up that I wanted to seek the help of this forum...

1. We have an "Aussie rig" for hoisting the jib. It was a pain and tended to get tangled very easily. Question: what purpose does an Aussie rig serve with all those pulleys. Can we get by with just one pulley.

2. We had a bear of a time tacking!! Not sure why. No matter what speed we were going we found ourselves going into irons. I'm thinking we are not using the jib effectively since we are not used to that. Any advice??

3. How to right the cat? Yes we flipped it. While righting it, we would get it up but would immediately flip over the other direction. Happened several times until we drifted into some old guy's back yard and righted it from shore. What are we doing wrong?

What kind of wind conditions where you in?

2. For starters you might want to backwind the jib on your tacks, leave the jib cleated until you are all the way across the wind. Then as you release the jib, also release the main a little. The jib should snap to the other side of the boat and you should be ready to go once you sheet in. You might also learn how to sail your boat in reverse, occationally you might need to turn your rudders the other direction and back into the direction you want to do. But don't move the rudders until you realize you are actually going backwards when stuck in irons. Also easier to tack if you are pointing fairly high into the wind at a fast pace as you start your tack.

3. When righting the boat, you need to make sure you uncleat all the sails. Sometimes once you start getting the boat to come back over you need to grab either the dolphin striker, or the hull you were just standing on to keep it from lifting to far out of the water and flipping back over. Typically not a problem until you are in 15+ wind.

Great to hear you had a fun first day!

Nice avitar by the way



edited by: smfinley, Oct 18, 2009 - 03:06 PM

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Scott,
‘92 H18 w/SX wings
‘95 Hobie Funseeker 12 (Holder 12)
‘96/‘01/‘14 Hobie Waves
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Ahhh... I remember the rush the first time I sailed an H16. I don't know anything about the Aussie rigs, but I can help with a few other points here:

H16's can be very difficult to tack because of the asymetrical hull design and lack of dagger boards (which is a nice convenience). You generally need to 'backwind' the jib by leaving the jib cleated when you go into the tack, and then uncleating it quickly when the main comes accross. This also helps power the Hobie jib through everything that it likes to catch on. As a skipper, I will explain to my crew who is generally operating the jib that they should not uncleat the jib until I yell 'CUT'. At that point they need to uncleat the jib and sheet in and cleat it on the opposite side very quickly. The Hobie 16's are also very picky about your movements and weight placement on the boat during a tack, all I can say here is move gracefully and try to stay central on the tramp. You can salvage a failed tack by learning to identify when the boat is actually traveling backwards and forcing your tiller to the opposite direction to 'back-steer' the boat. This will bring the boat slowly to leeward, and if you loosen your main and use your jib to pull you around you can salvage the tack.

About righting... First and foremost, make sure that everything is uncleated! As the boat starts to come upwards when you are hanging off of the righting lines there is a point when the boat is going to flip upright without any more assistance from you. This is your cue to dive onto the opposite hull (underneath the tramp) and hold onto it firmly so that it cannot lift off of the water. This will keep the boat from flipping over the other direction. I like to be the forward person when righting, as I like to grab onto the dolphin striker for two reasons... 1) so it doesn't hit me 2) I can hold onto it and keep the boat from flipping over.

The Hobie 16 is a great boat... Enjoy it!

smFinley,

We must have been typing at the same time... That's funny, same advice.

Great advice as always guys!
FYI... I live in south FL and was out on a very large lake right before our first cold front of the season. The cold air had not come yet, just clouds and WIND!! Probably too much wind for a newb but it was great. Note: cold fronts in south FL generally bring the temps down to a brutal 60 to 65 degrees. I don't know how we survive. ;)

Most of the advice about tacking a H-16 in these posts have lacked some very important facts. Where was the jib traveler set when trying to tack and how was the jib sheeted ? The closer inboard and the harder the jib is set the easier it will be to tack. Also where was the main traveler set, it should be as close to the centerline of the boat as conditions will allow, and last how was the main sheeted? it also should be set firm until you go through the tack and come head to wind and then unsheet a few feet and recleat. Any or all of these will make a H-16 hard to tack. Having these things set as going hard to weather will mean that the boat has a shorter distance to go head to wind and will result in a easier tack. You should be going about 45% into the wind when you try and tack, if you jib and or main traveler is out some and you main is not set hard you could be sailing at 60-75 degrees and that will be a long way to come head to wind. Your bows and sails should come head to wind about the same time. If you have things set loose and out your bows will come head to wind but not your sails and you will not be able to tack.

Yes to much wind!!!!

the wind fri and sat and sunday (in the gulf) were not conducive to sailing. the Alter Cup practice rounds were canceled. it was to windy for me to rig my cat, and my mono hull friends canceled on us both fri and sat. Yesterday was the first day it was blowing under 30mph....

Sounds like you had some fun but maybe a little too much wind for a "maiden voyage". Glad you made it back to sail another day. Keep sailing and asking questions and soon you will be the one helping others.

Please (everyone) click on the Profile link in the left main menu and fill out your sailing profile, it helps us help and understand each other better.

Couple of articles with tips for sailing/tacking the H16.

Roll tacking the Hobie 16
http://www.thebeachcats.com/Article73.html

Hobie 16 tips and tacking at the bottom
http://www.thebeachcats.com/Article111.html

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

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I recently put on an Aussie rig on my 1980 H16. I think they are standard equipment on newer Hobies. With my standard jib halyard, I was never able to tighten the jib enough to let the forestay go slack. When you tighten your jib halyard correctly, you end up with about 5-6" of slack in the forestay but your shrouds get tight.
I found out the hard way that you MUST have your shrouds tight. I was out on the water in moderate winds and the slack in my rigging caused an extreme shock load on the shrouds when performed a tack and the winds filled the main. The result of that was catastophic!! The shroud snapped and the mast came crashing down. The shroud was less than a year old! Fortunately, nobody was hurt and I got a tow from the sheriff boat that happened to be nearby.

I like my aussie rig, to tighten shrouds as Eric alluded to, but also was told by previous owner helps tension the mast to the boat making for tighter rig overall, less goosey in wind. With the mechanical advantage of the pulleys, you can really crank and tighten your boat sufficiently and not tear up your hands. I've never had mast rotation problems from too tight a rig either.

RE the tack thing, I really struggled with this last summer and found this forum very helpful...
Rodrfami, have you looked back in the forum to the previous posts? -lots of various points which help to tack in all conditions. Knock on a hull I haven't had to back out of a tack since. The weight distribution I found esp. critical. remember you are pivoting on an entire hull that is assymetric, not like a monohull centreboard, and I found when soloing in addition to lines/travelers advice above, stay on leeward side after bows just pass thru wind , then steady climb over to windward as you reach new tack and haul in both sheets (assuming you are close hauled to close hauled course) caveat: don't stay too far back in heavier wind as you tack or the wind gets under hull and over you go (personal experience )

Have fun in you new-used boat! Hobie 16's rock!



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eddiecat

Nacra 5.0 (destroyed in storm)
Hobie 16 (restored)
Nacra 5.5- amalgam "Franken Cat"
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