My Hobie 16 is an older model and my down haul and out haul are just 3/16 line and no blocks or that sort of thing. I was thinking about replacing both lines and was wanting to know if Paracord would be a good replacement line or should I just stick with something like a poly? I was in the boating section of our local wally world and saw some diamond braid poly line also, just want to be sure to get something that would hold up for a while.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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No paracord and no diamond braid poly.
Most paracord is nylon and stretches like crazy when wet.
Polypropylene and poly blends have little UV resistance.

Find a Polyester double braid like sta-set, xls or Trophy braid. Your not going to find them in Wally World. Try http://www.apsltd.com
https://www.velasailingsupply.com/

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Ron
Nacra F18
Reservoir Sailing Assn.
Brandon, Mississippi
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And consider buying some extra for later use (e.g., when your trap lines get worn). There's a lot of 3/16" line on a H16, and it's a handy size to have around for general use.

The only lines for my boats that have ever come from a box store were the righting line and the line for the trailer winch where a fat nylon line is plenty strong for the job and stretch is not an issue.

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16
Clinton, Mississippi
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And consider buying some extra for later use

It's always good to buy extra line, it will be needed in the future for sure, and never gets cheaper (unless on sale)

A note of caution: don't get all 1 color
having multiple colored lines on a small deck like ours is very important when yelling at your crew "sheet the white one" (doesn't help much if they are all white)

Thanks for the tips. I was planning on having different color lines also, it's less confusing that way.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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I am looking at New England Rope Sta-set on the Sailrite website. It is .45 cents a foot for the 3/16 size and I've narrowed it down to blue or red. This would be for the downhaul line and outhaul line so I would probably just go with one color for both. Looking at the line guide for line lengths, it states that the downhaul is like 5 feet and the outhaul is 7 feet 6 inches. This must be the lengths for a newer boat because my lines are nowhere near that long at all. When selecting a length of line on the Sailrite website, I am assuming that the little number between the plus and minus would be in feet? Is anyone familiar with that website? Seems very inexpensive and the shipping is reasonable as well.



Edited by martyr on Apr 19, 2017 - 12:18 PM.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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When selecting a length of line on the Sailrite website, I am assuming that the little number between the plus and minus would be in feet? Is anyone familiar with that website?

When you select the line, there is a text field that you put in the amount of "units" (feet in this case) so you would order 20? (give or take)

PS for those 2 locations on your boat (not a sail control) I would get white with colored flex and save some $

PPS at that cost, i would order much more than needed - and cut as needed

The white lines with fleck are the same $.45/ft.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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Update. I ordered 15 ft of 3/16 Sta-set in red for the downhaul and outhaul lines. I will order more for the jib halyard and main halyard also. For the main halyard I will go with blue, for the jib halyard I will go with red. When I eventually change out the jib sheets and main sheets, I will coordinate those lines with matching colors as well. Jib sheets in red, mains in blue. I think this will look nice. My boat is, of course, yellow with nationals sails, and stripes on the hulls that have blue and red in them and the blue and red lines will go nicely with that. For starters though, I am just changing out the 3/16 lines and will address the bigger lines later. Thanks to all for the tips and advice.



Edited by martyr on Apr 20, 2017 - 02:06 AM.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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The white lines with fleck are the same $.45/ft.

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When I eventually change out the jib sheets and main sheets, I will coordinate those lines with matching colors as well.

I am a big fan of blended dyneema (salsa or robline racingsheet) for a main (and spinakker sheet) -it doesn't absorb water, and is soft on the hands -it is not good for a jib sheet though (to light)

I see now that the white line with very small red fleck is the cheaper one. Thanks.

What about Sta-set double braid polyester for the jib sheet? Sailrite has it in the 5/16 size for $.90/ft. There are some that are $.85/ft also, but I would want the red.
They also have Sta-set double braid polyester in the 3/8 size for the main sheet for $1.15/ft in the blue that I like also. Again, some other clots are a little cheaper, but I would want the blue. I want the jib and main sheets to match with their corrisponding halyard.



Edited by martyr on Apr 20, 2017 - 10:30 AM.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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What about Sta-set double braid for the jib sheet

to be honest, i've never used sta-set. i have always used xls (extra low stretch). I am sure they are fine but i'll defer to people who have used it.

I currently am using 5mm dingy control line (possibly 6). i am using this mostly because it is the line that i had available that would run well through the 40mm fiddle blocks i currently have on my jib setup (they were on another boat i had, and thought they looked nice and would work fine. So far they have stood up to time, but i would assume i will wear them out faster than i would standard sized jib blocks

I discovered the cheap diamond braided polyester cord at the big box stores and used it by the mile on my Hobie 16. After a season of stretching 10 feet of nylon out of my tramp lacings every week I switched to the cheap cord in the clear bag (white red flecks). That stuff stayed very tight and lasted until I sold the boat years later. I used it for main downhaul and trapeze connectors. I tied my boat to the trailer with the heavier duty version and my mast to the boat and trailer with it.

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David Hall (retired from sailing)
Hobie 16, 1984 Olympic
Bandera, TX
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