I am trying to figure out a way to get out to the lake, but I live on a creek that has two low bridges between my house and the main part of the lake.

I remember the Hobie 14 mast was fairly light and nimble, but the boat itself was not all that stable if you started walking around on the tramp while in the water.

I thought of putting the H14 rig on the Tornado I have, and that would be really stable, but I have no idea if it would sail properly, or am I dreaming in the wrong direction?

Lowering the mast while on the water is going to be difficult for a number of reasons. I would say you should look for a boat with a forward tramp to make things easier if you decide to go this route.

Why not just paddle/motor up the creek with the mast lowered and then after you get to the lake, beach the boat and raise the mast/sails on stable ground?

sm

If you put a 22.3' mast instead of a 31' one, you will be sloooooowwwwww (esp w 10' beams), tacking will suck (and you will need new a new (and complete) set of standing rigging)

If you MUST - how about a weta?
they have light, carbon fiber masts (i think) and should be pretty easy to solo step on the water

I personally think you would be best served tailoring your boat to the water and enjoy it fully rigged

A Weta will work, I have one and it's easy to stand the mast. I'd say pick a boat with light mast and add pulleys in the forestay bridle anchor points, and cam cleats on the crossbeam.

Once it's up, you can tie something stronger, like a soft shackle, at the bridle anchor points.

On the Weta folks rig a pulley and cleat for the forestay.



Edited by martin_langhoff on Mar 30, 2018 - 01:30 PM.

Earl, with the Hobie Tandem Island will be able to furl the sail and drop the mast without drama. It's under 20 feet anyway, when raised. A spinnaker option is easy to add. It stows lots of gear, lands anywhere and moves fast in no wind via human power. Carries 2-4 people. Plus it's the best fishing platform out there.

So depending on your interests, it may provide you access to more water time, and maybe more fun.

Weigh it (literally) against your fiberglass options.

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Prindle 18
96734
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Earl,
I had a Reynolds 21, that the mast base was a socket fitted over a ball (1 7/8" trailer ball) held captive with a pin, and the previous owner regularly raised and lowered it to get under a bridge. He carried a gin pole with a hand crank boat trailer winch, and he could hook it up and lower the mast in five minutes or less. That boat did have a fwd tramp, which was necessary to go forward to hook up the pole and do the cranking. If you think this might work for you, you could call me and we could chat.

Dave

In the days before Hobie Cat added the mast step link to the 14's mast, we would affix one shroud stay to the top hole of a 7 hole shroud stay adjuster, stand on the tramp, pick up the mast, rotate to vertical, lift it up then lower into the step. Then 'tighten up' the side stay into a lower hole position matching the opposite side. Then as now, folks 'run' Hobie 14 rigging very loose which would this type of mast raising and lowering. We still use this method on my children's and grandchildren's H14. It was shown to me personally by Hobie Alter at the Mid-Winters in Tampa, FL, 1976, but thats another story.

I recall a story from the (I think) 2005 Hobie 14 NAC at Rehoboth, DE. One of the racers dismasted (Hobie 14 racers run the rig very loose as mentioned above) and the trip back to the beach to re-step the mast and subsequent return trip to the race course would have cost him at least one race. So instead the chase boat crew helped him re-step the mast on the water. It took three guys to get the mast back up, but they were able to do it.

So yes, this is one of those situations where it can be done. But why would you actually want to do it this way if you don’t have to? Pulling off to the side of the lake or creek to raise/lower the mast on solid ground will be far easier.

sm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFNW6HwcZiw

Make friends with a lakefront property owner,..

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Prindle 18
96734
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Yeah, this all sounds really overly complicated. I'd just take the mast down, go under the bridge, beach it and raise the mast back up on the shore and not on the water, but hey that's just me. To avoid all that extra work, I think I would just find a different launch site altogether.

I guess you could always just leave everything down and Tom Sawyer it down the creek and past the bridges and then set it up on the shore.



Edited by martyr on Apr 06, 2018 - 04:41 PM.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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The only production boat I know of with this capacity is a Telstar 28. It is,of course, a different class of boat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-BKwisaY8M
You're going to need a cat with the afore mentioned forward tramp and crossbar. A gin pole w/fast winch, an after support to hold the mast up, Highfield levers on the shrouds, a quick connect device on the forstay, a means of tensioning the trap wires to what is now the mid crossbar to stop mast sway. The previously mentioned ball and socket mast step (SuperCat, Nacra) would be the best. If you go this route I, for one, would sure like to see how you do.

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'82 Super Cat 15
Hull #315
Virginia
Previously owned: '70 H14, '79 H16, '68 Sailmaster 26, '85 H14T
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Yeah, this all sounds really overly complicated. I'd just take the mast down, go under the bridge, beach it and raise the mast back up on the shore and not on the water, but hey that's just me

This is my prefered way :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiv0fxFcV3I

Wow, that was awesome!!! I guess to get under those bridges, just find some wind and fly a hull under the bridges. Lol.

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Marty
1984 Hobie 16 Redline Yellow Nationals, "Yellow Fever"
Opelika, Al / Lake Martin
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martyr

I guess to get under those bridges, just find some wind and fly a hull under the bridges. Lol.

Problem with that is: there is usually a spot under a bridge with no wind...
this happened to Bill Roberts on his Supercat (ARC) in the steeple chase raggatta a few years ago

they had a huge mast and picked a span that wasn't the tallest one of the bridge to go under.. .and flew a hull under it. (didn't end well for the mast)

I can't find the video but it was ugly



Edited by MN3 on Apr 09, 2018 - 09:04 AM.

martyr

Wow, that was awesome!!! I guess to get under those bridges, just find some wind and fly a hull under the bridges. Lol.

And it looked to me like the captain did that single handed!!!

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Supercat 15
Windrider 17
Several Sunfish and Sunfish clones
Ratboat built from Zuma and Sunfish parts
Shallow water sailor in the Delaware Bay
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Well guys these are all ideas, and some of them are possible. I forgot to mention that I am retired without a lot of cash. So that is partly what is slowing me down. The on the water trick would be pretty tough on the boat while the side of the mast was rubbing on the deck near the surfaces, and the mast step on the Tornado does not pivot to the side more than a few degrees, so this method would not work for me. It was obviously a rescue and not an everyday sort of operation.

And to be fair and for some other reasons, I have not tried to motor the boat out to the beach. #1 I don't have a motor mount or a working motor for the boat just yet. I am working on the motor mount situation right now, but doing the long tail setup on a Tornado is a bit of a challenge to get it right the first time. There is more than one way to do this and I am trying not to drill a bunch of holes in the boat and then find out that it isn't going to work afterall, so this part will be slow going.

Right now I am considering whether to use a U joint in my drive line setup. If I mount the motor with the shaft facing aft, and a U joint on the motor shaft, then the drive outer tube could pivot vertically up to 15 degrees so that I could start the motor with the prop dry and then lower the prop into the water from the rear crossbeam. I have not figured out just how to secure the drive line tube in place, but it should be adjustable for the prop height in the water for a few degrees vertically in order to maximize the thrust of the motor.

If I reverse the motor and mount it entirely above the front crossbeam, it would stay drier, and I could use a belt or chain drive to get the front end of the drive line tucked in tight under the front cross beam. The motor and support cradle would still pivot fore and aft slightly on hinges parallel to the front crossbeam. But that would need another set of castings for the motor support to pulley arrangement.


And I might try motoring to the beach before I give up that idea entirely.

I have a 17 foot canoe as well, but no sails or motor for it either. !!!

2 motor situation - I'm still pondering this situation for the long tail motor.

Have you considered to capsize the cat instead of dropping the mast to cross the bridge? it might be easy for 2 people. Not good with a motor, maybe you can tow the cat with another boat instead of adding a motor.

How long is the creek that you need to navigate in order to get to the lake? Catamarans can be paddled incredibly well over short distances, especially when not fighting a headwind. This would be much simpler than dealing with a motor if the distance is a few hundred yards or so.

sm

Dogboy,

The beach is 4 miles away, and the sand tears up the centerboard gaskets. Two bridges between me and the beach. I will try and find somebody with a G cat to see if anyone with a forward tramp and crossbar has tried to raise the mast using the extra leverage from the front crossbar.

Might be easier to change boats.

There is something on U tube that starts with "Can your Trimaran do this?" and that is about what I need for my creek to lake excursions, but I can't figure out how to get in touch with the guy that posted the video!

Quote

Might be easier to change boats.

I agree - there is little chance (imho) of you using a tornado in this 4 mile trek (even with a motor, what will you do with 31 of mast. i

Quote

There is something on U tube that starts with "Can your Trimaran do this?" and that is about what I need for my creek to lake excursions, but I can't figure out how to get in touch with the guy that posted the video!

The Everglades challenge has dozens of unique boats like the one in the video
they used to require the ability to drop a mast to go under low bridges on the course

I posted many pics here and on catsailor.com but seems many are gone
https://www.catsailor.com…hallenge-2015#Post277861


You may try to find members or pics/vids for inspiration



Edited by MN3 on Apr 13, 2018 - 07:18 PM.

A Hobie bravo mast can be raised and lowered on the water. I know this because I was the first to complete the Everglades challenge in one last year and I had to lower my mast to get to a beach blocked by mangroves overhead once. Also I use a hobie bravo as my tender to my cruising trimaran. I’ve raised and lowered the mast on the water hundreds of times in anything under 20 kts of wind. If the waves were bad I would just angle my anchor to the big boat to block them. In case any of you don’t know the hobie bravo I’ll explain how I do it. First of all I have a bridal for my bow line that I tie to the two forward scupper holes just aft of the mast. And a tie that bow line as far forward as convenient. The longer the bow line the smoother the motion over waves. Then I grab my mast with the sail riled up around it and hold it waist height with the top of the mast over the bow of the bravo. Then I slowly walk back taking very small steps as I balance the mast still at waist height. Once my back foot gets to the top rudder pintle i know I’m far back enough. Then I slide the mast back until the mast base is close to the mast ball and I lower the mast onto the ball and push the mast onto the ball. It is help captive by my weight as I lean into it and raise the other end of the mast. Then I attach the retaining bar and safety strap. Secure my reefing line. Then i unlatch the sail tie and hook my main sheet hook onto the clew. Untie my bow line and push away. Release my reefing line and tug on my main sheet a bit and I’m sailing. I’m a hurry I can raise my sail and be sailing in 5 minutes. I guess I need to make a video next time! Cheers! Also please check out my instagram shipwrecksurvivor

I have a feeling that an aqua cat can raise and lower the mast on the water too but I can’t find info on that yet. Does anyone know?

It’s a pretty old post, I assume the OP has moved on.
He didn’t say what the “creek” is like, how big/deep/steep, or the lake, or how heavy he is.
I’d do what the sailors in England do at one distance race.
They sail Dart 15’s. Simply put the cat in its side, walk it under the bridge, flip it back on its feet & sail on.
The Baby Dart is a blast in high winds, & carries a single adult, or two smaller folks just fine.

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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
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Hi Ed,

Thanks for replying. Im thinking of keeping my hobie 16 and a h14 for free in a river with a bunch of low bridges. I think the bottom is too deep to walk my capsized boat under the bridge but if i have a mast float i could capsize it and tow it out with a kayak during an outbound tide by the mast. The kayak is mostly for steerage and speeding the whole thing up.

Btw i just saw a dart 15 for the first time yesterday. Very cool boat! Plastic hulls! Looks like a melvin morelly looks space age. The one i saw was a cool gun metal grey are they all that color?