I have a Hobie 17 an I have a spinnaker that i'm going to add and wondering if there is anyone on here that has added a spin to there H17 and could give me some insight. The spin is from a Mystere 6.0xl and the pole im making myself I have a 13 foot 6"and is 1 1/2" diameter aluminum and is 1/8" thick wondering if the pole will be ok to use or needs to be thicker and is that to long should it be a mid pole snuffer or full length. and how high should the mast tang go for the spin. Thank you.



Edited by brjonair on Aug 07, 2018 - 12:53 AM.

lots of questions there
we sailed with HobiePhil from nj - he had a super17 with a spin
his pole was ridiculously long - 15' i will guess?

I think your spin may be too big, it was built for a 20' boat with a 31' stick -

I had to edit it to get to the point. Thank you.

I believe my spin sprit is 13'1" or close - this was the nacra 6.o / tornado length used when they were active classes

I use a mid pole snuffer on my 5.5 and 6.0.

the hobie17 we used to sail with had a mid pole snu setup

back to your mystere 6.0 xl spin - how old is it? in the early days it used to be sheeted to the rear beam .... and it was HUGE - I can't see how that size sail would fit on a 17' but .... i really don't know for fact

As MN3 mentioned, HobiePhil is the only person I know of that ever ran a spinnaker on a Hobie 17, so I think you are likely going to be figuring this out for yourself via trial and error.

Keep in mind that the Hobie 17 uses a very bendy, unsupported (no diamond wires), mast. I think overloading it with a spinnaker (particularly one designed for a much larger boat) has the very real potential of leading to mast failure.

sm