Grew up around sailing inermitantly, mostly on large monohulls cahrtered in Carribean. My folks owned a H16 when they first got married, and Dad sailed the FD in college, so I have had some decent instruction for the basics.
Live in Chattanoooga on the TN river. Bought an '88 Hobie 16 last year in pretty good condition. Have taken to the beach twice and had a blast- worth every penny i have in it. Wish we had better winds in the TN valley to sail more- oh yeah, and a good beach to launch from. M
Any way,
Just returned from a week of vacation in Pensacola, FL. Brought the H16 with us and were fortunate to be able to keep it mast up on the beach in front of our rental house.
The week had great winds varying from 10- upper 20's.
Started the week frustrated as we weren't able to generate much power in low to moderate winds. A quick trip to Key Sailing and a conversation with Charlie. Was very helpful in helping us try and determine what our issue was. First step was to remove some of the aft rake, and see what happened. Adding a 10 hole adjuster to the shrouds seemed to help a little. Next issue was looking at the comptip. I had reinstalled last year using the Bondo method, and it was beginning to crumble and allow movement. If you look at this pic, you can see how bad it was falling off, even with minimal downhaul applied.
Pulled the mast down and correctly reinstalled comptip using two part epoxy as reccomended. MUCH Stiffer.
I was able to spen almost 4 hours a day sailing, which provided many opportunities to learn do's and don'ts (Sailing out in the surf- HOLD ON!!!, tacking in heavy winds and seas- timing the waves makes a huge difference, practiced the various stopping methods discussed in an earliere thread- the Heave To method works great when you have dolphins swimming all around)
Thursday evening winds built to mid 20's with at least 4-5 ft seas. Went out with my wife and brother. Had both of them trapped out, and me hiking out hard. We were able to record our PB top speed of 23 mph on GPS.
I still seem to be spilling too much from the top of the Main, which is killing me in lower winds. Not sure if its due to sail age,batten tension, traveler position, or something else. I still have yet to be able to sail with another H16 to be able to gauge how mine is set up or performing.
All in all, was a great week. Highly recommend Pensacola Beach, low crowds, nice beaches, plenty of access points to the gulf to drag your boat (beach wheels are a must). Charlie at Key Sailing was great to talk to. Though my wife and mom are upset that he showed my dad and I a couple of F16's that he had on the beach.
Any advice on some other ways to get more power in light air would be appreciated. My wife and I weigh a combined 270lbs, so we should be able to get moving pretty well in light air (5-10mph).
The two things still thinking of:
Tightening of frame- seems to be a good amount of slop where pylons enter the castings. Cross and side bars seem pretty tight- no movement.
New(er) sails- Mine seem pretty crisp, but still may not be performing well.
