Hobie 16 Forestay

Does anybody know approx. (or better yet, exactly if you know) how long the lower part of the jib forestay should be???

I stepped my mast today and the forestay must be way too long because the mast was angled so far back the mast almost poped out of the base.

thanks for your help...

Taking the boat up to the adirondacks (up sate NY) this weekend. 1st time on a fresh waer lake. Can't wait....

Forestay length is very long to allow for maximum mast rake, but the stay itself is not a structural part of the sailing rig. It is just used for rigging when the jib is not up. Once you raise the jib and tension it's halyard, the "forestay" wire goes slack and the rig is loaded onto the jib's internal luff wire... it becomes the actual forestay. The slack "forestay" should never take any sailing loads away from the jib luff wire. This insures that the jib wire can stay taunt and as straight as possible.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Hi - The exact length of the lower section of the forestay is 204" (center eye to center eye). My boat is going in the water next week and I am testing a new concept. I've ordered a forestay (lower section) 183" inches in length and will be installing a stainless turnbuckle (11" open length) between the forestay eye and the chainplate. This will allow the mast to be stepped easy and later tightened. The turnbuckle was purchased from west marine (1/4" pin) along with the new forestay. The modified rig cost only $70.00 and will have 3" of travel. I will make another post regarding my success or failure. Hope this helps

I look forward to hearing of your results, but I'm not exactly sure what the point of your experiment is... could you enlighten us please?

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Warm regards,

Jim

The "forestay is meant to be VERY loose even while sailing because the jib luff wire takes all of the rig load. Now, if you were to add hanks to the jib and you wanted to keep the luff wire looser than the forestay... that would work. That would allow a rig to be tight 24-7 on a beach. That would be a lot of tightening on the turnbuckle though.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)