Questons about my hobie the user manual can't answer

Hello all,

After taking my hobie out for the first time I have many questions as the user manual leaves alot to be desired.

1. How straight vertically is my mast supposed to be it is sitting back at an angle even on level ground.

2. What is the pulley on the jib halyard for?

3. How do I use the down haul line.

4. Any tips on passing the tiller behind the travel car for the mainsheet system

5. what shoud the shroud tension be like?

6. should the forestay shackle be inside the forstay adjuster or outside.

7. I have some extra parts I'm not sure what they are for? One is a J shaped hook made of metal with a quick release pin and it was on my forestay adjuster. The second is a metal piece shaped like this \___/ and it is attached to the fore stay adjuster permenately with a plastic spacer a two bolts and nuts. Do I need these pieces.

8. how do I attach the jib to the for stay adjuster. With a shackle?

9. What is the pulley at the bottom of the mast for?

10.How do you kick the rudders up when sailing?

Whoa! I've forgotten what's like to first start out . . .



With the sails off the boat, the mast can lean a lot. Don't worry about it too much. When you put the jib up, that tensions the rig.

Put the both sails up, but don't sheet the main in or downhaul it. Take the loose end of the main halyard and draw it taught from the mast head down to the top of the bridle bolt. Hold that position on the halyard with your thumb and walk to back of the boat and measure the distance between the bottom of the transom and your thumb. There could be as much as 16" of halyard between your thumb and the bottom of the boat - if you were a racer. If you have the old Seaway mainsheet, that measurement might be 0".



The jib halyard laces through them to give you a 3:1 purchase on the halyard.



Theoretically, the downhaul is used to control the position and amount of draft (belly) in the sail). But all you really need to do is snug it down to pull the major wrinkles out of the luff (front edge) of the sail and leave it there.




I try to pass it around without dropping it into the water; flipping it around and resting it on the new side's corner casting until I can turn myself around to pick it up again. It is a bit of a dance.


Snug, but not too tight. It'll just make the mast hard to rotate.


Inside. The racers pin theirs with the pin vs the bow of the shackle to gain some more mast rake.

I don't know what your extra parts are.


Yes. Use a 1/4 bow shackle.



Kneel and face the rudder you want up. Grab the tiller arm (not the crossbar) with your outboard hand and give a firm pull upwards and towards you. The rudder should pop up and settle into its up/parked position.

The only thing I do differently is I drop the tiller in the water and grab the connector until settled in the new course.

The \__/ is very likely the mounting point for a wind indicator arrow - it is mounted on a square metal piece that slips into the piece on your forestay so that it can be removed when you take the boat down.

_________________
Tim
Unofficial Fleet 72 Communications Officer and Div 4 Webmaster
http://www.hobiefleet72.org
http://www.div4.hobieclass.com/

A new question popped up. Are there supposed to be sail hanks all the way up the jib sail? mine only has one at the top.

Only one sail hank for the jib.