Hiking straps....resew or grommet?

Hey guys, I bought a hobie 16 as a toy over the summer, and I love it, it is a great little boat. The one big problem I have with it though, is that the previous owner pulled the hiking strap webbing off, which makes it rather difficult to stay on the boat without trapezing. Being on a small lake, the trapeze is kind of overkill most of the time.

I have been looking around and have seen that some people put grommets in the tramp, and run rope between them as a hiking strap. I was thinking about doing this, especially since I don't have the webbing that was pulled off, and matching my orange tramp with webbing my prove difficult...I can't even find many places that sell it!

Is anyone using the grommet idea? I would hate to put grommets in the middle of my tramp and have them pull out.. the tramp is still in decent shape. Do you think webbing or grommets would last longer?

Thanks guys!

Grommets can be a DIY job if you've got the proper tools.

Sewing new webbing on is a job for an industrial sewing machine at a canvas shop.

It depends on what's available to you and how much time / $ you want to spend.

Hiking strap material is not difficult to source - current stock width is 1.75" and I believe the material is polypropylene. Older tramps had nylon straps that were softer, but don't have the UV resistance of PP. Both are pretty cheap - less than $1 per foot - and you only need about 20 ft.

You can get either material in multiple colors from http://www.strapworks.com.

Personally, I prefer sewn straps. Grommets hurt when you kneel on them. If you have the straps sewn, have them put a 1/2 twist in between attachment points. It keeps the strap raised a bit so you can stab your foot under it in a hurry.

When restoring a H16 for my son the trap was also missing it hiking straps but the tramp was in very good condition. I ordered seat belt webbing From Strapworks ($.48/ft) and copied the process that a lot of aftermarket tramp manufactures use for their hiking straps. First fold over and sew the ends of the strapping (once you cut it to length) so there is a channel you can run a small line through. Tie the rear off to the rear tramp grommets, put two grommets in the front of the tramp spaced the width of the webbing and run the front line through the sewn folded end of the webbing, through the grommets and tie the line off to itself. Doing this way the grommets are only acting as a guild for the line. Halfway between the fore and aft tie off locations put another pair of grommets on each side of the webbing and run a line around the top of the webbing, through the grommets and tie together under the tramp. If you chose to use seat belt webbing make sure you get polyester as it is not as adversely affected by UV as nylon webbing (strap works sells both). Also to make it easier to get your feet under the hiking straps twist the webbing 180 degrees before tying off the last end. The twist keeps the webbing from laying flat on the tramp.

As I am submitting see the guru Matt already suggested strapworks

_________________
2001 H18 w/SX wings & spinnaker #16740 (purchased new)
1989 H18 w/SX wings #14565 (purchased new, sold 2000)
Would buy another if Hobie would build it.

I think I will go with the webbing, I don't mind spending a little bit of $ on the boat, I picked it up pretty cheap. Is the polyester webbing fairly soft? Trying to decide if I want nylon or polyester webbing... I want it fairly comfortable, as my friends and family will probably be using it fairly often. I am not super concerned about the UV resistance, it only gets sailed about once a week, so I wouldn't mind covering the tramp when its not in use.

Also, I am assuming the straps should be fairly tight when sewn? I have yet to ride on another hobie, so I don't have a good feel for some of the subtleties for the boat.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I had a similar situation, but different in that the grommets were already installed. I found a local sailor who sewed together 4 lengths of hiking straps (not seat belt straps) that fit the tramp perfectly (and very cost effective). I then used scraps of rope to tie them through the grommets. The boat looks great and the straps work great. I recommend finding someone local to sew these together, or do it yourself, and install grommets. I recommend against seat belt straps, and against the use of ropes as straps.