cannot get mast vertical on a '79

I recently purchased a 1979 hobie 16. I did not see it with the mast up, only in a photo. Now I have stood up the mast and cannot get it to lean forward enough. I've loosened the shroud cables and am able to connect the forestay with a lot of effort, but cannot get the mast to lean forward any more. I had replaced the tramp lacing and so loosed those lines thinking I was causing some stress, but this was no help. Has anyone run into this before? What could the issue be?

More forward for what reason? The boat is designed to have the mast leaning (raked) aft when sailing. Top hole of the adjuster is all you need. further back is better. Set the shrouds as low as possible and the jib / jib halyard pulls the mast forward to tension the rig. Max rake aft is with the blocks of the mainsheet system touching when fully sheeted.

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

Several things have changed over the years to allow the mast to rake further aft as it increases the upwind performance of the boat.

If your shrouds have been replaced and your forestay is original, the old forestay may not be long enough to reach a single chainplate at the bridle. A simple solution is to add a second chainplate at the forestay.

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www.thehobiewayoflife.com

Thanks. I had a '80 H16 some years ago and just seem to recall the mast being more vertical. There are plenty of other things getting harder to recall too. Thanks for the clarification. Much appreciated.

I've seen a lot of hack jobs on rigging done by POs. I'd recommend that you first check the parts catalog to make sure you have all the right parts in all the right places. Then you can use the techniques discussed in this thread to see if you're in the ballpark on mast rake:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=51949

If so, and the only problem is that it's difficult to attach the forestay because there's barely enough slack, just add another 7 hole adjuster at the bridle as suggested by ronholm above. I ran my '85 that way for years.

Good luck!

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16