Mast Rake

I've noticed a lot of Hobies with a raked mast. I have an early 80's H16 and my mast is pretty perpendicular. Should I have it raked back? What is the advantage? I think I would need a longer adjuster, is that all? I sail solo most of the time in light winds (8-10mph), would that make it more foregiving or beneficial for a newb?

tdf - You're a newby who sails most of the time solo in light winds....From what I've read on this Hobie forum you rake your mast back in order to make it less likely to pitchpole in high winds and you also have to re-drill and re-adjust your rudders. We've had our 1979 Hobie 16 for 36 years and we sail a lot year round. I've only pitchpoled once and capsize about once every 5-7 years. It was my fault each time. The boat doesn't pitchpole nor capsize. I do! I screw up! we sail in both high winds and light winds; mostly in San Diego, but we've traveled, camped and sailed all over. These boats are weight-sensitive. Just keep an eye on the leward bow and if it gets too close to the water level, just move your weight back. I like to keep the leward bow close to the water, but don't let it get more that a few inches below the water. Your boat should sail faster if you keep the bows down close to the water. Now, if you ever have to replace your shrouds or forestay, you'll have to buy them from someone other than Hobie - someone like Murrays.com. Just give them the correct measurements (longer shrouds; shorter forestay). I think you should leave your boat alone and just go sailing, and do only the repairs and maintenance that needs to be done. Keep it safe and have fun!

I'm probably more of a newbie than you are but I did get into raking my mast when I first started. I hope others on the forum correct me if I say something inaccurate, but this is what I've learned so far. There are a bunch of advantages to raking your mast. You can point higher upwind, your boat is more stable in high winds, and you're generally faster. It got popular when it became clear that catamaran racers who raked their masts started winning more often. It works well on the H16.

You can try it and see if your rigging and sails allow it. After you've raised your mainsail and hooked up the traveler to the boom, adjust your jib halyard so your main rigging is block to block at full tension. (You may need to add another chainplate (adjuster) on the forestay to get the mast to move back this far.) Once you've done this, take a look at the jib. You'll want to be able to go block to block (or close) with the jib too. You may need to change the jib setting on the chainplate to get the jib to pull further away. If it's impossible with your rigging or sails, take away some rake until it works on your boat. It may not be optimum, but it's probably better than perpendicular. Once you've got the rake set, that's when you adjust your shrouds. Get them as low as you can with the jib halyard set like it is. It's easier to pin the shrouds at a lower hole if you can get someone else to pull down on your trap wires on each side, but not necessary if you don't have anyone else. It's just more awkward to be pulling with one hand on the shroud while trying to line up the pin with your other hand.

There have been some changes to the rigging and sails since raking the mast has become more mainstream. The forestay is slightly longer and the shrouds are slightly shorter. I think the bottom of the jib is cut slightly different too. And people use low-profile blocks so they can get the most rake out of a little bit of space. If you do all that, it can get expensive. But you can get some mast rake without any of this by adding the additional chainplate to the forestay.

You sound like a capable sailor. You can give it a try and see if it works for you. If it doesn't, you can go back to what you've been doing.

Pat

Pat is correct, raking your mast aft has a number of advantages. Primarily, it helps the boat point higher into the wind. It also reduces the likelihood of a pitchpole, by reducing some of the lift up high and taking some of the pressure off of the bows. The 16 is a boat that really prefers a lot of mast rake because the asymmetrical hulls do not "grab" the water as well as daggerboards and therefore don't let the boat point as high. In general though, the convention is to rake more forward for more power and less pointing ability, which is more necessary in rough seas, heavy crew weights and/or light winds, and rake back for less power, more pointing ability, and to make the boat a little more manageable on flat seas with light crew, or in heavy winds.

The biggest thing would be just to experiment with it and see what the difference is, or how it feels to you. I believe Hobie changed the rigging slightly in 1989 to allow for more mast rake (they did for the 18, at least), but before that came out, H16 sailors were still raking their mast aft. Actually, the reason for the new rigging is that sailors were maxing out their old rigging (most aft rake) and still wanted/needed more! You can rake the mast just fine with whatever rigging you have, but when you replace your rigging you may need to replace the adjusters as well, or you may find the shrouds are too short. If your rigging is still the original style, it's probably long overdue for replacement anyway!

With regards to the rudders - As you rake the mast aft, you increase the "weather helm" of the boat - the rudders will have to pull harder to keep the boat from going into irons, which can lead to more "pull" on the tiller. If it's too much, you'll probably want to either reduce the mast rake, or change the rudder rake. On the older style boats, this meant re-drilling rudder holes. On boats with the newer rudder castings, it's a simple adjustment. If it turns out to be a problem, I'd recommend just reducing the mast rake, to make it simple.

If you're curious about other adjustments to your rig, I'd encourage you to pick up a book about catamaran tuning or racing! You'll learn a lot, and it'll help your sailing ability immensely! Specifically, I like "Catamaran Racing for the 90's." Even if you're not into racing, the book's primary point is explaining how to rig and sail your boat to go faster - who doesn't want that!?

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Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238