forestay

I have another question. How tight do I have to get my forestay? And how do I do it. Coz when I tight up my jib, the forestay gets loosen. Does it have to be this way? Should I loosen up my jib? or what I am doing? Sorry for the dumb questions, Im a noob.

If we are talking about the Hobie 16, this is normal. When you hoist the jib and pull tension on the jib halyard, the jib luff wire will take over the role of the forestay. The forestay itself will go slack.

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Erich


S/V Sarge
1985 Hobie 16 Signature Model
Sail Number 82009 "Summer Games"

And how slack does it have to be?

The amount of slack in the forestay is unimportant once you have the jib halyard tensioned and cleated. You will probably have about 4 to 6 inches of slack in the forestay, but this could vary depending on how far back you rake your mast.

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Erich


S/V Sarge
1985 Hobie 16 Signature Model
Sail Number 82009 "Summer Games"

I use to sail mine with very little slack (maybe 2 or 3 inches) !!! However, I've seen them with as much as a foot of slack. Most of them that have that much slack use a bungee to pull it close to the bridle (no tension). Whatever works for you but as Bartley said, it's unimportant !!!

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Happy Sailing,

David

As said its unimportant how slack it is and over the years there have been forestay length changes so many H16's are different. With it being slack though, tie off some bungee cord around the bridal area which you can use to tie to the slack forestay. Keeping it taut stops it from constantly moving/rubbing against your jib sail.

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2007 Hobie 16 - 'Slingshot'
1996 Hobie 18 - 'Onrails'
Hobie Bravo - 'Hobie Bites'

And how tight do I need to have my rig in general? Damn I think I was doing everything wrong until now. I had my forestay loosen up, and my jib as well, so my mast kept waving side to side at some point. I need to have my rig tensioned?

The only purpose of the forestay is to hold the mast up until you can get the jib raised. The wire in the jib is the real forestay. Some people put a second adjuster on the first one where the jib is fastened. They connect the forestay part way up the second extender and, after the jib is up, they pivot the second adjuster down to take out the slack of the forestay, holding it with a piece of bungee. I never bothered with that and my jib was still in good shape after 25 years, not showing any wear from the loose forestay.

As to tension, the jib halyard is set up with a pulley in the halyard and a cheek block on the mast By looping the halyard around the cheek block and through the pulley you have a 3 to 1 mechanical advantage to be able to tension the rig. When the shrouds are tight, you cleat the jib halyard.

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Howard

If you go out after rigging up, and see the leading edge of the jib luff bowing, when the wind is filling/pushing on the jib, you need to tighten it up. It can and will loosen up sometimes after you have been out there a while, and when its really blowing out there (when its gusty)

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79 H16 #46803