Hobie Cat Forums

I have been sailing my Wave, with the pin inserted at bottom of mast, after watching official video by Hobie and other by users who showed the pin inserted and ready to sail. A friend told me yesterday that I should take the pin out once the boat is rigged, and [color=#000000][/color]sail without it, insert it back at end before lowering the mast.
Which is true?
Will it feel differently sailing without the pin?
Thanks!
Ariel

"And the Lord spake, saying, First shalt
thou take out the Holy Pin.

Then, shalt thou count to three, no more,
no less.

Three shalt be the number thou shalt
count, and the number of the counting
shalt be three.

Four shalt thou not count,
nor either count thou two, excepting that
thou then proceed to three.

Five is right out.

Once the number three,
being the third number, be reached, then
lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of
Antioch towards thy foe, who being
naughty in my sight, shall snuf it."

in other words do not sail with the pin in! Mast should be free to rotate!

_________________
1980 H16
1997 Wave

Thanks, will try next time.

I am a Monty Python fan but ... that may not be the whole story. The mast will rotate with the pin in and you can certainly sail the boat that way. The issue arises when the mast falls off, which, of course, it's not supposed to do. But occasionally due to a pulled off ring ding (All ring dings must be taped.) or a broken shroud the mast does fall down. If the pin is in, the mast is a very long lever for prying the crossmember, the post, the ball, the mast base , and maybe the bottom of the mast and doing some expensive damage. So ... sail with the pin out. Don't lose it. You'll need it to take the mast down.

Some guys, hard core racers mostly, sail with a really sloppy rig and the mast can pop off the ball if the pin isn't there. If that's you then a little piece of cord under the crossmember and through one of the cleats short enough to keep it from coming off is a good plan. Otherwise just make sure your rig is not so sloppy that the mast can come off.

Have a Hobie day!

Charles

Ahhh....my 97 has a Hobie 14 mast base and step pin setup. Forgot the newer waves are different!

_________________
1980 H16
1997 Wave

I have a newer Wave and have always used the pin inserted during sailing. Why? Because I've not found anything in the manuals/literature that says I should remove it while sailing, and I never thought to remove it!
What's the official Hobie recommendation on this? Matt?
Those of you who sail the bigger fiberglass Hobies use the pin when raising/lowering the mast and I'm wondering if that's leading to confusion on what should be done with the Wave pin where the ball+socket mast set-up is the inverse of that seen on an H-16.
I do notice though that my pin is now slightly bent (~170 degree angle as opposed to dead-straight 180).
I would worry about the mast popping out if the pin wasn't used if a relatively unique combination of boat-bounce and shroud/forestay slack occurred?

Never mind (voice of Gilda Radner) ... manuals for both Wave and Getaway say to leave pin in while sailing!
On a related, the ball on the crossbar tends to loosen a bit during a 4hr sail, but hasn't unwound totally yet ... is this normal and a thing to check for before each sail? Might a dab of blue thread-lock be in order?

I noticed last night that after being out about 5 hours that the ball had lossened up on mine as well. Gonna hit it with a little loctite(blue) this weekend and see if it works. It was loose today as well after about 3 hours.

I've had 5 different Waves and none of them had one of these "Holy" pins.

We have a fleet of twenty or so Waves here at Put-In-Bay. None of them has a magic pin.

What do you use them for?

_________________
Jack Woehrle
Wave #100
H20 #287 "Tallahassee Lassie" (down in FLA)

I use it because the mabual says to!;)
Matt Miller says on the "Getaway" page: There is a remote risk of damage if a wire fails, but there is also a real risk of the mast coming off the ball during a capsize, so only with caution and tight wire tensions would I consider removing the pin. The manuals suggest leaving it in place. Understand that a mast coming off the ball in a bad thing too. And upside down Cat is nearly, if not impossible to right with the mast removed. You would have to be assisted and likely towed to the beach upside down.
Drama: The set-up to me appears to be similar to a strung cross-bow ... if the mast wasn't retained loosely by the pin, the mast could pop out on a bounce in high winds and there'd be a tiny chance of having that feeling that someone just shot you with a cross-bow bolt!
I dunno ....

[/quote]

I've had 5 different Waves and none of them had one of these "Holy" pins.

We have a fleet of twenty or so Waves here at Put-In-Bay. None of them has a magic pin.

What do you use them for? [/quote]

Silly! The holy pin is used for the holy hand grenade.

Holy (censored) Batman.

_________________
Jack Woehrle
Wave #100
H20 #287 "Tallahassee Lassie" (down in FLA)