Hobie Cat Forums

I am thinking about getting a 20. I have been sailing a 16 for a long time. I have read most of the posts in this section and pretty much know what to look out for in avoiding a bad cat while shopping around. But I still have some questions. The one I'm asking now may seem rediculus but here goes...After looking at pictures and the parts diagrams I can't seem to make out how the main halyard works on the 20. It seems to latch to a hook on the track-side of the mast at the top; which makes me wonder how it could be un-hooked without tipping the boat over. I need to be able to raise and lower the main sail while on the water for my current launch area. Can someone shed some light on this for me? And if you could relate it in terms that compare it to how my H16 halyard functions that would be great.

I have a detailed discription of hoisting, locking and un-locking in the sailing faq forum, but yes... a hook. The halyard has a ring that engages the hook when hoisted. To drop the sail, you hoist a few inches and rotate the mast / hook out from under the ring and then drop the sail down about a foot before allowing the mast to rotate back to center.

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Matt Miller
Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Hobie Cat USA

Thanks, makes perfect sense now. Pull the halyard, twist the mast, and drop the sail. Does the halyard route inside the mast and out through the bottom (rather than outside as on the 16)? If so, does the mast fill with water when capsized because of an opening in the tip for the halyard?

All of the masts using a hook up at the top of the mast... and a ring on the shackle at the sail head... route the halyard inside the luff track and down the mast.. then out the bottom.

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Matt Miller
Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Hobie Cat USA

Next question. When the early model 20's were having problems with the H style bulkheads at the aft crossbar connection being weak, what was the warranty repair for this? Basically, I'm looking at a 94 this weekend that has some minimal spider-webbing in the gel coat at the aft crossbar connection, but the owner says the boat was factory fixed back in the day and that it's a solid boat. Should there be any tells of a repair if I look inside the hatch cover with a mirror?

Forward crossbar connections were suspect. Some repairs under the crossbar or Fiberglass rope holding the aluminum "candy bar" (bolts thread into chunks the size of small snickers bars) down to the hull sidewalls.

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Matt Miller
Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Hobie Cat USA

Well, the boat I looked at last weekend was a total bust. Chips and scratches all over, huge unfinished repairs on bottom of hulls, dent in forward xbar, standing water in hulls, big crack in one dagger trunk, fried tramp, delaminating rudders, old rigging, etc, etc... Who's got a nice clean 20 for sale in NC, SC, VA?

try craiglook.com! there are some for sale but I don't see any in your area right now It wouldn't hurt to check it once in a while!

If you were up for a bit of driving we have several in the Mid-West for sale.

Don't want to drive that far, I would be willing to go to VA, SC, GA, TN for a nice clean 20 that I could be proud of.

Thanks andy. I'm also looking at one in Michigan, both 12 hr drives from here. Just working with the owners to get some good close up pictures of the critical areas.