Hobie Cat Forums

what do the terms "reef the main mean?

Reefing is shortening the sail to depower the boat. In strong and/or gusty winds it is easier to control most sailboats with less sail up. That said I have not see any H16 sails that have reef points in them since the early 80's.

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Nick

Current Boat
'74 Pearson 30
Previous boats owned
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

My '85 boat had reef points. It was in '85 that Hobie brought out the comptip mast and eliminated the reef points. It did so because, to be able to reef, you needed the longer wire in the main halyard. That defeated the purpose of the comptip by making a metal connection from the top of the mast past the comptip to the metal part of the mast.

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Howard

I have 2 sets of sails one an 84 the other an 81,both have the gromets.Do you lower the main until the gromets are at the boom and tie them off with rope?

I think i figured it out ,there are 2 stop sleeves on the main halyard,do I use the lower one on the mast hook, then I assume I tie off lose sail to the boom ??

Yes. However, be very careful how you tie off the middle grommets. You do not want them tight to the boom. The only reason they are there is to help contain the bunch of sail. You want the middle grommets loosely tied to the boom. You want the reef point at the mast (luff) to be very tight since this is how you will tension the luff of the sail. You want the grommet at the aft end of the boom (leech) to be tight as well. Just to verify the sail can handle the stress from reefing look at the luff and leech grommets to see if they are reinforced properly.

Also, you still need good sail shape so do not forget to tighten the outhaul and the luff properly. If you need to reef you are probably going to want a flatter sail.

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Nick

Current Boat
'74 Pearson 30
Previous boats owned
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

Thanks nick ,that answers my question

For the middle grommets, I use bungee cords with ball ends like this:

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Marc...
1978 Hobie 16 Keoke, sail# 36 84

Perhaps you could take one of your sails and cut it down for the bigger winds...
I used this sail for the first year i sailed to give me a little confidence when soloing in the ocean....

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1980 •Hobie 16- Karumba sails - soft hulls now a Row-B-Cat •1983 Hobie 16 Tsunami sails - blue hulls-Sold •Present boat -1997 Hobie 16 Solana Sails furling jib