hobie 17 sport boom

hello, I'm converting my 1989 h17 to the sport with a jib kit and have the shortened sport boom but can't quite understand how this could attach to my sail. I'm pretty sure the sail is from 1989 but I'm wondering whether this sail will work with this shortened boom or would I need to update my sail to a newer design to fit the shortened sport boom? Any ideas would be appreciated.

thanks, dan

The current H17 Sport "boomlet" is desinged to be installed on a short length of bolt rope at the clew end of the foot of the mainsail. The boomlet track slides over this bolt rope and the boomlet shackles to the aluminum clew fitting on the sail to hold it in place.

A 1989 H17 sail would not have this length of bolt rope along the foot of the sail since the H17 Sport did not come out until the early 1990's and the current configuration of the boomlet which uses the short bolt rope didn't come out until the late '90s or early 2000s.

You will need to have a sail maker stitch a section of bolt rope on the foot of your sail to make the boomlet work on an older sail. It would be a pretty easy retro-fit.

sm

any idea on the size of the bolt rope? or do you think a sail maker could figure this one out? thanks, Dan

Probably the same size as the one along the luff. It would be very simple to check - just take the boomlet and see if it fits over the luff bolt rope. Otherwise, take the boomlet with you when you go to the sail maker to show them what needs to be done.

sm

I designed the Boomlet concept and provided the drawing below as reference for reinforcing the sail. The boomlet is a section of 17 boom in contrast to the original Sport version that was a Harken track and car. Very heavy and required major changes to the sail. This idea allowed us to make one version sail that worked for both boom and boomlet.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Sm and Matt thanks for your help, dan