Sailing Hobie 16 without jib

I learned to sail last summer on a Wave and loved it. Been looking for a used Wave but more affordable H16s keep popping up. I received some great feedback last fall re: the relative benefits of a Wave vs. a 16 for a first cat, but I still have a question:

Could I sail the 16 without the jib until I get acclimated?

It would be probably easier to sail the 16 without a main rather than without the jib, jib makes it a whole lot easier for tacking. But, yes, you can sail without jib, just more jibing. Have fun with that!

_________________
[color=#4000FF]1974 Hobie 16 (Keepin 4 my sons)

You can definitely sail a 16 without the jib. It will basically be like sailing an oversized 14. Just make the forestay tight enough that it takes the slack out of the shrouds (since the jib halyard won't be doing this). If you get stuck in irons when tacking, reverse the rudders and do a K-turn.

As for the boat being easier to sail and tack under jib only, this is incorrect. You will have a heck of a time tacking under jib only. The boat will not want to go head to wind. Your steering will be seriously unbalanced (lots of lee helm). And with no mainsheet tension, your jib halyard will go slack when loaded up. We tried this once about 15 years ago on a really windy day. The boat was impossible to tack.

sm

Take the Jib halyard down to the bridal chainplate and tesion the rig with the halylard and cleat it off. Pull that sucker tight. The boat will tack just fine.

_________________
Bodhisatfa

Sailing without a jib is fine as long as you add more tension for the forestay, or you can bring the jib halyard down to the bridal chainplate and pull that sucker tight. That should be all you have to do to sail without the jib on a H16.

_________________
'72 Hobie 16
with
#56 Gonzo Nationals

get a furling jib.. then you have the best options...
i cut down an old mainsail and attached to a spare boom.. i can sail alone and not get overpowered...(most of the time)

http://www.waldorfs.com/miniSail1Web.jpg

_________________
•Present boat -1998 Hobie 16 Solana Sails furling jib[/size]

Essentially a reefed mainsail, nice job.

Don't sweat it. Just sail with the jib. The fact that you learned on a wave has spoiled you. Sailing solo on a H16 isn't bad at all. As a matter of fact, it's quite exhilarating. I sail solo 90-95 percent of the time. It's a piece of cake, even going through the maneuvers (tacking & jibing). Lots of ways to depower if you need to. You can do it.

_________________

Happy Sailing,

David

Jib or no jib you have a lot more opprotunity to grow on a 16. You can sail a 16 three different ways and its really the best way to learn. I can stay this from experience when i bought my first cat last year. Good luck on your search.

_________________
Hayden 1988 national H16

Thanks for all of the great advice. The site is an excellent resource!

I solo rig and sail my 18, with no problems, which means someone can solo a 16 no problem. In heavy wind I furl my Jib and sail without it. To tack I make sure I have enough speed before tacking, and go through the turn at the right speed, so as not to get stuck in irons.

_________________
ALLEY CAT 1984 RED LINE HOBIE 18 MAGNUM
Sail # 10505 or 277

DO NOT sail the Hobie without a Jib
A 16 wil hardly turn around without the jib. If you are worried about being overpowered stay on the beach. There is no shame in being safe to captain crew and boat. There will be other sailing days with more favorable weather

Super old thread... but I found it googling "Sailing Hobie 16 without jib" after my terrible experience without the jib accidentally this weekend. Upfront caveat... I'm new and inexperienced, so maybe that's the reason I had such a hard time with no jib.

Ok, so we went out on the 4th of July with 3 adults and 1 kid, estimated total crew and equipment weight ~650 lbs. Winds were high and gusty for my limited experience level (~10-15 mph, maybe up to 20 mph gusts). With our weight, I figured we'd be good to go on balance, and I was looking for an exciting adventure. Excitement, not so much... but adventure I got. I failed to properly rig my newly installed (but used) aussie jib halyard and not more than 1 minute into our sail, it let loose, and the jib halyard came unreeved from the upper pulley. With no way of hoisting the jib back up we were limited to the mainsail only. Obviously, without the jib, the boat immediately fell flat and lost a lot of power, but I was able to maintain my close reach for a while. Since we were still getting further away from shore, I tried to tack across the wind (should have jibed) to head back to shore and fix the jib. I ended up stuck in irons for at least 30 minutes, fumbling with the mainsheet and rudder to attempt to get moving on the return course. The boat just wanted to weather vane into the wind. I sensed we were moving backwards and tried reversing the rudder, but it all just felt so counter-intuitive and nothing seemed to work. Eventually I succeeded, until I had to tack again. Another 30 minutes of weather-vaning and eventually I got moving again. This happened at least 3-4 more times. Crew weight balance seemed to be the critical factor in getting it to come across the eye of the wind and on the new tack. If my heaviest crew member moved backwards on the boat, it seemed to improve the ability to turn. It was a real pain and essentially eliminated from my mind the possibility of EVER intentionally sailing without the jib, which is something I had thought of in the back of my mind for depowering in heavier wind. It was just so frustrating to sit there pointing into the wind like that. I've since fixed the rigging on the aussie halyard and am looking forward to a real test with it.

At least I (re)learned one lesson... test all new rigging before you launch into the water.

_________________
Bradley M. Davis - Hobie High Life YouTube Videos
2012 H16 (with 2018 Cayman Main) #115139

With that much weight onboard you would have have really needed to figure out moving weight around, and then backwind the main until the boat is well around. Without the jib the boat is really going to have a lot of weather helm and really want to round up.. So you are going to need to be well out of irons before trying to sheet it in. Also the loss of you jib Halyard would have caused the mast to fall further aft... further adding to the weather helm problem.... using the jib sheet connected to the chain plate at the bridle you could have put a bit more rig tension on to make you life a little easier.


Heck with that many people onboard I would have capsized, went for a summer afternoon swim, then pointed the boat in the right direction, and then right it long before I would have spent 30 minutes in irons..


With the boat on its side in the water you could have fixed the jib halyard while the kids played.


You can have lots of fun on a H16 sans jib in the right conditions..

_________________
www.thehobiewayoflife.com

Are those wooden look vinyl wrapped hulls?