I am brand new to Hobie sailing and I am having trouble with the jib battens getting hung up on the mast and halyards. Do I have too much mast rake? Are the jib battens too long? Am I completely clueless?

This is a normal problem. In light winds, I usually pull the jib over after coming about. In stronger winds, it shouldn't be a problem. Just wait until the main fills on the new tack and let the jib go quickly. Make sure the jib sheet is loose enough to allow the jib to move freely. The halyard problem can be solved by either tying the main halyard back to the downhaul (which is what I do) or buying a small accessory, a clip that fastens to the mast and allows you to pull the halyard back and hook onto the clip. Either way holds the halyard further away from the jib battens.

Howard

The H16 jib is large and powerful. Yes, the battens over-lap the mast.

There are several more tricks to handle it more easily:

- As noted... tie the halyards aft. I take the main halyard aft and around the shroud then back to the mast, hook under the downhaul cleat. Then tie off on the halyard cleat.

- Get a halyard keeper clip #114 out of the Hobie Parts catalog for the jib halyard. Routes the halyard down the side of the mast.

- Trim the battens so they are just poking out of the sail pockets.

- Tape over / around the batten ends. Lay sail tape about 6 inches forward and then around the batten end and up the opposite side. This smooths the area so less can get caught on the halyards.

- After backwinding the jib through a tack. Grab (from the new weather side) the back of the bottom batten and push forward and then across. This bends the entire jib to pass through more easily. Pushing at the middle of the jib is pointless.

You may want to try Super Jib Battens from the Hobie catalog. They are very flexable giving the jib a better shape for light and medium wind. Not race legal and you will lose some performance when the wind comes up.