First of all... HobieGary WOW! What a great story.

I am now convinced more that ever that finding a way to reef or roller furl my mainsail is a worthy goal. Well the real goal is to keep the boat under control so that I don't capsize. The whole point is to have thrilling fun not life threatening terror. I've been sailing long enough to know that bad and unexpected thing can happen during a capsize. Mostly things start breaking and floating away....boat things and people things! After hearing Gary's story I'm going to add a mini EPIRB to my strap on survival pak and an old cell phone in plastic bags. Even without a monthly subscription they will still call 911. The first stitches that I got were at age 14 when a center boarded mono hull fell back on top of me after I righted it in a heavy breeze. The coast guard had come out and rescue me and my turtled (waterloged) Hobie super14 a long time ago. Every time I go sailing I learn something new and hopefully come back in a little wiser. On thing I know for sure is that its always you aginst the deep blue sea and the wind. The only thing that gives you an edge is your boat and your skill. When the boat can overpower your skill, then its time to flatten sails and then roll them up. So on I go with my quest to roller furl the main on my H20.

This is the reply I got from Hobie Cat. It doesn't solve my problem but it contains usefull information.

But first a couple of questions:

How do you rig a chicken line?

What are some good uni tacking tips?

What is the best course of action when you know you are about to lose it, hang on to the boat, jump free, etc...?

Placement advice for foot straps?

I'm going to trailer the H20 about 3000 miles this summer and I am thinking about putting foam rubber between the hull cradle and the hulls to soften shocks. Is there any reason why this might be a bad idea?





Reply from Hobie Cat Factory..................................

You can fit a roller furling system onto the H20 jib. Reefing the mainsail

may be a bit more difficult though, first you would have to have grommets

put in your sail to tie the excess sail around the boom and then you need

to figure out a way to keep the mainsail up and still be able to put

downhaul on the sail. Also, if you look at the comptip mast at the top 12"

of the luff track it is aluminum while the rest of the luff track is

plastic. If the top of the sail were to stop while still in the plastic

area of the luff track it WILL pull out of the track (which is bad). To

prevent this you would need to take the top of the sail all the way down

past the comptip. That would all be a lot of work, so it may be easier to

just go with a roller furling jib and then you can sail under mainsail

alone which isn't too overpowering.





Thank for all of the replys