After watching the spinnaker boats disappear over the horizon once they pop their chutes, I am jonesing for more power. So here is the not-so-pretty update on building a Hooter/Reacher out of lots of scrap material. Thanks to Rick Harper for the Sunfish mast recommendation as we happened to have a broken one under the scrap spars pile. Since the G-Cat has the front crossbar we mounted the pole there to keep the front tramp clear. Stole the roller furler from the H14T. Found one ancient and one not so ancient reacher from the E-Scow and the second one looks like it will fit the bill. Sure as heck isn't high tech, but as long as it is fast, Go Speed Racer Go!

isnt that jib big enough fer ya? Good Gawd, we'll see you guys New Years weekend.

LOL!

Yeah, it is really a genoa, isn't it? I doubt we will be ready by then. Long term a square top main and trim the jib back a little bit should make for some fun. But that would cost money...

I was really talking about the huge jib that comes on a Gcat that came stock. Always tried to flip me over on the
5.0

I got what you were saying. I also meant the stock jib. Had not seen a cat w/ so much overlap between jib and main.

To make a Hooter work you will need a lot longer bow sprit. The foot can be shorter (sheet from the sidestay), although it is more effective from the rear of the boat. (bigger sail).
Rick

Thanks. I appreciate the expert input. I did not see a length in your article. What would you recommend? The current pole is 6 feet long mounted to the front crossbar.

In some of the pictures it looks like you have the pole resting on the front tramp, which makes it look short. How far in front of the main beam is the front beam? That would give us a feeling for overall effective pole length (distance from main to forward beam plus pole length). I'd guess you'd want at least 12' of effective length. Too much and you'll get more lee helm, and it may become difficult to support the pole properly. When I added a spin to my Hobie-18 I went with about 12.5', it worked out real nice.

Another thing you'll have to eye-ball is how the sail is setting - it may be that to get the sail you have to fly nicely you'll have to play with the various dimensions.

Good luck - you'll have fun with it when you're done!

Thanks Keith. Rick Harper had recommended 12' so that is how far the pole is from the mast. Fun is the plan! And since our total crew weight is pushing 400lbs, more power can't hurt...

It appears you've already cut the pole - but what I did (using an old windsurfer mast) was to cut the pole initially to 13.5', but mount the hardware at 12.5'. That way after sailing it if I felt I wanted to try a longer set up I could just move the hardware out further. I never did, as the 12.5' worked just fine and ended up trimming the end. I guess the message here is as these things are a bit trial and error, give yourself some room to play, trim it down later...

We have plenty of spars to work with. We will try this setup for starters. Bridles are next and a pole-end downhaul. Support will not be an issue.

On 20' boats I used 15' and on smaller boats 12'
12' is cheaper as that is the length aluminum is made, or 24' So if you want a 15' aluminum sprit, you need to buy 24' of alum, which is more expensive the carbon.

The farther out you go, the more the angle of the luff, and more the angle the more the lift up from the sail, keeping your bows from driving in.
With a very short sprit, you will probably be driving the hulls deep most of the time.
Also, the longer pole will open up the slot more.
Rick

Well,
I am 12' from the mast base, so I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

I also used a 12' 6" alum windsurfing mast for a hooter on an TheMightyHobie18 magnum, and sheeted it off the rear corner of the wings. On the SC20 I used the lower sections of two windsurf masts (one slid inside the other and epoxied) at 14'4". Both worked well.

Dave

Looks like sheeting will be past the side stay, but not as far back as rear cross bar. The sail is probably a little small, but the price is right. Just received a pair of Ronstan Orbit blocks for the sheets. Very nice!