Dear All,

It seems that everyone agrees that the Hobie Jib is rubbish. Can someone tell me why its rubbish and also if there is anything I can do to improve it. I've seen the details of the SuperWave but unfortunately I'm sailing on a shoe-string (or two shoe-strings) and I'm having to wait for Christmas to get the Traveller!! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> So if anyone has a cheap suggestion (with pictures) to make the jib better I'll be eternally grateful. I've been sailing my Wave for about a year and a half and not even had the jib up yet but I have been thinking about getting it up and trying it.

Also, I'm not sure if I'm posting these questions in the right place. Should I be posting them under the IWCA section instead of here.

Regards, Tim

Yes, there is a specific forum for Wave questions as you indicated.

Now... as far as the Hobie Wave jib being "rubish"... I don't think that is exactly fair. The jib was designed for easy handling and for crew training purpose, so it is small. It does what it was designed to do in that regard. If you are looking for higher performance, the Hobie Wave jib kit will not be the best solution.

If you had asked me that question several years ago ... I would have agreed w/ you ...

But I purchased a set of new "Hobie Cat Factory" sails last year ... the quality simply was EXCELLENT!!! and they are fast!!!

Sail Safe, Sail Flat, Sail Fast
Harry Murphey
H18mag, #9458/ Fleet54, Div11
P19MX, #86/ CRAC

Tim, you are asking how to improve the performance of your wave's jib (without any money), but you haven't even used it? ... something is wrong here!

Try it! it will improve the handling/sailing of the boat. If you cant upgrade your hardware (which you dont need to do)... improve your skill set.... it is free.. just sail more, talk with others, sail with others...(who know what their doing).

Dear All,

As I don’t know anything about using the jib I was just repeating what other people have said. To quote two “The Hobie jib is pretty worthless as I have pointed out elsewhere on this Forum.” and “The problem with the 25 ft2 jib Hobie offers is that it's not needed if you have wind, and it's too small to help much in light winds. There is only a narrow range of wind speed where it could be useful and so often isn't worth the trouble to rig.” But you are quite right that I should not judge until I’ve used it.

So being a complete beginner at both sailing and using the jib can you all give me advice on how to correctly use the jib I’ve got.

Regards, Tim

i dont know anything about the Wave But Matt does. He states that jib is small and not to powerful as to teach people how to use it... sound PERFECT for you... a person who doesnt know how to use a jib and should start with a small, easy to use one.

you have to ask others who know more about the wave platform for more spacifics on your cat.

Hey Wright,
Since you've got it, might as well use it. It will ad a little performance and as Matt said will give the crew something to do.

There are basically 3 main parts: the bow spreader, sheet cleats and sail. It's all very easily installed and removable if you don't like it. PM or email me if you need installation instructions.

Here it is: http://www.hobiecat.com/support/pdfs/38999001.pdf

Tim, just get the bl#$# sail out of its bag and use it. Then let your own experience or frustration tell you exactly what is wrong with it for you! Believe me, you will notice the shorcomings when you are ready for them. In the mean time you probably will have saved up enough money to buy yourself whatever solution you need.
You may be a beginner right now, but I can't imagine you want to stay that way all your life, right? So whip out that sail and have yourself some fun while the season still lasts.
Dennis

As Matt said, it will help in training. But, it won't make the boat perform better.
The reason is that there is no way to get luff tension on the jib. It attaches to the spreader with the halyard running to the mast turning block. If you put much load on the halyard you will bend the spreader bar.
As a result the jib will not let you point as high upwind and will only be a help on a close reach to broad reach. I might help in tacking, but the boat normally tacks so fast you don't need it anyway.

By the way, No one is knocking the quality of the Hobie Factory sails. It just happens that this jib kit is not effective in making the boat perform better. Same with the spinnaker.

In Wave racing throughout the country the Hobie sails are winning lots of races against the after-market sails.
Rick