I have had both the hook and ring, and the swage and fork systems and prefer the latter. Is their an advantage with the hook and ring? I see most newer boats(My I 20) are equipped this way. I have just found it to be a pain in the a%# most of the time when rasing and lowering the main.
Any suggestions? Any advantages?

David Mosley
www.seacats.org

Dave, I think the reason the hook and ring system is used has to do with compression in the mast. The swage and fork system doubles the compressive load. With the downhaul systems being used today that may be significant. Thats my guess anyway...Dan

I used to think that the hook and ring was a pain in the butt as well... but once you get the hang of it (no pun intended) its really easy to engage/disengage.

I own a Nacra with the fork and I used to run with a Hobie16 with the fork as well.

The compressive load load doesn't affect the mast when the hook is located near the top, it only affect the part between the pulley and the fork.

I had to replace or swage the Halyard wire a couple of time over the years. In order to gave the Halyard go trought the pulley on the mast head, you need to have a large diameter pulley (like an older Hobie16) or to use flexible 7x19 wire and smaller pulley. The flexible halyard will wear quickly and break over the pulley and even the pulley sheaves might break.

The bigger pulley is also more expensive and heavier.

The ring might be more difficult to operate but it has the advantages of being lighter, cheaper and longer lasting.

The other advantage is that the downhaul force is applied directly to the sail and doesn't affect other parts of the mast like the mast head or the the halyard.

The advantages touted when the system was relatively new where:

1) Internal halyard system, less drag
2) Ability to raise and lower the main on the water (yea right)
3) No slipping slugs
4) You don't pull the boat over on top of yourself trying to pull a tight new sail up.

Keep in mind when it became the standard there were a lot of competing systems, Hobie's flopper, halyard lock (it had a release and a lock line going up the mast), sky hook, a side halyard and some I never understood. The ring and hook works fairly well and is easy to maintain. In my attic somewhere I have a shackle lock that I was told "when it locks up flip the boat over and cut the shackle holds the sail with bolt cutters to remove all tension. It should release after you beat on it for a while"

The internal halyard were established as "the way to go" in the 80's and it still works. It thinks it's more expected than needed for most boats

If you are having trouble getting the sail hooked going up, try tying the knot on your ring so that it is real tight to the ring, giving the opportunity to raise the ring higher before the knot jams in the pully at the top of the mast. If you have a small bail welded to the ring for tying the halyard, run the halyard through that bail but tie the halyard to the ring. When you attach the shackle to the sail, make sure the bail on the ring is outside the halyard so the bail doesn't hit the pulley first.

For getting the sail down, try this procedure. Disconnect the downhaul and push the lower part of the sail up to release all tension on the halyard. Make sure the boom does not restrict rotation of the mast at all. I have a quick pin for connecting my boom to the mast and one for connecting rotation controls to the rotater, so I release the boom and rotation controls from the mast to allow easy and full rotation of the mast. Pull the halyard to get the ring free of the hook and rotate the mast so the ring is parallel and off of the hook. If this doesn't get it try again but rotate the mast in the opposite direction. With mast rotated, pull down on the sai until it is past the hook (a couple of inches should do it). If this still isn't doing the trick, I once bought and used a ring that is welded to the shackle that goes through the Head of the sail. This ring will move positively with the sail and you can more easily get the ring off (or on) the hook.

I hope this helps!

We need to get together on the beach sometime and compare the I20 and N6.0 systems - I would like to see if there are any differences. My 5.2 had the fork and ball and it took me a while to come to terms with and finally understand the nuances of my TheMightyHobie18 system and could work it mostly reliably. I then tried to carry that knowledge to my N6.0 but while they look similar they turned out to be very different in operation. Sometimes I think I just got lucky with the right combination of halyard shackle, ring, and halyard knot but now it's very easy and reliable. With the mast pointing straight forward, hoist sail until it clunks, slowly ease off halyard while pulling down on sail (this keeps the ring upright and ready for the hook). It was easy to assume that as hard as I had to pull to get the sail up that the halyard would remain tensioned - but it doesn't and the ring was flopping down out of the way if I just let the halyard go. To release, hoist sail, rotate mast either way hard, pull sail down to clear hook. It's been working first time everytime lately.

Jake says it best in that, you need to "hook up" with some other catsailors to get information on this subject. Talking about it just does not get all the needed information across because there are many, very minor variations in circumstances that seem to have large effects on the behavior of the hook and ring systems.

Some of the cats I've had worked easier than others. On my present boat I was having the occasional resistance to un-hooking. That did not sit very well with me because I was setting up a reefing system and did not ever want to find myself unable to hook it while being overblown in the ocean.

To remedy this I installed a small bungie on my hook that attaches to the top of my sail, a few inches aft of the ring. This maintains aft-ward pressure on the ring to ensure an easy release as soon as the ring is slightly raised.

To engage the hook I need only to maintain tension on the halyard while pulling down on the sail luff. Once it is hooked, the bungie is not tight or strong enough to pull the hook back off of the hook crook.

GARY

My Prindle 18 has the hook/ring system. I had some difficulties with it from time to time. Last year, I purchased a ring that has an offset for the halyard. The sail disengages without any problems at all now.

Sheldon