My old 5.2 does not have hiking straps. PO used the wires (padded) that the jib blocks slide on. These are not acceptable for me. I need straps closer to the center of the tramp. The tramp is old but solid. I will probably replace within the next couple of years.

Is it possible to attach hiking straps without removing the tramp? Can they be hand stitched successfully? Or, can they be attached to the beams using a pad eye, just above the tramp?

Thanks,

Cold in Oklahoma, awaiting spring.....Terry

You could probably attach one end to the beam, but you're going to have to sew something into the tramp or the straps may lift off the trap too far to be effective. Hand sewing is certainly possible - though difficult because you don't have easy access to both sides. You still have two months of winter, why not take off the tramp and do the necessary work. At least you can play with the boat.

Use a thick line for the hiking straps. Instead of sewing anything to the tramp, punch holes and put grommets in to thread the line through, space them such that there's longer runs of line on top of the tramp than below. You can dead-end the line at the beams or with an appropriate knot in one of the holes (I would try the beams). Where the line above the tramp, thread it through some soft tubing or whatever if you need a cushion. Depending on the size of the grommets you could probably run straps/webbing instead of a line.

You'll need to put something under the tramp to back up whacking with a hammer to set the grommets, but that would probably be easier than trying to sew.

I put on a good set of straps on my old TheMightyHobie18 some years ago. I started by making a trip to a car junk yard and pulling a good lenght of seatbelt strap off a wreck. Cost me $2. Using a hand awl tool with medium sized threading, I stitched a reinforced area on each end of each strap by folding the ends back on to the strap for about 3-4 inches, then stitching around the periphery of the overlapped part and then on the two diagonals acorss the overlap. I put a brass grommet throught this reinforced area, put a bit of line through the grommet and around the front beam, back up and ties to itself. At a suitable distance aft from the front beam, a couple of grommets were put in the tramp and a loop of line used to position the middle of the hiking strap. Some folks like to add a 2-3 inch lenght of 2 inch diameter tygon plastic tubing over these grommets with the line loop coming up vertically through the tubing, then around the hiking strap. This helps hold the strap off the tramp making it easy to get your feet under.This is how it's setup on my Tornado. The rear end of the hiking strap had the same reinforcing/grommet theme going as at the front end...tied off to the rear beam. Works great, is easy to adjust the tension to where you want it and can be easily swapped out later.

Mike.

Easy fix!

1. Buy 4 large eye straps/fairleads.
2. Measure how far inboard you would like the straps to be.
3. Drill and rivet on the eye straps on the inside of the front and rear x-bars on each side of the boat.
4. Go to a rigging store and have them make you up two straps (one for each side) with loops on each end. Leave the straps 6 inches shorter than the distance between each x-bar.
5. Buy some 3/16" rope and tie the straps between between the x-bars using the riveted eye straps as your anchor points.

All done! Completely removable, washable and your tramp isn't touched.

PS-

When you go to get a new trap, think about re-routing your jib wires under the boat instead of over the top of the tramp. Less deck clutter, very easy to do.

Really good suggestions for how to put new hiking straps on the boat. But I'm kind of curious as to what people actually use hiking straps for.

In all honesty, I have had crew swept off the boat. The draft of the aft section on the 5.2 hulls isn't very deep. 3-4ft chop makes for a pretty wild ride in heavier air. The best bet is to throw a foot or two under the straps.

The two people that were swept off didn't think it could happen. Well, they were swimming before they knew it and I was coming about to snatch them up.

Good times... ha ha ha

Once at CORK some years back, I was crewing on my Tornado with a Hobie sailor helming. Winds were high, so was the swell on Lake Ontario during the the 4th day of the week long regatta. We were broad reaching with swells hitting us from the rear windward quarter. I was trapped out. One minute we were cruising along nicely, then whoosh! I big wave swept over the rear quarter from behind, lifted my helmsman up and off the boat. At least 95% of him was off the boat...as the foam cleared, I saw his foot still stuffed under the hiking strap and the rest of his leg disappearing over the rear beam. A moment later a hand popped up, followed by a head, then the rest of him clambered back over the beam. He was laughing so hard he could hardly catch his breath.

Mike.

Thanks for all the ideas. I am new to cat sailing and I am use to having the hiking straps on the 420/470. In moderate air, I like the security of having something to hook my foot under when hiking to windward, when trapping is over kill.

Thanks again,

Terry

I puffy conditions, I'll often have the crew trapped with me on board with a foot in the hiking straps. When the wind is down, I'm inboard so we can keep the windward hull light, when the puff comes on I can hike hard quickly. This obviously works best in conditions where the puffs are just below double-trapping, where there is a large difference between sustained and puff wind strength.

If you are going to rely upon your hiking straps for hiking, make sure you check them frequently for wear. I remember a seminar where Carlton Tucker was the guest expert. He hopped onto a Hobie 16 of one of the seminar participants, hooked his feet under the hiking strap, hiked out and immediately somersaulted backward off the boat because the hiking strap broke. We have it on tape in our blooper video.

I actually think about that almost every time I put my foot in. I had that start to happen on my 18, so now it's something I regularly check and send off to my canvas shop when they get worn or the stitching gets funky. Of course, every time I pick up such work from the shop they get nervous that it will let go and I'll sue. I have to repeatedly re-assure them if I fall in I consider it my fault for using the equipment in the first place...

What makes me more nervous nowadays are the stories of people getting their foots trapped in strap and breaking their leg in a capsize. Ouch!

Now, how many of us regularly inspect our trap rigs so that we don't fall off the boat that way?

I check my trap lines a lot. My boat is 22 years old and most of the standing rig is original. I snapped the main halyard last year. I think 2005 I am going to replace all the wires.

The puffy conditions Keith refers to are constant in Oklahoma. Wind fluctuates constantly and sometimes hiking hard is about all you have time for in a short gust.

TD

What are the "Eye straps/fairleads" mentioned in the quote below? I would like more information on this.

Thanks


[quote]Easy fix!

1. Buy 4 large eye straps/fairleads.
2. Measure how far inboard you would like the straps to be.
3. Drill and rivet on the eye straps on the inside of the front and rear x-bars on each side of the boat.
4. Go to a rigging store and have them make you up two straps (one for each side) with loops on each end. Leave the straps 6 inches shorter than the distance between each x-bar.
5. Buy some 3/16" rope and tie the straps between between the x-bars using the riveted eye straps as your anchor points.

All done! Completely removable, washable and your tramp isn't touched.

See attachment for a picture of eyestraps.

GARY

Terry,
Does your trampoline have lacing down the middle and across the back? If so, you could do the same thing we have done with Hobie Waves when the hiking straps wear out. We run a hiking strap diagonally from somewhere in the center lacing back and outboard to the back lacing (if you don't have back lacing, you could tie it to an eye-strap at the outer end of the aft beam. A lot of people seem to prefer the diagonal strap.

You can do it a number of ways -- you can use a piece of webbing, double it over at each end and put a grommet through at each end of the webbing and put a line through the grommet at each end to tie to the lacings (or beam if no lacing in the back). Or you can use line all the way and sleeve over it some plastic tubing. Or you can get some of that nice, cushy black foam tubing I have seen on dinghies (Rick likes that because it is so easy to slide your foot under it) and it is more comfortable on your feet.

If you have a crew, you could do the same thing, in reverse, going diagonally from the center lacing and forward with a hiking strap for the crew, although I rarely used the forward hiking strap in my many years of crewing except in moderately heavy air downwind. And in really heavy air I was at the back of the boat and hanging onto the aft hiking strap anyway.

Mary,

I like the diagonal idea! However my old Nacra 5.2 has the center bar between the beams. I may try a couple of different things while I am still using the old tramp. No great loss if something doesn't workout and I have to re-sew/re-grommet.

Thanks again,
TD