I have a late 80's Hobie 17 which is in very good shape after my work on it last year. Broke down and purchased a new sail this year but want to work on the battens. I believe I have "standard" fiberglass battens that have not been altered - they are pretty uniform in thickness the entire length. After reading Rick White's book Cat Racing for the 90's I need make them thinner. When I checked them last year with a digital scale (only good to 0.5 lb accuracy) they registered 5 to 5.5 lbs to get a decent bend.

My question is two part.
1. Where do I sand them down - forward 1/3, 1/2???
2. How much do you thin the battens - for 3 lb pressure bend?
One more piece of information - I am well over the minimum weight limit - but going to get lighter. My goal is 180-185.

Before you touch the battens with a sander - rig your sail with the battens just tight enought to take the wrinkles out. Rig the boat, raise the sail, set basic settings (downhaul to take out wrinkles, rotator pointed around shroud, not oversheeted), put the boat on its side (support the mast a short ladder near the hounds), and measure the draft and its position on the sail. Then you will know where and how much to sand, if you need to at all.

Sanding before measuring might get you the need to buy new battens.

On my 18, the older sail I had required all kinds of different tensions on different battens to get a consistent shape. My new sail only required batten tension to take out wrinkles, and had a wonderful shape without having to do any shaping of battens.

Measure first! Sand later!

Hi Joe...I taper the battens in my H17 but have never done the compression thing discribed in Ricks book. When an untapered batten is compressed as it is in the sail it will want to adopt a smooth curve. A tapered batten will adopt an 'airfoil' shaped curve. The tapered batten will more closely agree with the designed shape of the sail. sail and batten will be in harmony and you will be able to more accurately adjust the sail's shape. That is the reason I shape the battens, not to make them softer. Others will no doubt disagree...Dan

Hello Joe and Dan,
You've got it right, Dan. You taper battens to obtain shape and compression. Near the bottom of the sail where the leech and luff are nearly parallel, the compressions can be soft, like three pounds. But up near the top of the sail where the leech rolls over toward the luff, the compressions need to increase, like up by a factor of two or three. If you plot batten compression vs batten length, it should make a smooth curve for a smooth camber distribution in the sail.
By the way, why don't your sails come with tapered battens??? Where's the QUALITY?
Bill

Give me a break....

The fact that replacement H17 sails that may or may not be OEM (I don't think he mentioned it) don't come with tapered battens is going to persuade me to go buy a SC17 right now.

wheres my checkbook damnit?

I am new to Hobies (1.5 years) but that is how they are sold - w/o battens. Is it true the H17 can not use the foam/carbon fiber battens for legal racing?

Since we are venting a bit. What upsets me about Hobie is you have to work through a dealer to order from Hobie. Murrays has it set up right so I think you get better service and price (overall). Last year I ordered CatTrax and some other small items and a dealer wanted to charge me $75 shipping (for 3 week service no less). At the time of the order the clerk said the items would would be combined with the boat order so shipping would be minimal. In the end I paid $25 for shipping.

Sorry to vent,
Joe

Joe,
All replacement sails are sold without battens.
If you only need a new sail, that is all you should have to buy.
Do you want to be forced to buy a second set of battens when the old set is in perfect shape?

Independent sailmakers will usually cut a set of battens to match a custom sail.

Yes you MUST use Hobie 17 battens. There are many other parts which must be Hobie OEM also.

If you want to use foam battens, you can buy an FX1 or a Tiger or a Fox or a Hobie 20.

Foam battens are far more fragile than solid fiberglass battens.
Tapered fiberglass/foam battens cost twice as much as the Hobie fiberglass battens($124.75) in the Hobie 17.
Tapered carbon/foam battens cost twice as much as fiberglass/foam.
The set of tapered, aluminum honeycomb, carbon/foam battens for my 18square cost $600 ten years ago.

Bill,
The first time I ever saw an SC 17, was at a regatta in the Pamlico Sound.
It wasn't very windy or rough that day.
A crash boat was dragging the pieces up to the shore.
One of the hulls had snapped off at the front crossbar.
Looking inside, I could see where the blind joint was poorly bonded, causing the failure.
Is that the sort of QUALITY you are refering to?

Hi Sam,
I will be one of the first to tell you that when Boston Whaler moved SC to California, the QUALITY went to poor. The California builder changed the B/M to the same construction materials as the other California beach cat builders. The fiberglass, resin, foam, polyester glue, gel coat etc took a big step backwards in physical properties to cheap, cheap, cheap materials. As a result some poor quality boats were built during that time period by untrained foreign labor. Hull weights went up 20 to 40 pounds per hull.
Today Aquarius Sails is the only beach builder that builds with West Epoxy resin and the highest quality fiberglass cloth, carbon cloth, PVC foam core, titanium chainplates, all 316 SS fasteners, NO pop rivets. They build 22ft hulls that weigh 95 pounds and 30ft hulls that weigh 175 pounds rigged and painted. Some of these boats are 20 years old... no problems. I have sent several boats to Europe. The owners ordered spare boards and rudders. None of the spare parts have been used.
The point I am trying to make, Sam, is that I read about all these changes people are making to their boats to make them right, better, faster. The parts they are changing would cost the same made incorrectly or correctly. For example: Symmetrical rudders and boards vs lopsided ones. Standing rigging that puts the CE in the sweet spot vs having to buy a longer forestay to obtain proper mast rake etc. Battens that put the max camber where it should be in the sail vs untapered ones that have max bend at 50% length and the list goes on and on. Hulls that leak; fittings that leak; masts that leak; boats that pitchpole easily and turtle. Boats that come with no righting system.
Bill

Bill,
OK you got me what is a SC17? From the sounds of it, these boats are not very good - what years do the boats start going bad? You mentioned the different head stays - quess I did not realize there is a diffenence.

Is there any place (other the reading through the forum) where one can learn more tricks for the Hobie 17?

Thanks,
Joe

Hi Joe,
SC stands for Supercat; therefore a SC 17 is a 17ft long beach cat, no boards. This boat has the lowest PN, is rated the fastest by US Sailing, of any 17ft boardless beach cat.
If I wanted to know how to tune up a H17, I would call/write Bob Curry. He is a past H17 National Champion. Bob must know his stuff about the H17.
Bill

Bill,

What other boardless 17' cats are there?