My hobie cat sail came with a poor set up as far as battens are concerned. Some of the battens are too small(not length) and some of them are far too long(length) basically i am not sure they are the right battens for the sail. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find some new ones?

You should have 4 jib battens (smaller) and 8 mainsail battens. The battens for the main are all the same type and are common to H14, H16, H17 and TheMightyHobie18 (color may vary).

Sounds like a previous owner may have "ganked" together the batten set. Roll out your main and try to fit up your battens to the sail pockets. Longer battens can be trimmed to fit shorter pockets. You may only need to get 2 or 3 new battens.

You can order new battens from the Catsailor store on this site. They are pretty inexpensive. Also, if you have the older, white batten caps, I recommend replacing with the much more durable black caps. Dan Berger ([email protected]) may have some used battens (and caps). Longer length battens are sometimes a PIA to ship.

PS: Not sure of the spelling or etymology of the word "ganked" but it is very useful in describing the various mishaps that can befall a Hobie sailor through jury rigging, ignorance or bad luck. E.g.: "My Oxen blocks ganked up and I could not release the jib sheet" or "I ganked the start and let Bob Curry roll over me to windward". Anyone know where this word came from?

I've always heard "ganked" in the context of stealing. As in "somebody ganked my car!" Etc. If somebody ganked your jib, that'd mean it was missing altogether, not just didn't adjust it fast enough. Dunno.

Hi and welcome to Hobie Sailing.
Here is the Hobie Cat Company Site for finding a dealer in your area.
http://www.hobiecat.com/company/dealer.html
This may be a good place to start when looking for Hobie parts.
Maybe there is a hobie dealer near you.

Good luck.

Chris,

Thanks for the plug--I have lots of battens and can ship them.

On the word "Gank", I did a little research. Got this definition from some Rastafarian dictionary:

Gank - "To Steal, Rip Off, Jack." This word was made popular by the N.W.A. song "I Ain't Tha 1," "...Ganked means getting took for your bank Or your gold or your money or something..." It's etymology is not known for certain as far as I can tell, but I speculate that it is related to "gang," developed from "ganged up on" or something similar to "ganged" and eventually "ganked." The g/k shift is well known, and it fits with the Black vernacular useage of such phrases as "gang-bangin'," etc..

Of course, the skandanavian word (swe dialect) for Gank is: a lean half-starved horse.

Thought you might find that interesting.

So, no, your blocks weren't "ganked up", You just plain blew it. It was user error--that's what you get for bashing my blocks!!

I, on the other hand, had no excuse for my poor performance..