H16 sail reduction - anyone?

I have a H16 and am looking to reduce sail area. Has anyone done this successfully, and can they tell me where I could find more information? I know...this is a boat that can be tuned so that this should be a non-issue, though I am older and my wife and I combine to a whopping total of 250 pounds wet, and I am sailing in a place with heavy gusts, so am looking to reduce main sail (and maybe jib) area so that we can have some nice sails and not worry... Any help is appreciated.

I just sold a roller furler for the jib that I had laying around or else I would offer it to you. In your situation though, I would personally look into the roller furlers. They are a bit expensive in my opinion, but I think it will be a good investment for you. You will be able to roll the jib up if you ever get into uncomfortable conditions. I must caution you however, the 16 can be a bit of a bugger to tack without a jib to backwind, but like anything, with practice you should be able to get it down.

Another option would be to either install reef points in your sail or look for an older sail for sale that has the reef points already installed. I know that Hobie used to put reef points in their sails because I have an older set that has them.

My '85 Hobie had reef points and 2 slugs on the halyard, the second one to allow you to hook at the reef point. Hobie did away with the reef when they came out with the comptip mast. The long length of wire on the halyard defeated the purpose of the comptip (electrical insulation)so the newer halyards have only one slug. If your boat is '85 or older and hasn't been retrofitted with the comptip, you should have the halyard that would allow reefing.

I single hand most of the time at a weight of 190 lbs. A combined weight of 250 should be adequate in most conditions.

Howard

I am not a 16 sailor, but does the 16 not have full length battens in the jib?

Instead of reefing your H16 main, you might be able to find a Hobie 14 main to use when it's blowing.

Yep, and you can also but little hinges to install because they tend to hang up on the mast when tacking or jibing in lighter winds. But I don't believe that the hinges are race legal though.

Since the jib has full length battens, you will not be able to furl it. If you want to reduce sail area you will have to look into reef points in the main, but I personally believe the definition of reef point is "a coral formation where fish live"

Well with the roller furler you can either buy a new jib that is a bit smaller for the furler, or do as I did and just go without battens. I do know of a guy who cut lengths of a tape measure and used them as makeshift battens for his roller furler though.

thank you - I didn't realize earlier 16's came with the reef option. I could crimp a slug at a second point on the halyard. I think an appropriate point for reef point is up two batten panels from the bottom (if that makes any sense)- any comments anyone? My boat is a 2003 FYI (it was raced in the Pan Am races in San Juan PR and is wickedly tuned. I had a TheMightyHobie18 for years in Cape Cod (Buzzard's Bay) and the 16 is a lot quirkier boat for me...

Sell the 16 and buy a Hobie Wave. You'll have way more fun and no scary stuff in big wind or big gusts.

You can't crimp a second slug on the new halyards because the wire portion isn't long enough. That was the point - to not have a way for electricity to travel from the top of the mast. There were cases where boats were towed near a launch area where the mast contacted overhead electric wires so it was a safety issue. I guess you would have to get an old halyard or modify your present one if you wanted to reef.

I reefed my H-16 main one time in 23 years and didn't feel like it made enough difference so I never bothered again. I also sail a Cape Cod catboat (monohull) and reef it pretty often.

Howard

You can still buy the two slug wire rope halyards for the Hobie 16 from Hobie. You can probably even get away with just cleating off the halyard and not using the slug. I've seen plenty of boats come back in where the people couldn't figure out how to use the fork in the first place. Sure you reduce the load on the mast, but has anyone heard of a mast breaking because you didn't use the slug?

The plastic luff track in the comp tip will not retain the bolt rope in the reefed position. The leech tension pulls the sail out of the track starting at the head. At the top the halyard provides some forward pull, but I believe all the new boats come with 9" of an aluminum track extrusion at the top. Our older boats don't have that, we even have two masts without comp tips. You can make it work by adding another of the 9" aluminum extrusion tracks at the point where the head will be when reefed and cut the plastic track to fit above and below. Hobie did that with the 21 SC. I've taught a couple of classes on windy days where the reefed boats made it easier to teach.

John

That alu bit is more for the boats that use the Aussie style halyard hook. It banged around and chipped away at the plastic track. The stock hook with the loose shackle didn't do that as much. The 16 luff track is currently all plastic.
As John C, said reefing mellows out the boat quite a bit and is good for teaching/ learning.
Hope that helps.

If you don't want to put an extra slug on the halyard, make up a strop of vectran, dyneema or wire to go between the head of the sail and the shackle point of the halyard. so that you still use the same slug but the sail is not hoisted so far.

Best not to just tie the halyard off on the cleat, you still need plenty of downhaul to keep the boat well under control when reefed.

Here in Europe you can also get an "Easy" sail for the 16 which has 10,5 sqm and is sailed without the boom, so safer. It is quite expensive though.

Great advice - I'm not as advanced as many here - hence the reef question in the first place...but the TEAMVG recommendation is something I had not thought of, and should work well. Do I have eyelets added to the sail for reefing, or is there another elegant option that I've not thought of? I truly appreciate this help!

A sailmaker would add clew reinforcing patch and tack reinforcing patch with grommets. Then a 2 or 3 minor patches with grommets between the new clew & tack to tie/gather the sail. Locate reef a panel & a half above the existing clew & tack. Could even add a second reef above that.