Newbie to Hobie

a few questions as I'm new to Hobie 16.

I just bought a '75 H16 last fall and have been fixing her up. Anyhow I have a bit of sailing experience but none on Hobie's. Anyhow my questions.

1) My mast to tramp frame has a metal cup on the frame and a metal ball on the base of the mast. Do these sit metal to metal? Or is there some sort of liner that should be on one side or the other to prevent wear and lubrication?

2)How tight should the shroads and fore stay be? Do they make some sort of tool to leverage it so they are tight to insert the clevis pins?

3) The pylon to tramp frame has a single bolt and a plastic nut at each pylon. On mine these are loose so that I can spin the bolt. Is this correct? Or should these be tightened? If so to what torque value? It seems to me with these being loose that it allows for a lot of flex or play between the two hulls.

4) Sail numbers. What is the significance of these? I have a H16 and my first 2 numbers are 16. Is this just a coincidence? What about the remaining numbers?

Thanks

First of all, download the assembly manual - Hobie 16 Assembly Manual



The stock boats have a 2" teflon disk that goes between the mast base and the step, but almost any high-density plastic will work - plastic bottle caps, half a whiffle ball, even a piece cut out of a plastic soda bottle. In a real pinch, you can use a quarter.[/quote]



The rig is tightened with the job halyard and the wire in the luff of the jib becomes the forestay. When the jib is off the boat, the rig can be quite loose.



The bolt is there only to keep the parts from coming apart - it provides no other structural strength. The bolts should be tightened until they are snug - any tighter and you will crack the corner castings.

Looseness in the frame is a whole different subject. There's a number of threads on the Hobie Community Forums about this and how to deal with it.



Sail numbers are like serial numbers for the sails - they do not have any relationship to the serial numbers on the hulls. The adhesive breaks down over a number of years and they start to come off, so people will finish the job and peel off the number.

The plastic (nylon) nuts deteriorate over time and will likely crack if you try to tighten them. Replace with stainless steel for a long term fix.