Hello,
I have a 1981 H16 that I refurbished and rebuilt in early 2009 with new paint, running and standing rigging, sheaves, etc., and I rebuilt the trailer as well. I rigged it in my driveway the first time and the dolphin striker rod snapped. I ordered another and really struggled with a way to get the new one in. It was finally suggested to me that I drill out the mast base rivets, unscrew the base and raise the rod to ease getting the rod through.This worked well, but the boat sat for many more months.
Finally on Saturday, over a year and a half after starting the project, I took it out with a friend...who had never been sailing. We loaded everything and set out. I had a paddle in case of no wind, a righting line rigged in case of too much, and a tool kit with spares just in case. It was a very light breeze as we rigged and launched. Took about an hour, but for my first time I wanted to be careful and thorough and all went smoothly. I went through all the parts as we rigged and explained them to my friend, including the righting line.."but there's no way we'll need that today", I added. Well, it was light, then built to about 7-8, then started filling in with short puffs of 10-12 for a few minutes and as the day went on we had some great runs in some pretty strong winds. The boat handled great! Sail shape was good, fully sheeted my upper and lower blocks were about 2" apart, the steering was tight and she tacked better than I thought she could.
This was my second time on a Hobie 16 and my first to skipper one as my own, and so of course the main sheet was cleated as the biggest gust of the day hit. I saw it coming on the water and was reaching to uncleat when suddenly we went from screaming along with the starboard hull just touching, maybe lifting, to burying the port bow and tumbling right on over. Within 30-45 seconds we had made sure all sheets were loose and were up on the hull retrieving the righting line. It took a few tries to figure out where to stand on the floating hull to balance as we pulled but within 5 minutes of crashing we were up and sailing again. We had some more amazing runs, including one where I was able to sheet out to keep from being knocked over again, then tacked back to the ramp. Loading and de-rigging went smoothly and surprisingly quickly.
Sorry for the long ramble, but it was the most amazing day sailing I've had in many years! I was particularly happy that all worked well, nothing broke, that we were able to quickly and efficiently deal with the capsize (though I don't know about doing it alone!), and we were lucky enough to have some great wind.
Afterwords, I read that we had 12-14 with gusts to 22. When we were really moving, I found it hard to really know where the wind was coming from, and tended to sail the boat by the tale-tails. The jib sheet cleats need upgrading, but what a great boat, and a great day!
All the input from this forum helped tremendously. Thank you all.
David