I sail a H-20 and am curious if a stock H-20 jib can be recut / modified to suit a self tacker sysyem?

You are talking about several modifications which are not H-20 Class legal.

You might be able to re-cut the jib, but it wouldn't work as well as a new jib designed for the self-tacker.

The H-20 needs a self-tacker and a spinnaker, but I doubt if H-Corp. would ever do it, because it would draw sales away from the Tiger and Fox.
As a matter of fact, I expect them to cease making the H-20 soon.
They killed the H-18 and H-17 last year.

I am surprised that Performance hasn't started reducing their number of models.

Hi Sam,
I am really not interested in H-20 class rules at this point.
I have purchased the spin, I am building the pole and already have a squaretop main. I am trying to give myself options depending on the race. I can race stock H-20 (I just bought a new main) or F-20 if a class ever materializes or "open class". Now I just need good info to set up correctly for any given configuration..

If you have a standard spin from another class, you could measure that boat.
Supposedly, Performance is changing their sef-tacker to one which resembles the Tiger.

It would be nice if IHCA-NAHCA-PU, would improve the H-20, but that might hurt sales of the Fox, such as they are, HA-HA-HA.
Especially a self-tacking jib to get all of that crew-abusing crap off of the tramp. Yes, I have crewed on an H-20.
They could simply use the Fox spinnaker and sef-tacking jib.
It would take every NAHCA member H-20 sailor complaining to get it changed, maybe.

I crewed during Tradewinds this year, from the knees down my legs look like I was attacked with a weedeater. I have already begun cleaning up the deck.
I doubt there will ever be changes in the H20 class rules.

I own a Hobie 20 and added a chute to it. The boat is really not designed to handle a chute. I think it is a great boat but if you want a chute buy a Tiger, F18 or an I20. These boats were designed with the chute in mind. The boat is very fast with the chute it's just not very balanced.

I don't believe that cutting up the jib would work well on a self tacker. I would get a jib made for the tacker.

Mike Hill
H20 #791

Thanks for your input....

Hi Arbo06,
A jib recut of that magnitude is out of the question for an H20 jib. This is because of the Tri-radial nature of the sail. You may want to find a used Tiger jib or something similar if a new jib is too costly. I am also thinking of going with a self tacking setup.
g-luck
Marc

Hey Guys,
Several boat copanies think they have copied the self tacking jib system. This is not so. I have not seen a so called "self tacking jib system" on any boat except an ARC product that works properly. The copy cats have extra lines and cleats to control this and that and are much more complicated than the ARC system and they do not work as well. If you are going to add a self tacking jib system to your boat, check out an ARC product carefully and you will see that there are many subtle points that make this system simplier and more automatic than the copy cats.
Bill

a major differance with the boats designed for the self tacking jib arrangement is that the forward beam has been positioned significantly forward and therefore percentage of jib size compared to mainsail size can be reduced. this also affects the spinnaker head location to provide for a well balanced boat under all points of sail. reducing the size of your jib on a h20 will take away some of its design balance. and the spin head attach point will be farther aft than ideal. thats my take anyway. good luck

Hi Troy,
The first two boats to have self tacking jibs like is growing popular today were the RC27, 1983 and the ARC22 1992. These boats have the mast well aft on the boat. The 27's mast is 12ft from the transom and the forestay chainplate is 6ft aft from the bow. The very first 27, 1981, had a conventional jib system with fairleads on a wire about 3ft aft from the main beam. When I put a spinnaker pole on the 27, I saw the opportunity to lower the foot of the jib to the spin pole, deck level, and gain jib sail area down low and increase jib luff length below the old high footed jib position. The loss in jib area was along the leech. The net result of these two jib area changes was a small loss in total area. The gain in luff length and forward jib area far outweighed the loss in jib leech area. The boat was faster with the slightly smaller jib of higher aspect ratio and longer luff.
Bill

Troy,
What boat(s) are you talking about?
No beachcats designs were based upon self-tacking jibs.
I know of no beachcats which originally came with S-T jibs since their first production year.
Many designs, including the F18s and F20s, originally came with small jibs.
They were able convert from an overlapping "normal" jib to an S-T jib of the same area.

An H20 is an older design with a large overlapping jib which does not easily convert to Self-Tacking.

Many boats, including monohulls, didn't come with spinnakers and are raced/sailed with them regularly
and their balance has not been destroyed.

NO ONE builds a beachcat that is specfically, 100% optimized for a spinnaker.
It would be a total failure because a buoy racing boat w/spin, spends more time and covers a longer distance UPWIND.