Hey, everyone, I have a question which has been bothering me for some time and causing me to hesitate from sailing my Hobie 16 in certain conditions. Last season, whenever I'd capsize my Hobie it would turtle immediately and, even with the help of a power boat, was extremely difficult to right again. This caused all kinds of problems and embarrassment that I don't even want to get into. Turns out that my mast would fill up with water immmediately and within 30 seconds she'd turtled over. This occurred even after I installed a "baby bob" mast float -- 30 seconds, no kidding. After checking with people online, it seemed apparent to me that my mast plugs were shot. Over the winter, I had a sailboat shop here in the Western NY area replace the plugs. After months with my mast they got it back to me but they reported that they only replaced the top mast plug. According to them, its smarter for me to leave the bottom mast plug -- whether its shot or not they didn't check -- alone because any water which does get into the mast needs a location from which to drain. I wasn't exactly comfortable with the thought that the job was only half done but at that point the season had already started and I was so anxious to get on the water that I didn't argue. The bottom line for me now is that I'm a little gun shy about taking the Hobie. I have a righting pole but that will do little good if my cat turtles over and the mast takes on water. I was just wondering what you think of the whole mast plug issue and whether the sailboat shop which I used was correct in leaving the bottom of the mast section alone. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thanks.

See my reply on the Hobie forum.

I don't know if my mast leaks, but it will turtle if i don't stand on the hulls quickly. I also have a righting bar. If it does turtle I can just grab the righting lines and lean out over the hull, or set the righting bar to lean out, and the boat will SLOWLY come up so the mast is nearly horizontal. From then it's just a matter of having enough weight to right it, but if there's water in the mast, that extra weight at the end will make it tough.

I think plugging the top of the mast will definitely help in terms of leakage. Just think, when you're turtled, water can only come in the top, which is the mast base. For water to get in, it has to get past the air which is escaping. Now if you had a hole in the bottom (mast head), any air escaping from the base will be quickly replaced by water coming in the head. Plus you have the added pressure of water at the head which is 20+ feet below, helping to force the air out.

I'm surprised you weren't able to get it up from a turtle. When the whole rig is under water, the water in the mast isn't 'extra' weight, you just lack the bouyancy of a mast which is hollow.