I have an older Hobie that I have been restoring. I am about to step the mast for the first time and have no step link and the hook on the mast base has broken off. Is the step link kit needed to get the mast up? I keep my boat near the water and will be leaving the mast up. Also, I don't currently have a wire main halyard. Can I get away with just using an all rope halyard for a while? Thanks

You don't need a mast stepping link, you can just get someone to hold the bottom of the mast in the cup. Just make sure that they hold on tight and push donwards.

Imagine that the mast is a beam with the person raising the mast as a pivot, if the person holding the base of the mast lets go, the mast pivots around the person raising and the top of the mast will crash down pretty quickly. I personally don't use a mast stepping link as it is so much quicker with someone holding the base of the mast. Just make sure that they hold it well.

As for your main halyard, you will be able to raise the sail with a rope halyard, however you will not be able to lock the sail into the hooks at the top of the mast.

The wire halyards have a sleeve that has been crimped onto the wire at the right place so that when you raise the sail, the sleeve locks into the locking thing at the top of the mast. This then means that when you tighten the downhaul (and you put a lot of force on the downhaul), the tension is not running all the way down the halyard to the cleat on the bottom of the mast.

If you're taking the boat out in light winds and don't need a flat sail (i.e. lots of downhaul) then you should be OK with the rope halyard, however if you're sailing in anything over a force 2 then you will want to flatten the sail and you will need the lock the sail into the mast.

For an idea of the force that the halyard would be under, look at the way the mast bends and think how much force it takes to do that. That's why a wire is needed!

Not only does the head of the mast go crashing down when the person holding the base lets go - the base comes up!

You don't want to get up close and personal with the base of the mast as it comes up. People have lost teeth and worse.

That's why Hobie invented the mast step link. People were getting hurt when the hook slipped out or broke off.

You can retrofit old castings to accept a link, but it may be easier just to buy a used casting from a dealer or from eBay.

Yeah, it was kinda interesting stepping the mast with my old base:




After I replaced it with a new one



life was much easier!

Trust me, it's worth the 25 minutes and $50 (or so, including the associated hinge) it takes to put a new base on the mast.

Mast stepping... Hmm, guys... he is planning on stepping the mast once and than keeps the thing sitting outside. Besides the fact that I would not keep the boat outside over the winter I would give it a shot. You could rig a rope connecting mast and front cross bar - limiting the mobility of the mast - reducing the risk for the person who is positioning the mast.

Main Halyard... depending on the type of mast tip, you have one or two pulleys guiding your halyard. These pulleys are designed for small diameters (wires). It might be possible to find some small diameter rope (3/16 might work with some type of high tech core - vectran) that would do the job but the price might be close to the amount of the wire halyard and some cheap 1/4 polyester rope. A disadvantage of the all rope halyard would be more stretch (double mast length - about 50 feet of rope). You would have to estimate here a bit - the high tech stuff does not stretch a lot. You might be out of compliance in case you want to race the old thing. The advantage of this type of setup would be the ease of use - that you do not have to deal with the hook which is often a PITA when you have no time or space to deal with it.

Patrick

EGADS MAN! Please pay attention to mbounds in next reply. If your Hobie is a 16, you will need Swartzenneger(sic)to risk his teeth and your mast!