I've not been sailing for too long here, this time my question is trivial... why the hell did they decide to call that tiny little bar up front under the tramp a dolphin striker or dolphin rake??? and what purpose does it serve? i cant understand this... does hobie just hate dolphins and hope that bar would take a few out?

The dolphin striker is from the old square rigged sailing ships. It is the vertical spar at the bow at the aft end of the bowsprit. It is part of the structural support to stiffen the bowsprit which supports the forestays from the bowsprit to the mast. In that location it would point down to where the dolphins would swim ahead of the ship. In a Hobie its purpose is to be a structural reinforcement of the crossbar and, in fact, forms a truss. In the Hobie there is a tremendous amount of force involved in the crossbar with the loads from the mast and shrouds.

I once assembled a square rigged model and when I got to the final lines from the bowsprit to the dolphin striker and back to the hull, the whole rigged tightened up. I was surprised at how it all came together and how much each line is important.

Howard

Maybe the more appropriate term should be Dolphin-Safe Tuna Knocker.

I think the one on the bowsprit is the martingale (or bobstay for the English), but it was more fun to call it something else, and when cats came along with a similar looking thing is got lumped in....

I always wondered that myself.