The mast base on my 86 Hobie 16 is loose, will slide about a 1/4 inch or more any direction. Is it as simple as drilling out old rivets and putting in new? Is this a sign that something else, maybe dolphin striker related, is out of whack? Ill just look up rivet size and type from the catalog unless someone has a recommendation off hand.
Thanks as always
Won't know until you get the old mast base off. It is just that simple: carefully drill out the rivets, pull the thing, clean/inspect and reinstall with closed head rivets. Stainless mandrel with aluminum shell (or whatever you call the outside part of the rivet) or stainless/stainless with some stuff gooped in there to stop the galvanic corrosion between stainless and aluminum. Done it a couple times and it's pretty straight-forward.
Just to clarify terminology, the mast base is the part that is attached to the bottom of the mast. The mast step is the part that is attached to the center of the front crossbar. It sounds like your issue is with the mast step.
You can drill out and re-rivet the mast step. You will need to either loosen the dolphin striker first or use C-clamps to compress the step down onto the crossbar so that it is flush before installing the rivets. However, there is a good chance that the rivet holes became enlarged due to wear and the new rivets may not hold well. If that’s the case, you may need to bump up the rivet size from 3/16” to 1/4” diameter or drill some additional holes in fresh metal.
sm
Steve M.
Thank you both, may use it as an excuse to upgraded to a less aged 16, but want to fix it properly for whoever inherits it
jalex wrote: The mast base on my 86 Hobie 16 is loose, will slide about a 1/4 inch or more any direction. Is it as simple as drilling out old rivets and putting in new? Is this a sign that something else, maybe dolphin striker related, is out of whack? Ill just look up rivet size and type from the catalog unless someone has a recommendation off hand.
Thanks as always
To repair, you can do one of 3 things: 1) drill out the existing rivets and replace with same size (I believe 3/16"), 2) Drill out the rivets and tap to 1/4-20 (assuming 3/16" rivet) or 3) drill out the rivets and replace with 1/4"
I would not recommend drilling and tapping for 1/4-20 machine screws. The crossbar is aluminum and the wall is probably less than 0.100” thick. You won’t get enough thread engagement and are likely to strip out the threads.
sm
Steve M.