Almost done the repairs and getting ready to rig up and sail soon. I'm wondering how much mast rake I should have. I've noticed from looking at photos that Prindles usually seem to be rigged with little mast rake, compared to Hobies which always seem to have that swept-back look. Is there a reason for this?
Jason
I started sailing P-16 in the late 1970's and from them we carried little or no mast rake. I actually always kept my mast in a plumb position. There is a little more bouyancy forward in the hulls, and the P-16 has better pointing ability than the H-16 for a few reasons. Smaller battlenless jib (except for 3 small leach battens, loose footed mainsail helps upwind performance, hull shape and a shorter foot on the mainsail, and jib block position all help the P-16 point well. A lot also depends on your combined crew weight.
More rake on Hobie's reduces the pitch pole frequency, pulling the main sail force back away from the bows. MOre rake demands more rudder adjustment to compensate also
The manual says 6 to 10 inches measured at the black band on the mast with the boat level. Use the
halyard as a plumb bob with something heavy like a wrench tied to it. With that said I keep mine at
8 inches. I am going to start playing with this adjustment now that I will sail this boat more.
H18m
p16
Venture15
The manual says 6 to 10 inches measured at the black band on the mast with the boat level
The black band? Maybe my cat's a bit old - there's no band on the mast. how high up is it?
Jason
My boat is at the lake. From memory it is just above the boom gooseneck. If no one gets back I will check this weekend. I am sure that Prindle Pete will educate all of us on mast rake. If you don't have the manual you can get it from the technical section of the photo albums on this site. mast rake is on page 37.
H18m
p16
Venture15
ok now i see it - it's on a badly faded and barely legible caution sticker, about a foot up from the base.
Jason
I probably would avoid raking it too much 8-12 inches is more than enough, with the volume in the hulls you will get better performance with a more powered up rig.
The reason the Hobie 16s and 14s rake back so far is that the only thing slowing them down is the tendancy to dive the bows. The relatively light and the small volume hulls have very little drag. So even though they are losing some power by raking the mast back, it allows them to trim a much fuller sail and that added power more than makes up for the power loss due to rake. The downside is that you gain a pile of weather helm also.
In the Prindles case you don't have to contend with as much tendancy to pitch pole so you can keep the mast straighter have the same amount of power with better steering and less weather helm.
Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2
no matter where your mast rake is, the key is adjusting the rudder rake for slight weather helm. my mast is raked 18" and the rudders are foreward pretty good with a little weather helm. this hurts my downwind speed but allows me to point good and handle strong winds going to weather. the rudders tend to lock better raked foreward i have noticed. this setting lets me hang with the nacra 5.2 esp. in good winds. i wouldn't recommend it though until you play around with different settings...i'm not winning any races, hell, i only come close when a storm hits and flips all the boats with skinny people! being 235lbs, i can be a little more agressive on windy days so thats how i tuned the boat.
coastrat
MIne's fairly straight up on my P18
Dustin
Magna, UT
Prindle 18