Hobie Sail Reefing Device
Have a proper sail and mast on the Hobie is all very well but what happens when you want to have a fish, the last thing you want is the sail flapping around above your head, so finding a way to reef (roll it around the mast) the sail is the ideal option.
There are many articles on the web showing how to make a reefing system for the Hobie rig. This is my version of this simple device, the measurements may differ for kayaks other than the Revolution 13 due to hull/mast foot depth.
You'll need a piece of 36mm uPVC pipe, black would have been nice, but this white piece was in the garage! Mark it at 29cm.
And cut, I am using a uPVC pipe cutter here which gives a good clean straight cut.
I then hunted around the house for a pair of end caps, a pair of Colgate Pump toothpaste caps were spot on.
Slide one cap on the end of the pipe and drill the first hole through the cap and then through the pipe, this should be central on the height of the cap, using a 6mm drill bit, or the same size diameter of the piece of rope that you are going to use.
A second hole is then drilled in alignment with the first hole which is approximately 5cm from the top of the pipe.
Using your piece of rope, ours was around 4.5m long thread it into the bottom hole, feed through to the nearest end of the pipe and then thread into the top hole, this is a little tricky and takes a little patience. Feed more rope through and then feed through the end of the cap.
With a tag end of about 20cm slip the cap back over the pipe. I put a knot in the rope close to the cap to stop pull through.
Now its time to cut a hole in the top of both caps to allow the mast to slip through, we used a wood cutting drill bit which was slightly smaller than the mast... I didn't have the right size! And then sanded the hole out to fit the mast, I wrapped the sandpaper around a tube to ensure the hole remained round.
The Colgate caps have a nice little ridge which is the right size for mast which acts perfectly as a guide.
Both caps on its time to give it a dry run.
Slip the device onto the mast with the tag end at the top. Then slip the mast into the mast foot of the kayak. Wrap about 7 turns of the rope around the device.
Tie the tag end to the elastic down haul on the sail.
Release the outhaul (control line) on the sail and pull the long end of the reefing device. This should spin rolling the sail around the mast.
Pull on the outhaul and the sail unreefs from the mast. All that is then required is to slip the sail downhaul over the button in front of the mast foot.
Now that we know it all works its time to glue it all together.
The uPVC pipe is a bit ugly with that writing on it, so ours was wrapped in vinyl for the finished job, it looks almost professional!
