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Reply to: mast pin G-Cat 5.0?

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[quote=kraven]The rigging manual says to run a piece or rope through the hole in the mast step and the ball.  This is how I do it with no problems.  I use a 12" piece of bungie cord and tie a square knot with the knot and slack forward of the mast step.  This way if the mast slides off the ball the bungie will catch on the ball and keep it from going too far.

Another tip is to have one person use the winch on the trailer to haul the mast up by one of the trap wires while one person stands on the back trampoline and keeps the mast going up strait.  When the shroud wires are slightly taught, remove the bungie rope that's through the step and then lift the mast slightly and slide the teflon chip between the mast step and the ball.  The hobie mast chips work fine but if you don't have one a piece of plastic bottle, practice golf ball cut in half, etc... will work instead.  Get everything tight by using a portuguese turnbuckle (doubled piece of rope) between the forestay and the ring in the forward bridle.

You use the trap wire to hoist the mast instead of the forestay because it's hard to attach to the bridle when there is tension on it from the winch.

Now if there are any hobie people where you sail they'll think this is all crazy that you use a rope instead of a pin for the mast and you use rope to attach the forestay instead of the adjustable metal stay like on the shrouds but that's the way it was designed to be done on the G-Cat.

The portuguese turnbuckle on the forestay is nice because you don't ever have to tension your shroud wires, you just pull the rope really tight.  The mast rake on the G-Cat should be perpendicular to the deck most of the time.  If you're in really heavy winds you can rake it back a bit by loosening the forestay rope and adjusting the shrouds.

Finally the jib attaches with a turnbuckle to the metal loop in the middle of the forward spar beam, not the loop in the bridle.  The bottom of the zipper on the jib should be at the loop in the forward bridle.

Next time I get my boat rigged up I'll take some pictures of all the rigging pieces and post them up here in an album.  Gotta get the big gaping hole in my pontoon fixed first though.

BTW, where are you located?[/quote]

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