Log - Race night in Hobie 16 - Aug 10, 2015

Very light winds.  Took 6-year-old (this week...) Hannah on Hobie 16 number 84.  Race cancelled due to low winds, but went out anyway.  Tony and Ron were out in Hobie 16 number 01 while Carla took a Laser.

As soon as we left shore (and RC went home) the wind picked up nicely.  Hannah on jib, learning how the cleats and continuous line worked.  While on the water, had my typical H16 tacking issue -- jib batons getting caught on the jib halyard.  I noticed there was a clip on the port side of the mast, a few feet under the forestay attachment.  It looks like it's meant to hold the halyards (jib and main) back from the front of the mast.  I went into irons, gave the jib halyards a good pull and was able to clip it in place.  AWESOME!  No more issue tacking this thing.

Wind continued to increase.  Spent most of the evening on beam reaching going back and forth to Quebec and back a few times.  Hulls were humming and I was able to get out on the wire (we weren't flying a hull, but were still blasting along.  The main looked good all night long, but the jib always seemed under trimmed.  Will try playing with the position of the jib cars next time out to improve this.

A couple of times one of the rudders popped up, leading to massive weather helm.  Apparently, some maintenance on the rudder assembly can mitigate this, especially adjusting spring tension.  It seems involved though .  May do this on upcoming duty day.

Lessons Learned
- clip halyards to prevent batons getting stuck
- see what we can do to improve jib trim
- perform maintenance on rudder assembly(?)