Great Cupertino Weather: Boat Work and Cruising on a used Kawasaki Concours

Well, the season that I love Cupertino for is here -- fantastic weather for the weekend meant that I made an impulse purchase of a motorcycle that I've had my eye on for some time. The year 2000+ Kawasaki Concours. Before I give my impression of the first ride on this 4-carbureted big bike, I'll outline some other work that I've been doing today: tuning the Hobie 20 for race season.

I was hoping to get out for a sail today, but memories of flipping over last weekend, and a low tide kept me grounded today. Instead I decided to do some race-prep and rigging work.

Task 1: Replace the Jib Car Travel Wire with two swaged "Fork" style fittings. This has proved more expensive and harder to do than it should.

After some searching online, I saw this Swaging tutorial which I intend to follow for my 1/8 inch stainless wire rope. Although I have never seen hand-swage marks on the existing Hobie fittings, I think that these can essentially be crimped on. The fittings themselves are very expensive {$15 per fitting} and I ended up ordering these online at a site called Zoro.com.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLUCYgGVL0I
• http://www.zorotools.com/
• Search Terms: 1/8" Wire Rope Fork End Fitting [The manufacturer is Loos]
• Another site selling the fitting: http://www.velasailingsupply.com/Navtec-Swage-Fork-1-8-Wire-1-4-Pin-p/nvn547-0408.htm 

Task 2: Now I need to replace a screw pin to my Jib Halyard shackle which has lost this for some reason. The small shackle is swaged onto wire rope, so I'm reluctant to replace the entire shackle unless I have to. I had pulled the wire rope halyard in favor of Spectra, but now I'm beginning to think that the wire rope, as small as it is, will more easily fit within the Jib Luff pocket. [I've had a lot of trouble raising/lowering the Hobie 20 Jib, possibly for this reason.] I hope to resolve this by finding some loose shackle pins among other odds and ends on my work bench.

Task 3: Measure the Hobie 20 for Spin. Haylard to Pole Tip [29 Ft] and Pole Tip to Turning Block Dimensions [18Ft]. I was able to get some idea of the first dimension based on having to drop my mast last weekend to retrieve the Main Halyard. The mast is 31 Ft 4" [measurement error?] and according the Barefoot Sailing's SNU guide, another Hobie 20 sailor succeeded with the Spin Halyard 5 feet from the mast-head. This would put the height from the Trampoline at 26 Ft or so. I measured the Forestay at 23 Ft 4" while taking the mast partially down. Another Hobie Document states that the Hobie 20 should have its Halyard Tang at 24-26" [Depending on Doc revision] from the start of the Comp Tip. That also comes out at 25 Ft + I would like to fly a large Assym, so 26 Ft is what I plan to use. A 12 Foot Pole is very long on a 20 Foot Long boat -- I am having second thoughts about using this length. The Hobie standard is apparently 11.5Ft.