Hobie Baby Bob Mount

dehlert

New Member
After reading several posts regarding the benefits of adding a Hobie Baby Bob to the top of the mast, I decided to mount one myself. Since I sail with my wife and four year old daughter I wanted the extra peace of mind knowing that it would help prevent turtling. I went to my local Home Depot and bought a 1 1/2 in. aluminum flat bar 1/8 in. thick for about $10. Since the Hobie mount is about 1 in. wide and the mast opening is about 2 in. wide, I simply cut two 4 in. pieces of the aluminum bar and bent them so that it would fit the inside of the Hobie mount and expand to accommodate the inside of the mast. I secured it all with three bolts on each side of the Hobie mount and 2 bolts on each side of the mast. The whole setup only required two pieces of aluminum bar and 10 bolts. It took about 1 hour from start to finish and it seems to be rock solid. There are also a couple holes on the back side of the Hobie mount to add a block like some of the other mounts that I have seen on this site do. I guess I won't truly know how secure it is until the mount is truly put to the test. It’s not the most attractive mount, but is there anything attractive about mounting a large plastic egg on top of the mast?

Here are a couple pictures:

picture.php


picture.php
 
That looks great and very secure, just wondering why you did not bother to drill some new holes on the Bob brackets and attach it more centred:confused:
 
Centering It

@ Woodbark - I was really just trying to come up with a mount that didn't require a whole lot of extra modifications. Centering it would make it look better, but I also liked the idea of leaving the back holes available to add a bolt/block for future use.
 
@ Woodbark - I was really just trying to come up with a mount that didn't require a whole lot of extra modifications. Centering it would make it look better, but I also liked the idea of leaving the back holes available to add a bolt/block for future use.

---------------------------
That is actually a good idea, perfect for attaching a "topping lift"
 
My baby bob arrived today, so your post is very timely for me! How did you bend the aluminum? Does that require a special tool, or can you use a vise?
 
Yet Another Baby Bob Mount (YABBM)

After getting stuck in the mud on Black Friday I researched and decided on the Baby Bob float. I know the sleeves work (a friend has them, attached with a zipper, on his M20) but to buy them was too much and I doubt my ability to make them.
Many people have generously shared how they mounted theirs so I thought I would do the same.
I considered cutting the steel bracket that comes with the float but how would I sell the float to a Hobie owner if I didn't like it and I had cut the bracket?
I went to my local, very good, hardware store and they got me a piece of aluminum. They can get any size but I did not know that then so I got it too big and had to do some cutting. Again the hardware store to the rescue. They cut it for me. (The ugly, uneven cuts are all mine.)
Anyway here are some pics. The pdf has a drawing I made in Google Sketchup.
Thank you to everybody that posted pictures. So many good ways to do this.
Rick
 
Drawing as JPG

I could not open the file either. The file is good, I think, b/c I can open it on my PC just fine. Somehow the URL is not finding the file. Oh well.

Here are the drawings from the pdf file as jpegs.
 
My one concern is that if the Baby Bob "slams" into the water, it might rip the Baby Bob off the mast. The mast itself is fairly thin aluminum. I used 1/4" thick by 1" aluminum flat bar, formed to the shape of the mast, as a backing plates. Overkill perhaps, but I feel better now.
 
Greg,

I've capsized twice on purpose during a class; watch several others do it during the same class, and managed to do it once while soloing in a 20 knt wind. My experience is that these boats lay down pretty gently rather than "slam" into the water. In fact, it is relatively easy to do a walk-over for a dry capsize recovery (I haven't done, but have seen it with our Capris).

I wouldn't worry much about breaking your mast; if you are, then perhaps you could put the bracket bolts into a slot open at the top rather than a hole. Just a thought.

-- Ed
 
After reading several posts regarding the benefits of adding a Hobie Baby Bob to the top of the mast, I decided to mount one myself. Since I sail with my wife and four year old daughter I wanted the extra peace of mind knowing that it would help prevent turtling. I went to my local Home Depot and bought a 1 1/2 in. aluminum flat bar 1/8 in. thick for about $10. Since the Hobie mount is about 1 in. wide and the mast opening is about 2 in. wide, I simply cut two 4 in. pieces of the aluminum bar and bent them so that it would fit the inside of the Hobie mount and expand to accommodate the inside of the mast. I secured it all with three bolts on each side of the Hobie mount and 2 bolts on each side of the mast. The whole setup only required two pieces of aluminum bar and 10 bolts. It took about 1 hour from start to finish and it seems to be rock solid. There are also a couple holes on the back side of the Hobie mount to add a block like some of the other mounts that I have seen on this site do. I guess I won't truly know how secure it is until the mount is truly put to the test. It’s not the most attractive mount, but is there anything attractive about mounting a large plastic egg on top of the mast?

Here are a couple pictures:

picture.php


picture.php
Can you post your photos again? They are not showing up for me and I'd love to see how you rigged the bob. Thanks a bunch.
 
After reading over everyone's suggestions I decided to use rectangular tubing (1x2 aluminum) and do something similar to what Jim did. See http://sailingforums.com/threads/baby-bob-to-the-rescue-i-hope.24955/. Since it was winter and I had a CAD system at my disposal I decided to model something up and here is what I came up with.
Baby Bob Assy.JPG


Here are more views of the assembly
Mast Adapter.JPG Mast Mount.JPGBob Mount.JPG

And then since I didn't have anything better to do I decided to do a FEA simulation with a 100 lb sideways force to see what would happen. As far as I can tell that should not be a problem. The distortion is exaggerated for display purposes.
Mast Forces.JPG
It was simple to make and I got the aluminum from OnlineMetals.com for under $15. I especially like the quick release pin for setup and tear down. I am thinking about adding a topping lift and I think I can mount the top pulley to this assembly. If anyone would like drawings I could draft something up

Jim
 

Back
Top