old hifly & old

Question
I am new to the sport and have acquired some ancient gear; a old hifly 222 and and old Tiga ONEONEONE. Everything is in real good shape except I have no idea how to rig these old things.   The Tiga has a no clamp boom, the hifly has a clip style boom/mast connection which I have been successful at rigging the boom but the mast seems tricky.  The mast bases on both are very confusing. . . are there mast base upgrades i can buy for these things?  There are two bigger mast base holes if that makes sense?  I live in South Dakota, not quite the mecca for wind sports . . . go figure! =) and mainly ride lakes with 10-15 mph winds but have noone around to ask this kind of info.  Any info would be great . .. I will send pics if need be.

Thanks
WindNUBY

Answer
Hey Dan,

Nothing wrong with lake sailing. That is what I learned on and have probably sailed more lakes than any other water souce.

For a very detailed description of how to rig clamp and non clamp booms, put 'running ropes' in the search and that article should walk you through it.

The mast bases are a little more involved. You have very old school bases and you need to be careful with them. Don't lose them and be careful to not break any of the plastic parts. They are almost impossible to replace. Newer aftermarket bases won't work on your boards. You can replace the rubber part but the plastic parts are obsolete.

That said, I'll try to get you through the rigging. Seeing a picture would help me alot but basically they are all similar. There will be a hole/loop on the base that the downhaul rope is threaded through. Slide the sail on the mast and then fit the base into the bottom of the mast. With you at the bottom of the mast, the sail should be laying to the left. Turn the base so the rope is to the left. Now thread the rope through the lower grommet of the sail from the bottom up and then back down to the pulley closest to the rope loop. Feed it through the back of the pulley and then back up through the sail again from the bottom up, back down through a pulley again or just through the cleat. Pull tension on the rope to downhaul the sail. The rope should feed smoothly through the grommet and the pulleys. They shouldn't be crossing. If so, re-route them to get a nice smooth pulley action going. Pull tension as much as you can with just your hands and a foot on the bottom of the base/mast.

Now attach the boom via instrutions from 'running ropes'.

Feel free to send a pic. Position the boards side by side and lay the matching bases on the board. Get as close as you can and still get both bases and the holes in the boards for the bases. Lay the bases so that the pulleys are up so I can get an idea of their design. With a pic like this I can fine tune my description above more closely to your specific rigs.

Hope this helps.
Keep on sailing,
Windlover