My favorite boat to rig is the Hypercarbon™ V8. Its simplicity is manufacturing art – literally. Our carbon wing riggers have actually been studied in university industrial design classes. What does this mean to you? You can count on spending less time tinkering around with the wrenches, and your rigging will be spot on every time.

First thing first – nuts and bolts:
I get the wings bolted to the shell first. This is easiest with an extra set of hands. The wings have an unsuspecting balance point that sometimes has them ending up on the ground. (Hint: the oarlock side is heavier!!!) If you’re going to mount them by yourself, hold on to the wing opposite the oarlock and bolt there first. To do a complete rig, I only install 3 of the bolts; the 2 forward and the aft bolt on the side of the oarlock. The 4th bolt will come into play after the bowbrace is handled.

Here’s my “order of operations.”

OUTBOARD!, FORWARD!, SPREAD!

I set the outboard (lateral) pitch first. Notice the pin has an arrow (older pins had a line) on the pin “nut”. These Pocock pins are eccentric, meaning the axis of the pin is away from the center of it. So, as you turn the pin, the pitch moves in and out. The rule is that the pitch leans away from the arrow.

I start with the notch towards the stern (6 o’clock) with everything tightened. The bottom nut should be very tight. I check my outboard pitch here. If it’s not where I want it (it will be close), I can adjust by loosening the bottom nut, and turning the pin. Moving the arrow towards the boat increases outboard pitch, while moving it away from the boat decreases pitch. If the bow is at 6 o’clock, 0 degrees lateral will be between 5 and 7 o’clock on a Hypercarbon wing. Obviously adjusting outboard pitch in this matter effects forward pitch, so we do that next.

For forward pitch (sometimes called stern pitch), I loosen the pinch bolt (this is the ¼” bolt clamping the sill to the wing) just enough to allow it to move, but maintaining some tension on it. Move the pin and sill forward and back to get your desired pitch measurement.

At this time, before tightening the pinch bolt, I also measure my spread. Half-width across the gunwales, then to the pin. Tighten up the pinch bolt and you are all set!

The oarlocks can have some pitch in them too, remember. The plastic in the lock and the white plugs are all injection molded. This process involves heat, and when things get too hot they shrink and move which can be a problem with the oarlocks. One could install 4° pitch plugs on a pin that is dead on 0°, yet the pitch at the lock is anywhere from 3° to 5°. This happens quite often.

I leave the 4th wing mounting bolt off in order to fully adjust the backstay. With the oarlock and height spacers installed, I tightened the top bolt all the way. Then I adjust the overall length of the stay at the Threaded Adjuster to line up directly on the bolt hole on the wing. Tighten this 4th wing mount bolt, tighten the nuts on the Threaded Adjuster with a 15/16ths wrench or a Crescent, and away you go!

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