Sail on iTrek 9

Hello Everyone,
Has anybody tried out the sail kit on the iTrek 9? I keep going to the showroom with half a mind to trade my iTrek 9 in for a newer model with the sail and Bimini mount but have so far resisted the urge.
Cheers,
Keith

Hey Keith, I’ve used the sail kit on the iTrek 9 and it’s pretty cool! It adds some nice versatility and fun to your trips, but it’s worth considering if you’ll use it often enough to justify upgrading. If you’re happy with your current setup and don’t need the extra features, sticking with what you’ve got might be the way to go.

Thanks for the feedback TerraNova. I think I had ideas of using the sail kit to turn the iTrek 9 into a mini Adventure Island but sounds like I might be better off just buying a set of turbo fins and pedalling harder.

Do I need any accessories to install the sail kit? I can't find anything about it anywhere. I know that you install the sail mast at the front. But how do you install the rest?

https://www.hobie.com/accessories/mirage-sail-kit/
Choose the last of 3 PDFs in below link, unless you are trying to use one of the non iTrek sails:
https://www.hobie.com/support/mirage-sail-kit/

Can anyone post a picture of the iTrek models with the accessory mount? There are no Hobie dealers near here and I almost bought an iTrek Duo 14 online but they told me it had no accessory mount; I believe it was the earlier model. A dealer I contacted did tell me that the accessory mount is there on the Duo in the front mirage drive well. The picture of the Duo with a sail on the Hobie site shows it in the rear drive well behind the front passenger. I wonder if they used some other kind of deck attachment for the sail. I messaged Hobie to find out more about the accessory mount but have not heard back. Thank you!

You can see the sockets integrated in the front part of each drive well in the top-down picture:



In my post above is the instructions for the OLD i-sail with 3 stays. I thought I had found and posted some kind of new i-sail instructions with no stays, but can't find it now. Looks like you can find existing anchors on the deck to tie stays to, possibly using extensions, but they might interfere with stuff.

One sail might underpower the duo; I guess adding another in the front would be hard to rig it's main sheet.

A bit more i-sailing info is on page 8 of catalog below.
I guess you could extend the forestay to the front carry handle.
I might attach side stays to a specific point onto a new line from
the side carry handle to the front seat anchors.
Or use a glue-on D ring, although that would be under a lot of pressure.

https://media.hobie.com/digital_assets/International_Hobie_Kayak_and_Eclipse_2022_003_102922.pdf?_gl=1*1q4mauh*_gcl_au*OTE0MjI0MjQ5LjE3NDMwNDI3MDk.*_ga*MTMzNjg4NDg5NC4xNjQxMzk2NzA5*_ga_Z9H2YY9GHV*czE3NDY3Mzc3NzUkbzEwOTUkZzEkdDE3NDY3Mzk0MTgkajU1JGwwJGgw