Aloha New Owner

Hello, We just took delivery of our TI. I justified the purchase when my wife turned down a diamond ring for a ten year wedding anniversary present! I set it up in the backyard for the surprise. I have an intro/semi shakedown date tentatively setup this week where we will ditch work and meet and launch the kayak so I can show her what I learned from the demo day I went to a few weeks back. I was blown away with the mirage drive and hopefully she will be too. We will most likely not sail it at this time but rather go for a nice peddle together and keep it simple.

Still working through my checklist of things I want to accomplish related to our new craft but thought an intro is appropriate.

Some of my initial focus is on proper storage of it when its not in use and I am having a bear of a time finding PE foam to form contour boards out of to rest it on. This was my first material of choice since I am familiar with it but if anyone has a better suggestion please reply. I bought the TI cradle set that is used on the trailer and thought that it would be a great way to backward engineer the hull shape into some padded dagger boards for support. I am finding that its not quite that easy since the bottom sort of varies. I have it resting on the cradles with about 24mm of neoprene between it and the hull. Seems to be a good temporary solution.

The real use of these will be in the form of a custom roof rack for my truck. Time permitting this will occur sooner rather than later and will increase our number of areas to launch from. I have a couple of good ideas but need to do a bit of fabrication to get there, until then we will hoof it to the beach access. This is one of the reason to not sail her just yet as I want to keep the load light and manageable and there is a lot of unpleasant material out there for hull deformations and other horrors about wheeling it around.

I seem to be one of the folks with improperly formed Amas, as they are not symetrical and have a uncomfortable amount of bow to them. I ran this by the dealer and they are interested in seeing it and asked for pictures. Its a hard thing to get a picture of I am finding so I will probably take them down to show them in person since its quite obvious when you look at them. I have been trying to find out how much non-symetry is normal or expected but havent had any luck yet. From what I read here, thus far, I am assuming that I will ultimately be happy with the resolution or outcome but I have some steps to go through to get there.

I was surprised at how "loose" the two mast pieces fit together as one freely spins when they are attached together. I need to go and search here to find out if this is normal. If anyone knows and can set me at ease right away that would be appreciated. In my ignorance I am thinking ahead to my first sail and envisioning trying to reef the sail and the lower half of the mast is just spinning as I tug the lines! To be honest I havent familiarized myself with the rigging yet so this may be a silly notion but its on my mind and I am sharing.

Thats enough rambling for now. Aloha to the board, looking forward to some quality time out on the ocean with my family!

Cheers


Funny Ama

Welcome aboard Ticky Tack.

I've found that the TI (unlike the AI) can be stored on a large flat surface with a little cushioning, like a piece of rug on plywood, as long as enough of the hull is supported, and the strongest parts (Mirage drive wells, scuppers, etc) are on it. I hope this helps.

Where you located?

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

Thanks for the idea of storage. Lets see... flat... that I can do The manual that came with the boat says to store it upside down supported on the rails but with all the stuff in the way I didnt want to go there. I made a 10 foot long 30" wide frame to hold whatever design finally materialized. I will give this a think. Thanks for the input. I updated my profile to show that I am in Kailua on Oahu.

If you haven't already, check out http://hawaiikayaksailingclub.com over there.

A Good group, just watch out for NOHUHU (if he was here on Maui, we'd get into A LOT more trouble!)

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

Welcome Ticky Tack. Looking forward to hearing about and seing some of your trip reports.

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.

My AI also had loose fitting mast pieces. I found that once the sail was seated on the mast and "down hauled" it had no problems whatsoever. It seems to hold the 2 pieces together quite well.

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Mike K

Aloha No, TIcky! (Or do you prefer to be called Tack)?

I see you have cruised over to our HKSC site and signed up. Great. We have a sail scheduled for this Sunday, in a very friendly lagoon, with quick access to Waikiki. Many of us have gone there to learn the ropes... Will talk to you offline about this.

I'm in Kailua, along with a couple other Hobie fanatics. We sail and fish this awesome shoreline as much as possible. Whale season is in full swing now. GIve us a hollar through the local site. We can help you sort things out with the boat and guide you in other areas, where needed.

And my first bit of advice is "always follow Kayak Bob's advice".

Beautiful dune TI you have there. Hope she enjoys it.

For the record, my wife took the ring, so all I could afford was the AI. But it's Valentines Day, so I will not be bitter.

A Hui Hou!

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The Wind Is Your Friend...

Congratulations Ticky Tack.

You sure have great taste in kayaks.

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H@mmer
"Intelligence is nothing without imagination"

Thanks guys! What a nice welcome. Great to have some local support which I am sure I will need. I heard from the boat dealer that there was a group that treks around and launches different places on the island and this sounds really good to me.

Aloha, Kevin aka "Ticky Tack" (may change this to Tiki Tack, the jury is still out)

That's us.

"TikiTaki" mo betta!

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The Wind Is Your Friend...

What do you think about the curvature of that Ama? How do yours look?

I tape my mast half's together with duct tape, more to cushion the sail from wear at the seam. (see: http://www.kayakingbob.com/hobie-ai bottom right under "Tape Mast pieces together". Remember the top of the mast swivels too, so the mast and sail will do what they want based on wind direction and strength, and tension on the sheetline when reefing it.

On the ama, try laying it out in the sun with the "high side" up and see if it droops down some when it heats up.

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

Thanks Bob for the suggestion to use the sun. I will try that after getting the pictures to the dealer for historical purposes.