Some Random thoughts after a high-wind sail...

I bought the Hobie hiking stick, but have thought I'd prefer something I could more quickly attach/remove. Your idea is about what I had in mind. Right now I don't have the knobs on them as I have the steering handle pointed out to the side - easier to grab and I don't have to shove it under my leg to turn right. Not sure how that position is going to work with a hiking stick though.[/quote]

Did the same thing, only I have a piece of bungee tied between 2 ropes in side the PCV and a small clam cleat attached on the out side to hold the loop secure on the knob.

I'm about 230 and have been on the tramps. The buckles could break for various reasons. To counter this, I bought a pair a cargo straps with a 350# working limit and weaved them through the holes for the buckles (and around the akas). Makes for cheap, light redundancy.
One day I'll be going the haka route.

Terrific report RandomJoe with excellent pics.
As Tony said it's great to see such enthusiasm.
Once your confidence builds then I reckon you should get out on those incredible looking haka.
It's a very different (as in much better IMHO) sailing experience. You'll remain drier and go faster. I'd move them closer in towards the hull when you are ready to try.

I'm not sure how the hiking stick will work with the steering lever rotated but you can steer normally using the lever in the standard position with the HS attached and bent back parallel with the hull. There is enough free play in the cable to get a good range of steering movement.

Sailing from the back seat solo can be improved by ballasting the front. A 40 or 60 litre dry bag filled with water and sitting in the front drivewell will keep the nose down.

As you've discovered the miragedrive can be annoying at speed. It moves and flutters a lot if not being used. Don't be afraid to remove it in strong winds. You'll find tacking will be improved. Someone once posted about sailing with the Miragedrive out is like releasing the brakes and I would agree with that (though FE Bob might beg to differ). Try it out to see what you think.
If you'd prefer to keep the drive in you can lock it in any position by inserting a 1/4" eyebolt through the empty adjusting holes. Just remember to remove it before pedaling!

Finally took the TI to the lake I'm most familiar with, only 10 minutes from home. Unfortunately it's over 12 feet low which is pretty severe for our relatively shallow lakes. There is only one Very Steep ramp that's still in the water and I wasn't sure if it would work. Took a regular kayak there the day before to take some measurements and decided I could manage...

With the trailer in the water at the bottom of the ramp the rear crossbar and PVC pipes were about 4" above the water line. No big deal, I was able to slide the TI on the PVC just fine - except for those darn speed drains! They snagged on everything. Pulling it back on I had to rock the TI to get them to clear the edge of the PVC.

On the plus side I had the lake to myself! No "real" boats can get in and no other kayaks around. I thought it was going to be a moderate run - wind was about 12 MPH, just perfect, when I started. I was skating along fairly flat water at around 7 MPH, fun! When I got to the north (downwind) end of the lake things changed. I saw that line approaching - dark water, rough surface, white caps - and it turned into a very wild and wet ride! Had to reef the sail to keep the ama from burying.

Took a while getting back, upwind all the way, but I learned a bit again. Primarily I have a TERRIBLE time keeping a steady course! Now that I was in a lake I'm intimately familiar with I was able to realize just how badly I kept veering off course - I'd be watching the waves and bow thinking I was holding a more or less steady course then look at the shore and find I was way off. I've been thinking about getting a compass to put on the "dash" beside the sail but haven't found a nice big one yet. (The Elite 5 has a compass screen but won't show depth on it - argh!)

This lake is a lot nicer for several reasons, of course it's really close with no highway driving. It's a big bowl of sorts, so doesn't really matter which way the wind comes from you can work on all points of sail just fine. And it usually isn't overrun with motor boats - just sailboats! (Though - again - until we get a LOT more rain even the sailboats can't get out. Most were pulled from the water before it dropped too much but quite a few are now standing on their keels - ouch!) I can get the TI in with this remaining boat ramp until the level falls another 6" or so, but we have a week of rain forecast so hopefully the level rises some instead.

This is our "sailing lake", the satellite pic Google currently has is from a time when it was probably 6-8 feet low. The dry areas have really expanded along the south and east shores. My tacks out toward the center were mostly at points where the FF showed the depth coming up to 10-15 feet. This track was 7.5 miles.

Ha! Most of my 74km2 local lake is under 6 feet deep! The more you sail that lake the further inshore you will be able to go before tacking. I usually tack when the sounder goes under 3 feet. Sometimes I will sneak over a shoal using the centreboard as a depth guage (with fins flat against the hull, and rudder upline uncleated)

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

There's another lake even closer - just 1/2 mile from the house - that's like that. Averages 6 feet, deepest spot at the dam is 14 feet, upper 1/3 of it is about 4 feet. Unfortunately that lake is now 7 feet low, most of it dry...

I have the "safety depth" on the sounder set to 4 feet, but was playing it safe yesterday. The lake bed is a really mucky mud that you instantly sink into if you try standing on it. We even had a lady and her son try to take a "short cut" across one of the now-dry coves the other day, they and their dog sank up to their knees in the mud and couldn't get out. Some others tried to help and nearly got stuck themselves, they even called 911 for help. Ah, wet clay - such a wonderful goo...

Whee, fun! Met a friend (Duff Bassett, aka Tangled Up In Blue on the Watertribe) at the lake this afternoon so he could try out my TI. He's trying to decide whether he wants the newer or older model. I think our outing convinced him to go with the new one.

He sat up front and is the first to hike out on my hakas. I was impressed with the difference it makes!

But why does it feel like you're going so much FASTER when you're heeled over at a 45 degree angle, even if you aren't?!? We were going faster than I usually do today and it just felt like a nice easy ride.

Yu should never reach a 45 degree angle... You will find that if you furl some sail to keep the leeward ama from being consistently under water, you will go significantly faster, even without moving out onto your haka.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

That was a bit of hyperbole. I know it isn't 45 degrees, but it sure feels like it at times. The point was that heeling over on the downwind ama for some reason makes the ride feel a lot faster to me even when it isn't.

This was especially clear yesterday when we'd be clipping along at 6-7 MPH level and easy with Duff on the haka. When he moved to the seat preparing to tack of course the boat heeled and I had the strong sensation of MORE SPEED even though we were actually slowing down.

Look for a Ritchie XP99 kayaking/sailing compass. Mount to the top of the twist and seal hatch lid. On a TI, mount two, one on each lid and match them up perfectly so each person is seeing the same reading. These things are almost indispensable once you're too far from land to use shore line objects for course references.

That's right RJ. Haka are the best sailing improvement you can make.
Good to see those great looking haka getting used!
Now if you pulled both drives (tethered of course) you will have a better sailing experience again. No annoying flutter/vibration at speed, much less drag, smoother tacking and higher speed.
Practice refitting them so you can do it quickly if needed.

Went out again today, tried some more things out... Came back with even more questions!

Was going to have a go at hiking out but - argh! - forgot the hiking stick. First thing I did on returning home was to put the hiking stick back in the truck!


I tried a drift chute /sea anchor today. Right now I just have Hobie's which isn't all that large but it did work. Wind was around 15 MPH, with the sail furled I was drifting about 2.5-3 MPH. With the drift chute deployed I slowed to about 0.8 MPH. Not too bad? Dunno, how much slower could I get with a larger sock?

I definitely need to rig up something to get the chute line to the bow or stern of the boat, it's a much nicer ride being perpendicular to the waves. I'm curious, though, if there's any reason to favor one over the other. The TI wants to go bow-downwind if left to its own devices, so it was a lot easier for me to keep it that way with the sock tied off to an aka knuckle. When I tried to get it bow-upwind I wound up about 45 degrees off which rolled a lot more. (But that was - again - tied off to an aka knuckle, perhaps it'd cooperate more if I got the line to the bow.)


I also tried heaving to. It - eh - sorta worked, the bow oscillated roughly between 60 degrees off the wind and almost straight upwind (the sail would luff some) and the speed varied between 1.5 MPH and just a few tenths. Is that about as good as it gets with a TI?


And boy, am I ever BAD at gauging apparent wind! I started having a recurring problem for me in past sails where it seems I'm doing okay and the power just suddenly goes away. It FEELS like the wind is still at a pretty good angle but today I had a VisiPole on the back with a flag on it - and finally SAW that no, I was headed almost straight upwind according to it! Huh... Did some quick engineering on the water and got the VisiPole and flag lashed to the end of the forward aka so I could keep an eye on the flag. I really do keep trying to point much farther upwind than I think I am! Once I kept the flag flying at a reasonable angle things went much better - and faster! Now I just need to come up with a nice permanent flag / pennant for that purpose...


I sure was glad I took the wetsuit with me today too. It was nice and comfortable without it while the wind was 10-11 MPH but by the time it wound up to whitecap range I was ready to crawl into the suit! (I'm getting a kick out of being able to move around and do so much on the Island while on the water. Such a nice change from being stuck in the seat on my regular kayaks! )