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Good day, I am sharing how a number of errors has lost me my TI for the season if not forever. TL;DR - If towing either remove the mast, pontoons or keep both pontoons out and go slow if waves/wind dictate it.
A little over a week ago I was out sailing – 17km hour gusting to 35km hour and picking up over the afternoon. Nothing too difficult and within my capacity (lesson 1). I was doing a 5km trip to an island and back. When heading home I found I could not steer to port at all without using pedals (lesson 2). So I ended up going the leeward side of the island which of course had no wind and pedalled a bit more. Once past the island I had the same issue of only getting to go to port with the assistance of pedals.
The Coast Guard came by and asked if I wanted a tow back to my bay, now about 1.5km away. I said yes (lesson 3) and things went badly from here. I secured the sail, collapsed one of the pontoons to get in the boat and they began to tow me the opposite direction where I was heading (lesson 4). As soon as we made it around the island the wind and waves (not much more than 1 foot) caught the boat and flipped it, it was in about 90 feet of water so no problem with hitting anything.
I hopped in to tie a rope to the far pontoon handle and they began to pull it up but were struggling, so used the 500hp of engines in reverse to try and assist (lesson 5) and it pulled the bungies right out of the pontoon and broke the aka arm. They asked if I could remove the mast to make it easier. I was able to release the furling line but I could not release it at all (maybe I wasn’t pulling straight down). Then another call came in and we had to leave my TI floating upside down and go get another sailor who was tired and sheltered in a bay. We towed him back to his place then they went and dropped me off at the Coast Guard docks.
While there another boat came in, towing my TI that they came across while out for the day. They had lost the mast and sail. Everything else (seat, pedals, paddle, speaker, etc stayed connected)!
Here are my lessons:
If towing either remove the mast, pontoons or keep both pontoons out and go slow if waves/wind dictate it.
Lesson 1: Obviously none of this would happen if I didn’t go out. I felt very comfortable in the conditions and had a plan to sail past my destination to grab the wind/angle to get back. I’ve been in much worse waves and wind and usually furl the sail to control speed.
Lesson 2: I didn’t figure it out at the time, but I had to little sail out, I was concerned about the gusts and kept just a wee bit out but that made me underpowered.
Lesson 3: Only accept help if your life depends on it.
Lesson 4: I should have spoke up and asked why they were going the long way back but thought they were doing me a favour and didn’t say anything.
Lesson 5: I have never righted a TI but have watched how to do it and I think it has to be done more slowly and ease into it, not just brute force.
Your help/advice please:
I can not get a mast or the aka arm at all – the Hobie dealer in Canada has had a backorder of parts for over a year and doesn’t know when or if they will get anything else. There is another used one for sale about 5 hours away. The TI is fantastic and perfect for me but I’ve decided I cannot buy or support a company that doesn’t support its customers, especially if the lack of support is politically motivated.
So the advice I could use is do I try and sell everything piece by piece to try and recover some of the original cost? Would anyone even buy the hull or maybe I should take all the sailing related things off and sell it as a long kayak?
Happy to try and answer questions about the experience.
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