Campaign to keep the TI handles ...add your name here

Good one Chris!
Once Tackleberry was elected to the Hobie problem solving panel it was always going to end badly!
Oh ...and I thought it best not to complain about the splashing caused by the bow handle!

Looks as though Hobie has updated the pics on their site to show the TI with handles no more.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

Like others have said you don't walk away with your hands-up and do away with the handles that customers clearly want liked and used, you fix the issue, find new venders! I never had Hobie down as a ''can't do'' company tbh

Any news guys when the AI's will be here in Australia?

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Every day is an Adventure Island day

AAAAAHHHHHHH DANG!
First Hobie removes the Australian forum page and buggers up the Australian Forum page flavour,,, now to add insult to injury, you remove the grab handles. Hobie has no idea how much use they get when hauling the sail tight in 20 knot winds, arma buried, punching through the incoming tide with swell swamping the decks.
No, I don't sail in this kind of weather often, but I did get caught out in the Australind estuary. You can read about the trials and tribulations I went through and how I nearly went under the hull by getting out of the wrong side of the TI, how I managed to get my TI up on to the sand and drain the water out of the hull (it was 3/4s full), what happened next and how I survived it all, sailing single handed in a TI on the Australian Hobie Forum page. Those handles were my anchor keeping me in the TI.
OH, you can't. Not only did Hobie take down the Forum page without asking, they deleted heaps of stuff in the transfer.
Yep, you are right. I am peeved at both backward steps Hobie has taken.
PUT THE HANDLE BACK ON!

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It's not the wind that blows, that will take you where you want to go in life. It is the set of your sail

The used Oasis I use to have had no side handles, so just got some (In Hobie Catalog pg 48) http://cdn.hobiecat.com/digital_assets/ ... atalog.pdf

I used a piece of plastic cutting board as a backing plate. Worked fine.

Bfrian, the horse has truly bolted mate... However, as drewyaker says, you can simply add handles wherever you need them. There is no question that the old indented handles acted as syphons to get water onto your hips, and I believe Hobie has catered for the wishes of the majority.

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

The water funneling into the Island's seat area never bothered me. In fact, I thought it was a problem for Tandems--they seemed to be the ones complaining (just more of them probably, but, "TI" is in the title of this thread). But, when I looked for it, yes, it was there on my AI. Even made a video of it.


Now that I have an AI 2 w/o handles, guess what the 1st or 2nd accessory is that I am adding. You guessed it, handles. If you don't unload your boat from your trailer, you may not use then much. But, if you are like me and unload and dismantle your AI/TI, you need handles to tip it up to wash it thoroughly--at least, I do. It is not going to be a big thing. I had a set which I purchased at West Marine for some reason (probably to put on my wife's 2009 AI.) Any case they are going to fit nicely on the AI 2. You can read about it here: http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&start=615 WHEN I get them installed, which should be soon.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

I knew no handles would pose problems...

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Every day is an Adventure Island day

1. people trailering generally don't need the handles
2. Add-on handles don't cost much and don't funnel water up onto the occupant.
3. It is WAAAAY too late to have the old handles fitted.
4. There are lots of other good changes with the new models.
5. There will be plenty of pre-05 AIs and TIs available on the secondhand msrket for die-hard handle-loss fanatics.

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

The handles are very helpful for manoeuvring the hull around - I lift the hull (one hand on a side handle and the other on the mesh-pocket recess) when moving my A.I. into or out of the garage. The handle was pretty close to the balance point and even though it's a fairly trivial matter to add a 3rd party handle, a proper fitted handles would've been far better - I suspect they'll reappear in a future iteration of the A.I./T.I.

Mike, I'll bet you they won't! That water syphoning issie was a pain in the butt. Just add handles wherever you want and get on with it.

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

As Tony said the horse has well and truly bolted on this.
Back in November when I started this topic there were rumours about no handles on the new AI but not much info on the TI.
A couple of points:
-users of AI's and Adventure kayaks were the most vocal in their complaints because the splashing was worse on these models
-it was not a major issue with TI's
-the irony in all of this is that the handles remain on the Revo16 and unless Hobie have fixed this -the splashing problem remains. I actually found it more annoying on the Adventure kayak, as a normally dry ride suddenly became a wet ride in the slightest cross chop.

It will be interesting to hear from Revo16 owners regarding this problem. At least with the new seat you won't be sitting in a puddle ...but you will end up wet just the same.

PS- It irks me that after outlaying $6000-7500 on an Island that you then have to go and fit the same crappy handles that are on all the cheap kayaks if you want to be able to grab it properly.
I fitted those to my old Oasis. They were not that comfortable and nothing like the ergonomic and integrated handles Hobie must have had good reason to fit on the original TI and '09AI.

I was thinking, maybe it's not such a bad thing not having factory handles after all. That way if one wants handles for cleaning or loading, but wants them gone for sailing, it can be done using gear tracks.

Get an 8" or more lengths of the Yak Attack gear tracks and install with their backing plates as a handle bases. Being that YA sells track bolts and thumb screws separately, a handle could quickly secure down by sliding in the track. Then just remove and store the handles when not needed.

Also to make the process even faster, mount the handles onto their own plate from ss bar or 1/4 thick plastic cutting board. Use counter sunk screws from the back and bolts, washers on the handle side, then have that whole assembly slide in or out of the track quite easily securing down with thumb screws on both tips just beyond the handle ends.

I like handles.. handles mean I can move the kayak alone... handles make it easier in surf.. handles make it easier to load.. handles are good... one thing I noticed with the absence of the handles on the new AI is that I like to hold onto my handles when I am flying along at top sailing speeds.... sorry Hobie I am adding to my name to keep the handles on the new AI... I am sure its to late for that but a lot of people are going to miss the handles on the new AI's..

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I love AI kayak fishing

The thread that will not die.
Is it just the recesses for the old handles that caused the water scooping problem or do you also have to be careful about placement of a surface mount handle if you can't live without them ? - Chris