Reverse your drive to go in reverse

I know it has been mentioned before that you can put the mirage drive in backwards and make the boat go backwards, but I wanted to remind people to try it, especially if trying to dock a TI.
We were in New Bern, NC, trying to pick people up from a dock, and thought we would give it a shot. I kept my rear drive in as normal, and my husband, in the front, put his in backwards, and we parallel parked that puppy right next to the dock. It was very cool to do it all with the drives instead of using a paddle to reverse our course.
It was also our first time with the TI on the Neuse River, instead of inland small lakes. Tons of fun.
We also tested the capacity with 4 adults on board. While in the marina area the water was just over the deck area around mirage drives, but not over the lip toward the seating area.

_________________
Beth & Mark
Durham, NC

Good reminder Beth. I've only needed to do it myself a few times but it is a very handy feature especially in and around rocks.

_________________


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

great tip, thanks!

Thanks Beth,

I had never tried this, or thought about it, but it came in very handy today when I had to pull my girlfriend away from bushes on the river today after she got stuck due to wind, and tide.
Cheers
Colin

I did it once, just for giggles. A group of us were out on a lake and it came up. I was on my Outback, swapped the drive around and started zipping around in reverse! Didn't do it long - the steering gets mighty squirrelly backwards...

Yep on the tandems its cool to flip one of them. My local dealer was taking a photographer around in a tandem during a fishing tourney they flipped one so they could work around folks and get the shot.

I saw in another post that the drive with 2 idlers had something to do with reverse? Anyone know anything about that?

Matt Miller said something about it being strictly for the PA17 since it's a tandem that allows for the front person to swivel their seat to face the rear person. I think they call it social seating. This allows the front person to pedal in reverse without having to pull the drive and switch it around. Wouldn't be bad if they included something like this for the AI/TI.

_________________
2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

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

That pa 17 is a totally awesome boat, if you watch the video on the pa17 page you can see the mirage drive in action with the driver facing backwards and pedaling, it has 3 mirage drive slots. I suspect that in order to actually pedal in a reverse direction (not just sitting backwards and pedaling) the drive would still need to be placed into the mirage slot backwards (which is no big deal to do). Since the mirage fins are a form of hydrofoils it would be impossible to pedal backwards without reversing the drive in the slot. However since the boat has 3 mirage slots there is no reason you couldn't place a third mirage drive into the third slot specifically for reverse. However if it were me I would definitely have a bow (or in the third mirage slot ****, that would be cool) mounted minncota trolling system with the I-pilot gps system installed which has full forward reverse and hold position controls, or better yet just throw an evolve in that third mirage slot full time (problem solved), I know if I owned a pa 17, I would budget for the evolve ( to be perfectly honest I would also have a honda 2.3 mounted on the back for offshore, but that's just me), an optional real motor mount on the stern would have been a nice feature for us offshore blue water people (but I suspect I'm in the minority on that thought). It's actually kind of funny people will spend $70 to $250 grand on a nice fishing boat without batting an eyelash, but balk at spending $2 grand for an evolve or torqeedo (which trumps everything IMO). I've seen boats with five $40k/ea 300 hp outboards mounted on them, (pretty common in the keys)).
We have a TI currently and do once in a while flip one of the mirage drives around when we are trying to dive close to shore where there is strong wind, currents, breakers, and rocks.
We have outboards on our rig but they don't have reverse, so maneuvering around harbors/ marinas and dock slips can be tricky.
To be honest we don't use the mirage drives in reverse much because when pedaling in reverse the rudder also reverses and it becomes very difficult to steer, its actually much easier and you have better control if you just grab the paddle in my opinion.
What we do if we want to spear fish just off shore where there is strong current, wind, breakers, and huge rocks is anchor a little ways off shore, then swim in on a tether line (way safer). Not much of that stuff in Florida though. Even with all that it's a good idea to have really good anchors.
I think this whole pedaling in reverse thing is the result of the native propel guys speel that they would never own a mirage drive because it doesn't have reverse and can be dangerous to use ( I was actually told that), it's all hogwash in my opinion. Whether you have a mirage boat or a propel if you get caught in 3 ft breakers and being driven into the shore and rocks your in a world of trouble with either boat, it best just to stay out of that situation. In my opinion even more so with the propel because with the mirage in a pinch you can generate a whole lot of speed and power if you have to (we have had to on several occasions, the sheer horsepower of the mirage is incredible if you need it for short bursts IMO).
Seriously if I wanted reverse that bad I would just add an evolve or an I-pilot Minnkota.
All just my opinions
Bob

I am thinking a rotating mirage drive well..... you know you just reach forward and spin the drive around.... or leave it on bearings and free spinning and help you turn faster for those longer yaks.... I am sure someone at hobie has thought about that... I would love that job, just play with engineering cool things.

I thing I am going to get an evolve and put it and the battery in the front to help weigh my outfitters bow down a little when I am solo. May go with an aftermarket one and fashion a throttle to my peddles like rudder control on a plane. That would be cool...

First I just ordered a TI so not in anyway saying anything bad about it, but I also own a Native mariner propel and really like it and the ability to go in reverse. The TI will be my first mirage drive yak and I am looking forward to it. I do hear a lot about how reverse is not important, but IMHO I find that it allows me to fish more hands/paddle free. The spots I find I use reverse the most is if I want to come to a stop quickly, need to back out of a narrow spot on a river, cast a line into a tree and have to back out of the limbs, and when offshore and nosing into a rig I can back out quickly before getting sucked into the rig. Like anything it has it's pro's and con's. I do think the Mirage drive is faster as when we head to the rigs 4-5 miles offshore I slowly lose ground to the PA's in the group. Gonna fix that when I sail past them next summer

_________________
2015 Hobie TI Dune

One great thing about the TI is it has two mirage drives, and if you think you will need reverse you just flip one around. We do that when trying to get around in harbors. Actually before going into the harbor I reverse the drive (just takes 2 seconds), then use my motors for forward and the mirage for reverse, actually works well. Unless you have your wife in the back with her drive reversed, you both end up pedaling like crazy but get nowhere (lol true story).
The TI is the fastest kayak Hobie makes and the pa cold be the slowest (only because they are big and heavy), so you will walk past all your pa buddy's with the TI, even without any sails. One cool thing about the TI is when not sailing and just pedaling the AMA's don't touch the water so there is almost no extra drag from them.
You will definitely have way more boat than your buddy's offshore, they will be very J. Unless they have that new PA 17, that looks to me to be as awesome as it can get, but for offshore I would still pick the TI anyday, they are truly awesome.

Bob

I can see the wife and me paddling in opposite directions too

I saw the new PA 17 at ACK demo days and really wasn't that impressed. It is a BIG, WIDE yak for sure and probably great on rivers and lakes, but looks like it would be a beast to maneuver offshore. It reminded me of the canoe/yak hybrids I had seen a while back. I'm probably wrong and it will be a great offshore boat, but like you said I think the TI is the best way to go. The wait is killing me I am ready to get on the water and try the TI out.

_________________
2015 Hobie TI Dune

I sit in the back of the TI in case we need the outboard motor started.
Then it is easy to swing the outboard 180 degrees and go in reverse.
Must try it one day when the Mrs reefs too early (again) and is pedalling.
Would love to see the look on her face when we start going backwards.
Still, "Happy wife, happy life" as they say so perhaps not.

_________________
Cheers, Brian in South Australia
Tandem Island -