Safety-What do you think I need ??

I am a soon to be TI owner, and as such have some questions for you more experienced folks. I am an experienced ocean touring kayak paddler and have the necessary safety gear for that setup; PFD, SPF hat,shirts, shorts, hand bilge pump, whistle, dry matches, paddle rescue float, charts and a good first aid kit, as well as a few dry bags/boxes for cell phone wallet and keys. What other items will be handy to have on the TI; a hand held GPS, marine radio, EPIRB, other stuff?? If you have ideas please include brands/models as I am very new to this type of sail/yaking. I plan to go out on Bogue Sound which is pretty good size, but should be in sight of land almost all of the time. Thanks for your insight. Also, anyone in the Bogue Banks area that would be interested in having your boat out with mine it could be a lot of fun, just send along an email or pm. I pick up my new boat Sunday.

I think it depends on the conditions you expect to encounter. On SF Bay, conditions can change rapidly (wind, seas, fog, cargo ships, etc.) and the water is cold. Therefore, in addition to everything you mentioned, I carry an ACR beacon, Standard Horizon HX 870 VHF radio with emergency DSC calling, a Hobie drogue, a blue Cooper anchor, handheld GPS (Garmin 60 Csx) and have installed a Garmin 527xs chartplotter. I wear a Kokatat drysuit. Also, have ama safety lines rigged.


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I would add some fairly inexpensive "old school" items like red hand flares, orange dye sea markers, high volume whistle/horn

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

Forgot to mention extra rudder pins, aka brace bolts, a headlight, a multitool, knife, tethers, a marlinspike and 30' of Dyneema.


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Along with what has been listed already, I carry an anchor and extra line. I also just recently made some homemade bumpers out of pool noodles to protect my TI from the docks when launching and loading back on the trailer. I used a empty milk jug plastic for the ends and para-chord.







Just got back from Beaufort back in June, we sailed around Harkers Island and Taylors creek. If we come down next year, will try to hook up.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island

Thanks for all the great information, riverron would love to sail with you if you come this way next year. We have several places to put in and sail to marvelous out of the way spots. Can't wait to get my boat tomorrow.

Dress for water immersion. We had a death in march this year on tomales bay cause the kayaker got hypotherma ive never been tossed out of the TI except by the surf. I still dress for the plunge.

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Scc. How much anchor line do you use for the sf bay. The shipping lanes scare the heck putta me

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https://www.youtube.com/user/mastery415/videos

I have 100' attached to 6' of chain plus a few extra lines on board if I need more scope. But the average depth in the bay is only around 11'.

Vessel Traffic Service broadcasts the inside the bay traffic on VHF 14 at :15 and :45 past the hour. The Boat Beacon app on my iPhone shows AIS info (like flight traffic control). Honestly, I'd probably only use these if there was reduced visibility and/or I was transiting the Gate. Otherwise, you should be fine as long as you are conservative. To me, that means not crossing a lane if there is any question, no matter how remote, of being able to make it. The large ships move deceptively fast.


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How true about the large vessel and deceptive speed. Every year some fisherman who anchored in the inner coastal fishing gets struck by a barge. The fisherman thinks he'll see it in plenty of time to move, but either they get distracted or miss judge the speed of the barge. With no land reference and it being so big they look like they are barely moving, kind of like the trains sneaky fast and fatal.

In reference to judging another boat's speed and direction to avoid collision, I think everyone should be familiar with the concept of CBDR or Constant Bearing Decreasing Range and the technique to identify when it is occurring.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan ... sing_range

Having this technique in your arsenal will go a long way towards improving confidence when navigating the shipping lanes of SF Bay (or anywhere there is vessel traffic).


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Thanks for posting that! I have been doing that for years without even thinking about it, and it is a truly great early warning indicator. Provided both vessels remain on a steady course, you can really notice the danger, and conversely, if the bearing changes rapidly, you can be fairly confident that you can avoid a collision (unless you need to look up!!!!).

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