2016 new thru hull fittings

After taking possession of a 2016 AI I noticed thru hull fittings mounted in each of the mesh pocket compartments. These are for the lowrance transducer wiring but could they possibly be adapted to wire a plug for the evolve motor allowing the battery to reside in the hull? In older islands the only option was to drill a sizeable hole into the cockpit area for the connection, never a good solution to cut holes in the boat.

So has anyone at Hobie tried using the new thru hull fittings with the evolve motor?

Oh and as a side note the 2016 thru hull fittings are slightly different than the 2015's. The 2015 mesh pocket fittings are on the floor/bottom of the compartment where the 2016 ones are mounted on the wall / sides. I would guess the 2015 version was more susceptible to water seeping in and that's probably why they changed them.

The evolve motor system cones with its own thru hull fittings.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Of course the evolve drive has thru hull fittings Matt. But doesn't it seem like a more logical solution to use the thru hull fittings already installed on the boat if some sort of adapter/plug could be fashioned? Because the one thing nobody wants to do is drill a couple inch hole in their cockpit to mount another thru hull fitting if it's not necessary.

I'm sure you would agree that the less big holes added to the boat the better. Just a suggestion.

The evolve ones are plugs male and female plugs... not just thru hulls. I would be the power cable that is a issue. I believe the cable is a larger diameter than any of the plugs in the kit.

In the worst case you could install the evolve versions in place of the stock ones I would think. Maybe have to enlarge the hole.

I'll ask an engineer tomorrow.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Engineering response:

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thanks for checking with the engineers Matt.