Draining Older Hobie Island

I recently bought an older Hobie Island used. I took it out for the first time yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico. Had a nice time, but when I got back to the truck and was loading up I noticed the boat had taken on A LOT of water. I know there is a drain plug next to the rudder on the stern of the boat, but I wasn't sure what is the recommended way of draining water. Questions:

1) Is the boat designed to have the stern put down on the ground and the bow lifted up to drain water? Even with the rudder up, that seems like a really good way to break the rudder...

2) I have never tried getting one end of the boat up in the air. This boat weighs a ton. I'm not even sure one person can do this safely.

Any advice/suggestions are appreciated.

My adventure island doesn’t take on water at all
admittedly I don’t go out in big waves or “submarine” the nose
I keep the front hatch very tight with both bungees and all round hatches tightly closed.

I would be personally concerned and look for leaks. I have had my AI for 6 months and am near Cape Coral in SW Florida

It should not take on water, or at least very little. Should take a minute at most to drain, in my experience. If you can't lift it that is probably too much water. Lots on this forum about sealing the lids, cracks in the mirage drive well, etc to help you find the issue.

It takes a reasonable amount of strength but using the front grab handle you can tilt the TI up enough to drain it. The water outlet is at the lowest point on the boat so it shouldn't take much of a tilt. You won't hurt the rudder when it's in its up position. If the boat is on flat ground, it should mostly drain itself without tilting. You may have to tilt it after it drains to get the last of the water out.

However, you need to find the cause of the water ingress. If it was choppy and water was splashing heavily over the bow, suspect the front hatch seal. This is a known problem with many TI's. If it was a calm day, suspect a hull leak. Look carefully at every inch of the hull to see if there are any cracks, especially in the mast support area and by the drive mounts. It only takes a small crack to allow in many gallons of water over a day's sail.

I appreciate all of the responses.

1) Yes, I will definitely look for leaks. I was in big water (big waves) the other day, but it sounds like the boat should not be taking on this much water even under those conditions.

2) @pro10is - My drain plug is not at the lowest point on the boat. I found this pic on the web - it seems to depict what you are describing:



This looks like a great design!!

HOWEVER, my boat is considerably OLDER. The drain plug is on the right side of the stern. The boat most definitely does not drain water when level.







Quite frankly, I'm befuddled by the type of logic or complete lack of logic that this design implies.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, it is not clear to me how to drain water from the boat safely without damaging the boat. Roll it over on its right side, plant the stern in the ground, and lift up the bow. But how do I keep the rudder from getting damaged during that process?



Do I need to remove the rudder to safely drain the boat? That seems ridiculous.

@mmiller

The simplest way to drain the original style hull is to bail or pump the water out. A kayak bilge pump like the Solution hand pump is a must have accessory.
The early models were prone to forward drive well ledge cracks. Look carefully in that area.

@stringy - Thanks for the info. Follow-up question - I'm not sure I know where the forward drive well ledge is. Can you give me directions? Perhaps upload a pic - that would be great!

What do you all think about installing an after market drain plug here? Would that compromise the integrity of the hull too much?

I always raised the stern a little to drain the water out from the front hatch using a pump, bailer and sponge.
I never bothered fitting a below waterline bung as I thought it was just too risky trying to keep it watertight.
Here is some info on the drivewell cracks with pics:

https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=55184

My TI is a 2015. I was not aware that the older ones had such a bad drain design.

If that were mine, I would install a bilge pump. My TI has a small 12 Volt battery installed for my Chartplotter and I've always had issues with a leaky front hatch, so I installed a bilge pump. I leave it on auto when on the water and now I never have much more than a few cups of water inside the hull after a full day's sailing whereas I had as much as 5-10 gallons on choppy days before.

You can see the pump's outlet port in this photo.



I used this bilge pump:



It's a bit tricky to install because you can't drill a mounting hole in the hull so I had to epoxy it in place. Not much sticks to the TI's hull so I had to use some epoxy specifically for plastics.

The older boats with the drain on the side can be tilted on their side for draining. This is actually a stronger orientation for a hull that isn't in the water.

I never found any of the drains did a complete job so I settled on hand-pumping and then sponging to complete. Even to get a some of the water out the hull through the drains were NOT worth the extra work!

Also, everyone I know that has used the drains has a story of forgetting to replace the plug before launching at least once.

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006