Hello!
I am new to this forum and I have never owned a Hobie or anything other than a canoe before.
I have browsed a lot of the threads on the subject of Tandem vs AI but I am unable to make a decision based on my situation. I am a female (5'4" 140lbs with not much upper body strength) and I will be doing 75% local solo sailing vs 25% camping/adventure sailing with a male partner.
I really like to purchase a Tandem (the AI will be very restrictive considering all my intended uses) but will it be practical for me to handle solo?
When I go solo I will be storing the boat in my garage, I want to wheel it to (300 feet or so) from my garage to a road and then onto a grassy area then a cement narrow boat launch towards a very rocky (sharp) river bed.
My questions are:
1) how best can I store a tandem in my garage (i have enough room to keep it beside my car)? can I leave it on the cart with the aka/ama on? or will that eventually warp it? I want to avoid having to take apart and put it back together for every regular/local sail.
2) which wheel cart should I get? I am very leery of having to lift the boat all by myself so that I can aim the trolley's 2 rods at the bottom of the kayak! also I watched videos of the Tandem dolly and it also seems not that easy to slide all the way under the kayak.
3) If I can't store the tandem with the akas/amas on the cart and have to load/unload constantly from the floor to some type of cart, is that possible for a solo female of my size? any tips or recommendations?
Thanks!
p.s.: I really appreciate all the informative posts on this forum and I thank the European contributors for assuaging my fears about car topping with a Tandem! Thank you everyone!