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I've never seen a Tiger with wings, but it sounds like a great idea, and I just discovered that there are three wing-styles in Hobie's on-line catalog. Thanks for pointing them out to me; now all I need is a Tiger.
But... is there a reason none of Hobie's pictures of sailing Tigers, nor any of the posted photos of Tigers I occasionally see on line, have wings? [I haven't searched hard.] Does no one buy them? Perhaps they're not class-legal, but they'd be great fun for free sailing. And they would make a huge improvement for long, windy crossings.
Wings aside [where else would they be, astern?], Hobie needs a good "raid" boat. I've been on four, week-long raids, three on 16's and one on a Tiger. Every trip had some boat-hardware problems [including dis-mastings] for at least a few of the five or six boats. The windier trips [Indian Ocean and Caribbean] had fairly severe ones, related to five or six successive days of sailing and beaching without [planned] stops at well-equipped shops for repairs. [In many of these kinds of destinations, there aren't well equipped shops, and most Hobie parts are thousands of miles away.]
I had the worst problems on the Tiger [which was, otherwise, a wonderful boat, the best I've ever sailed; it wanted only wings for the rough water.] After the first crossing, in a great wind, our leader managed to repair the hull [with a fiberglass patch], one shroud, the tramp, and the sail, all using parts and tools he carried on his 20-foot trimaran, while we camped on a desert island.
It was an exciting trip, but we were afraid to test the boat's limits in strong winds for the rest of the week.
Island-to-island raids, as described in an earlier post and practiced mostly by the French, may be the best possible use of Hobies, and I hope the Pearl will make them more feasible.
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