2011 oasis for heavy weights - how it worked - some question

so I bought a 2011 Oasis last week to see how it would work out.

rear passenger 300#
front passenger 260#

it worked, but I wouldn't recommend this for trips outside of protected waters.
the rear of the kayak was pretty low. there was about 3" of water above the rear drive well. I think this is what put about 6" of water in the bilge over a couple hours (ever had that feeling you're getting lower and lower in the water?), but I haven't had a chance to do a leak test. I'm pretty sure the water came in through the rudder lines as the little plastic inserts/guides kept popping out.
any tricks to keep these seated? and keeping water from coming in through the rudder lines? would greasing the fitting before each outing help?

also the rudder handles don't aline so when doing even gradual right turns the front rudder handle pointed completely to the right jabbing the person in the front seat.
I've found a forum post that talks about dis-assembly, so I'll see if there is something I can do to adjust this. if anyone has any pictures of what this looks like, that would be helpful.

the rudder also had some left bias, but I'm confident I can fix that.

the seat pegs popped out of the slots about halfway through the trial run. maybe I need to make them tighter or add some friction tape to the holes.

the seat straps slipping was a problem, so I'll pick up some cam buckles to fix that (I've used the same fix in the past for backpacks).

I didn't get a chance to try swapping seats to put the 300# in the front and 260# in back, but I'll likely try that next time the two of us go out to see if that works better.
the next time out will likely be 300# and 100# and should be much more time on the water so will see how that works out and swap seats around to see what works best.

I also picked up the knobs to add to the steering levers. neither knob will start threading into one of the levers, but work fine in the other lever. I haven't looked at this much in my hurry to get on the water, but if anyone has some hints as to what to look for, I would appreciate it.

one note on the steering knobs, they make storing the kayak upside down more difficult as they are higher then the top of the gunnel. keep this in mind if you are thinking about adding them and you intend to store the kayak upside down. or if even if you plan to transport it upside down as the knobs could easily get in the way when loading.

the mirage drive makes for a really exceptional workout. I never felt particularly tired using it (unlike when I go biking or hiking), yet the next day (and the day after that) my leg muscles are definitely noticing that I worked them a lot harder than usual. I was the only pedaler, had a passenger up front and was towing a dingy with our daughter going against a 1.4 knot current for the first half of the trip, had the same current helping me on the return. I'm using the stock fins.

I had more fun than when I go hiking as I felt better on the ride home. so far the wife isn't a huge fan - she still thinks she's going to fall into the water.
of course the daughter had a blast, but then she generally enjoys anything that doesn't involve home work or house work.

I do wish the fit and finish were better due to how much this thing cost, but from reading the forums (which every perspective buyer should do) I wasn't particularly surprised that there are some things I will need to deal with.

I'll keep this updated as things go on since there isn't much information for large overweight people using the tandems.

thanks

Grimlaf, thanks for the excellent report. First, your boat appears to have some issues it shouldn't have. Your dealer should be able to get these worked out for you. You shouldn't be leaking much at all; your rudder line fittings are press fit and shouldn't be working loose; your handles should be aligned and it sounds like you have one handle that may need to be replaced.

The rear cockpit is more spacious, especially around the footwell -- the boat feels larger from there. Perhaps your wife would like to try it. My wife is not a water person and she was not comfortable in the tandem the first few times. A lot was getting used to the feel of the boat and also gaining trust in her partner. So your wife should feel more relaxed as she gets used to the feel of the boat.

Hopefully the front seat will be comfortable for you -- it is much more narrow in the pedal area compared with the back, but does have a little more length.

Obviously you did a great job of transporting your two passengers, and with just standard fins yet! Am looking forward to your next report!

We got our 2011 Oasis 3 weeks ago. So far we are loving it. This is our first experence with Kayaks.

We have the same problem with the line guides for the rudder controls not staying seated. Our front rudder control handle also turns further to the right than the rear one does but does not affect the rudder travel. Guess I need to contact my dealer.

Good thing is that if you stick with it you wont be 300 lbs after a while!
Good write up. I think you described the Mirage drive effect on the body very well.

_________________
2011 TI

contacted my dealer and they contacted hobie which said the likely cause of the rudder levers not lining up is that the lines are not even. they will be sending new lines and said it's an easy swap. they will also be sending a new rudder lever to replace the one I can't thread the knob into.

they didn't have much to say about the rudder line hull fittings/sleeves, but did say to do a leak test and get back to them. guess I need to finally buy a wet/dry vac as from what I've seen in the forums that's likely the easiest method for me.


Roadrunner: I'm sticking with the standard fins for now due to shallow waters. once I get things dialed in and move out of the sloughs I'll likely pick up a set of the longer fins. I'll need them due to the much higher currents.

Tiki Tack: that's the plan. A few years ago I weighed myself for the first time in a couple decades. when it told me I was 350# I was amazed. it's hard to believe that no matter how lazy you are that you could ever weigh that much.
since then I've cut way back on empty kcals and have been trying to find the right exercise mix. this has been more complicated than I thought, especially at my weight, as every thing I used to do when I was younger just weren't things I could either do or sustain which get's really frustrating. I'm trying to add new things into the mix that I don't have a history with, so I cannot get frustrated by comparing past performance with current performance. and a pedal kayak? what the heck is that? going the be pretty hard to compare that to anything.

Grim,

great plan re the pedal kayak - it is a rather different action & form of exercise from the things you think it should be like, such as walking/running, cycling and stepping.

And one of the great things is it is very low impact so long as you have the pedals adjusted correctly for your leg length = so that your knee remains slightly bent at full stretch.

I am not sure what hydrodynamics or other physics is at play but basically the faster you try to go, the greater the resistance becomes (or so it appears), so the rate of exercise seems to be self-regulating: you can only go at it so hard because, beyond a certain point, extra effort is not rewarded by extra speed - and you never get to a point where it becomes really high impact like you can on a bike, stepper, treadmill, weights.

What all this means is that (once you are conditioned to the exercise) you can keep going for hours and hours with a somewhat raised heart rate without overdoing it and without putting great stress on your joints. I can pedal my kayak for 6-8 hours without feeling that my body is stressed like I would if I had been out walking or cycling for the same amount of time. I still feel weary, but it is not a battered and bruised/aches and pains feeling. I am not yet at the stage where I want to give up other forms of exercise but I do think that I will be able to carry on Hobie kayaking for a lot longer than I will be able to go trail running and mountain biking.

For my part I find that pedalling my kayak exercises the muscles in my legs, butt and strangely, abs (in the area of solar plexus).

I also find that I can't carry the refrigerator on the load tray, so when I am out there for hours at a time I am definitely expending more calories than I am consuming

Good luck with it ! Enjoy !!