THE HAKA BENCH SEAT - AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRAMPS

hiya all.
question for mbg. how heavy are you, and when sitting centered out on the haka, how much flex can you notice? yours shown on the video are fairly far out, is it easy to get to and from them, have you tried them closer in? how did they feel?

thanks all who post so regularly and wisely, on this forum. thanks to those who adopt mods and allow us the chance to adapt them from there. thanks hobie for this unique craft.

im looking at the marine spine boards, cause im getting tired of enjoying sAIling on my own!

back to work.
tw

I do not want to spill any trade secrets, however I know Alumicore http://www.grimco.com/Products.aspx?cid=0988&pid=00402
Can be had locally in Georgia for ~$100.00 per sheet. From a whole seller so get to know your local sign shop owner (Take him to lunch, buy him a drink) and see if they will cut you a deal.

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Louis
Marietta Ga.

trippingwet,

My weight is 85 kg and when I am sitting centered out on the haka, I can notice around 3-4cm flex on spineboard. No problem.
I'll do a video next trip standing on the spineboard...

I got a Railblaza railmount and camera boom, so I thought I would try my hand at those new-fangled moving pictures. I shot a demo of the Raka/Quarterdeck. Sorry about the video quality. The original footage is high def, but I edited it on my wife's Mac and the output looks like it was shot on worn out videotape.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS5_n3B6ycY[/youtube]

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Cool, thanks Chris.

Looks like the Rakas leave you just enough wiggle room to get the job done out there. Hope we get to see her in bigger wind later. That's when the outside positions really pay off.

I think your titles may be reversed. "Starboard tack" normally refers a course where the wind comes off the starboard bow, rather than the direction of travel. Folks here, who are far saltier than me, can maybe clarify if I have that right.

I'm a little tall for the center raised position, though this is where I started "hiking out". After my first sail ripped apart, I replaced it and tried the Hakas as well.

As you demonstrate, it takes a special technique to change tacks and avoid the sail. The lower rear edges of sail are the flimsiest and most stressed part, and it's easy to damage. Pre-taping that edge strikes me as a good idea now.

Hope we get to see you on a good downwind run soon, now that have mastered that fancy new video thingabob.

Yeah, the wind was only 5-7 knots on the day. Keeping the amas level definitely seems to improve the performance in those light winds. The most I've had it out in so far is about 15 knots (without the camera). Now that's really fun.

I debated which way to label the tacks and opted to title them after the tack I started on. I knew there was a 50% chance that was wrong.

Getting under the sail is the one difficulty with sailing this way and I find it well worth it for the way it transforms the whole AI experience. You only really encounter the sail when tacking or gybing, so yes, you need to remember to duck under. It's the same sailing a Maricat, except that's got a boom and it's your head that pays the price, not the sail. On the other hand, hiking out and "roll tacking" greatly improves the ability of the boat to get across the wind. Reinforcing the sail sounds like a sensible precaution. Thanks for the idea .

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ATTENTION Aussie Island flyers!

The latest Repco catalog has aluminium loading ramps. 183 x 38cm with 318kg capacity PER RAMP for the ridiculous price of only $129 a pair! That is a discount of $70.

Win win win I reckon

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Wait - Sorry Chris - I forgot to factor in that you are in the "land down under".

In which case, you've got it right.

You've got me all intrigued about the correct terminology now NOHUHU. When you use the word "tack" as a noun, it's straightforward: if the wind is coming from starboard, you are on a starboard tack, but when you use it as a verb, as in "tacking across the wind", it's a bit confusing. If you are on a starboard tack and you come across to a port tack, you are "tacking to port", but the boat actually has to head to starboard to achieve this.
Actually you are kinda right about everything being backward Down Under. Our channel warning markers have red and green exactly opposite to yours. Apparently that led to some hilarious situations when the US team was here for the Americas Cup.
The water goes down the plughole in the opposite direction too

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I know. I flushed while I was there.

Did not notice the channel markers though! Never do...A wise man tells me "Ignorance is bliss".

If any new sailors are confused, there are two easy ways of remembering what's what:-
There's "red port left" in the bottle, or
The short words go together
left right
port starboard
red green

Chrisj, I didn't know that about channel markers! It seems so logical to have them aimed at sailors arriving from the sea, eg red port left...

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

TrippinWet, I built hakas out of inexpensive pine and reinforced the middle underside portion with a lightweight square aluminum tube which greatly reduces the flex. I'm about 190 lbs. and regularly sit in the middle of my hakas. It's important to sometimes sit in the middle of the hakas to keep the amas level.

Jim, your aluminium tube seems to me to be a simple, light and effective way to reinforce wooden hakas. One question: are you using stainless steel screws to attach the aluminium?

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Seems like an excellent argument for all aluminum hakas. The wood components are just weighing down the aluminum The ATV ramp versions have zero deflection up to 650lbs and will support 350lbs of point loading. That would be a large crew member standing on one foot any where on the haka (would require really good ballance).

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Louis
Marietta Ga.

Yes Chris, I use all stainless hardware as well as a good quality sealer for the wood. The stainless hardware was the most expensive part. The wood was only about $12.00 total.