Hobie TI in shallow water?

I am familiar with the TI's ability offshore and in big open water, but was curious if many people fish them in shallow water bays/marsh areas. If I recall right draft is around 6 inches. Seems like the stable platform would be great for sight casting Reds. Many of the areas I would fish would be 1-2 foot depth.

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2015 Hobie TI Dune

Actually the TI is not too bad in shallows, we have a lot of really shallow areas around here. What I do is release the rudder and raise the centerboard. Then shallow pedal through the shallow areas down to about 8 inches of water. With the rudder pointing straight back steering becomes very heavy but still manageable. With mine in calm water and very low wind (which is pretty typical in the summer here) the AMA's remain above the water so they don't drag, the boat actually tracks very well and glides over the water very efficiently even with just one person pedaling. If we don't plan to go great distance and/or planning to use on small rivers and lakes we will leave the sail and AMA's on shore and go out in kayak mode. As a kayak the TI is by far the fastest kayak Hobie makes (still has 600 lbs capacity) and tracks and glides thru the water like nothing else, very fast and efficient. Prior to getting into kayaking I was big into canoe excursion stuff, I feel the TI kayak tracks and paddles (with no mirage drives or rudder) similar to a canoe (pretty darn good) where our previous tandem was an Oasis which for some reason was very difficult to tandem paddle. We also had a pair of revo 13's which were fantastic at pedaling with the rudders (and kayak sails) on bigger rivers but not so hot on very shallow and weedy rivers where you had to keep the mirage drives out and the rudders up, they just didn't track all that well. Also my wifes and my abilities differ and it's not a good idea to leave her 5 miles from launch because she is exhausted. So we sold our Revos and only tandem anymore. We also sold our Oasis and only use the TI anymore for both kayaking and sailing, and love it. Yes the TI is big and its heavy but if compared to pretty much any other tanden kayak or tandem excursion canoe (18 ft) it's comparable. Since we are campers with a trailer we have to cartop, and to be perfectly honest it is easier for me to get my TI kayak on my roof (because it's longer with more hand holds) than it was with our old Oasis, or our big old canoes (big canoes are all a (censored) to cartop fyi). Personally I prefer to load and rig just one boat vs having to load and rig two complete boats, especially when I almost always ended up towing the second kayak back to launch (gets old fast).
To make a long story short (too late), we love our TI and wouldn't want to own anything else.
Hope this helps
FE

Fusion, thanks for the response. It's good to hear the TI handles pretty well in the shallows. Most of my fishing is offshore, but had the thought to try my hand at Reds and trout in the bays.

I have a trailer for the TI, but will have to put on top on pickup when I pull the travel trailer. Kayak shop called the other day and my TI has shipped so I should have it in my possession by next weekend.

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2015 Hobie TI Dune

I just picked up my TI yesterday and the video that comes with it talks about skinny water fishing and keeping the mirage drive fins up close to the hull and "short stroke" pedaling. It also said something about letting the rudder unlock and trail the boat in a less than vertical position so that it requires less depth, but this makes steering stiffer. I don't know if you can do this on an Island, they may have been referring to some of the fishing kayaks.
One caution in shallow water. I took my Revo13 out in some inland marshes adjacent to the intercoastal waterwayand ran my mirage drive aground in some very mucky bottom when I strayed inside the marker buoys. I have the old style twist locks on that mirage drive and could not unlock them because of the pressure from the grounded fins. I don't know if this would also happen with the newer click style locks.
I had to step out of the boat into the muck to take enough pressure off to release the mirage drive.
I would have been fine if I had just done the short stroke pedaling or just paddled or better yet, pay attention to those marker buoys. It was a valuable lesson learned my first time in salt water. A few minutes later there was a pod of dolphins right next to me when I neared the intercoastal waterway. The quiet of being on a kayak made that a very memorable experience.
Chris

Chris:
Congrats on the TI you are going to love it.
The note in your manual about releasing the rudder in shallow water only applies to Islands with the flop down rudder, you can't do that with the twist and stow rudders on the rest of the kayak line (you have to raise the rudder and paddle on every other hobie kayak). You will find your TI paddles and tracks very well with the rudder up (tip... leave your centerboard down just a little when paddling in shallow water).
You did the right thing getting out, if you had continued to try to pedal you would have likely bent a shaft or torn a fin.
The click lock system on the mirage drives is better and stronger than the old system (you will like it more).
Once you develop 'light feet' with your mirage drives you learn how to feel for the bottom with your feet, you learn to stop and reverse the pedaling as soon as the fin hits the bottom, then revert to shallow pedaling. We hit the bottom all the time around here in shallows with the fins but haven't damaged any fins or mirage drives in 4-5 yrs. Actually thats the first thing I teach anyone new on my boat (before we leave shore).
The only other pointer I can give you is the first few times out on your TI don't be afraid to leave the sail furled in a turn or two the first few times out, the sail is quite powerful. I see a lot of TI owners out their first few times and the natural tendency is to pull off shore in 10-12 mph winds release the sail by just letting it go, then immediately get in trouble (showing too much sail). Use that furler, thats what it's for at least until you get the hang and feel of things. The only other thing to remember is when you are coming back in, don't forget to unlock the rudder down line line (even now I somtimes forget and break rudder pins), and make sure you have extra rudder pins, 95% of all my rudder pin breaks have been self induced at either launch or coming in. Chances are if your steering becomes difficult either your rudder is not locked down right (you have to yank it down pretty hard to lock it), or you have already half broke your rudder pin (from bumping the ground), and it needs replacing. I usually when launching walk the boat out to thigh deep water, lock the rudder down, then walk back and wiggle it before getting in the boat just to make sure. Once you get the hang of things, you won't break many rudder pins, I haven't broken any in quite a while now.
Thats it, have fun
FE
PS:
With you being a kayaker, don't be afraid to leave the sails and AMA's home once in a while, you will find the TI tandem kayak to be the fastest most stable kayak that Hobie makes, that glides thru the water like nothing else, and tandem paddles as good as anything out there (IMO) though Hobie doesn't even mention or advertise that at all.

Actually, you can just uncleat the rudder on the twist-n-stow as well. I do it often with my Outback. The difference is instead of just pushing up straight back it goes off at an angle and you find yourself in a left turn! Not terribly convenient, but it does let me go through shallower areas without worrying about bumping the ground. Of course if it's shallow enough to *always* hit the rudder I have to stow it.

Which is why I'd love to put an Island rudder - or any generic up/down rudder for that matter - on my Outback. I'm often headed into shallow creeks and areas with lots of submerged brush with it.

On the TI uncleating works great.

I've never had a lot of luck with the "short stroke" pedaling. Even when doing so I wind up tagging the bottom with the blades fairly often. Of course the worst is when I'm cruising along in deep enough water and hit a sandbar or similar - like hitting a brick wall. Since we don't really have sand, we have mucky red clay, I'm also usually firmly stuck. It's *possible* to pop the click-style locks loose in this situation unfortunately I have to lean toward the drive - putting even more pressure on it - to reach the levers. So I wind up doing this stupid looking "bounce" while pulling on both levers in the hope enough pressure is relieved to let them pop loose.

So generally in shallow creeks I just leave the rudder down but uncleated and remove the drive and paddle. (I want the rudder down if at all possible on the Outback, its tracking is terrible without - though I haven't tried trailing a rope yet, as Bob suggested.)

Yeah, and don't forget to put the centerboard up. I forgot it after one trip, got the TI pulled partway up on the trailer but it wouldn't sit right. Tried to push it back off to line it back up - and the darn thing wouldn't go! What the heck? Finally noticed the centerboard had pushed up sliding forward then dropped back down hooking one of the trailer crossarms. Ouch. Fortunately no damage aside from some scuff marks.

I've forgotten the rudder a couple times but only once did I forget to uncleat it, the others at least it was able to fold up.

Knowing how forgetful I am I stocked up on rudder pins and aka shear bolts. I have several of each onboard!

Joe you bring up a good point about extra parts to keep on board. Anything else you keep extras of and how many would you recommend?

Rudder pins
Shear bolts

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2015 Hobie TI Dune

One thing about the extra rudder pins, if you hang them in the rearmost hatch by those spring key chain metal split rings, they are near impossible to get out without pliers, and worse yet if it's rough, you cannot open the rear hatch without flooding the boat (worst place ever to store rudder pins (lol)). Same with the sheer bolts, if you have those key chain rings on the spare sheer bolts, you can look at them, but you can't install them unless you can get that stupid ring off (who thinks to carry pliers in their life vest pocket lol)), obviously I found all this out the hard way lol.
FE

I dispensed with those rings wherever I could. I keep spare rudder pins in the shallow tray, so that (a) the tray limits the amount of water that can get in, and (b) you can grab the spare pin from the tray quickly and close the hatch asap. BTW, I keep at least to spare rudder pins, as the only time I broke one, I broke another later on the same trip!

If you do replace a rudder pin, you don't need to muck around fitting a ring on the bottom of the new one, as the rudder up/down lines will prevent it coming out.

I also modified my spare brace pins by filing out the hole where the ring went, just enough to fit a small zip tie through. So the next time I break one of these brace sheer bolts, I can easily slip a zip tie through the (vertical) slot to prevent it coming out. Way easier than screwing around with those tiny rings, which I decided would be all but impossible while at sea.

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

I left the little ring off the rudder in the first place, having read here about them beforehand. The rudder lines definitely won't let the pin go anywhere normally. Haven't done anything with the aka pins though, will have to look at them and decide what to do with them.

The primary thing I need to get together is a decent toolkit. I have a 10-in-1 screwdriver, just a spare I had laying around in the garage, and the allen wrench that fits the steering handle screws (though I now use the risers which have a phillips head). But does anyone sell stainless steel tools? I had the allen wrench in the hatch of my Outback and over the course of a few months it rusted badly. I'm sure the 10-in-1 will do the same over time at which point the screwdriver bits will be hard or impossible to pull out.

Perhaps I'll get one of those hard plastic snap-closed waterproof cases to store everything in, would keep it all dryer and can be stowed out of the way (but tethered for easy retrieval) down in the hull.

I figure a pair of pliers of some sort could be useful, I think there are a couple other allen wrench sizes (such as the aka brace screws) needed, not sure if there's anything else required. I'll have to go look at the TI with tools in mind...

A Gerber or Letherman would be a good alternative that you could probably just carry in your life jacket.

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island Hibiscus
"Third Normal Form"

• Trampolines
• Hobie cover
• Davis Spar Fly
• Kayakbob's Sprayskirts
• Spine Board Hakas

Lots of great information, thanks guys.
I did keep the sail well reefed on my maiden voyage. Well at least most of the time. The goofiest thing I did was nearly hooking a buoy with the port ama while concentrating too much on the controls rather than where I was going.
Chris

You can never have enough drybags! I have two biggish ones tethered to a cross beam.

One is my ground tackle drybag, and includes:-
Blue Cooper anchor, attached to
10 feet of 10mm braided line with gal swivel
six feet of chain
25 metres sliver anchor line with shackle (I have 10 metres permanently attachd at the bow)
Kevlar drogue chute
(on offshore trips I add another 50 metres of anchor line)

In my safety drybag:-
LED masthead white light (goes up on halyard)
115dB horn
Comprehensive first aid kit in its own drybag
2 red and 2 orange smoke hand flares
2 pkts orange sea marker dye
Hand bearing compass
Sharp knife in scabbard
Multitool
Spare ama/aka bungees and plugs
Allen key for crossbars
and other stuff I forget LOL

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

Great kit Tony!

From my aviation background I include the following objects in my PFD (which I wear at all times):
- Stainless steel pliers with wire cutters on a holster attached to the shoulder straps (mainly for fishing, but a good survival tool as well)
- POCKET 1 - all items tethered in w/spectra: Stainless multi-tool; signal mirror; rescue whistle
- POCKET 2 - waterproof LED light (be sure to preflight the batteries), sailing gloves, about 3m of spectra cord
My VHF radio is also carried in an integrated pocket in my vest, tethered. It is submersible and I have tried it out in the water.

I need to get a flashing strobe, which will go on the other shoulder strap. From a rescuer's perspective this thing will get you seen at night from quite a ways' away (just be sure to secure it when the helo gets in close, it's very disorienting).

Basically - if you fall off the boat and it sails away (or sinks), this is some good stuff for open water survival.
I'd love to have a 12oz water bottle, small aerial flares and handheld signal flares as well, but there just isn't room.

Also would like a waterproof laser signaling device, but haven't seen anything specifically made for that purpose.

Like most folks, I replaces the split rings with stainless hitch pins and keep spare rudder pins in the mid hatch of my TI.

Aloha,
RH

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2013 Tandem Island "Victory Lane"
Oahu, Hawaii
www.rotorheadsblog.blogspot.com