Straightening bent mirage drive masts

After an exhilarating but tiring sail I made the ultimate rookie mistake buy winching my TI onto my trailer with the drive still in the well! The masts are both bent about 10-15 degrees, and one of the masts tore through the fin. It looks like I may be able to straighten the masts in a vise, and the hole in the fin won't affect insertion of the mast. Has anyone successfully straightened masts without weakening them?

John

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John Robb
2015 TI Azul
Sarnia ON. CAN.

I've straightened masts simply by putting one end in a vice and bending them back. Are they weakened? No idea, but they are still working to my knowledge (I've since sold the boats.)

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

I hit things with the turbo blades on my Outback all the time. (I think I punched the end of the mast through the side of a blade almost the first trip out with the turbo blades!) Can't count the number of times I've had to bend them back a bit. Maybe two or three times I've hit something REALLY hard and bent them severely. (Once hit a submerged stump while buzzing across a lake, had the front blade overlapping the rear one. That was a TOUGH one to fix sitting in the middle of the lake! )

I generally just hold the upper part of the drive firmly on a table, then gently bend the blades back mostly into position. Long ago gave up trying to make them perfect. I've thought about getting a replacement set of masts but never have - and the current ones, now about 1 1/2 years old and well used, seem to be fine so far.

They do weaken, each time. You won't see it. You could heat and bend them back, but that's problematic.

Have a spare on hand. You won't know when it's going to snap, and you probably won't be able to fix it in the water.

Obviously a bigger concern on an AI, vs the TI.

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The Wind Is Your Friend...

What Nohuhu said!
I bent both hitting a submerged rock. Straightened them OK without dismantling and got another two years use out of them before both snapped within a week of each other. Fortunately there was just enough shaft left to grab with vicegrips and remove.
I did take the sprockets off and clamp them in a vice for repair as it was difficult to get the old shafts out.
How long you get will of course depend on your usage. I remove the drives frequently when sailing and paddle in kayak mode a lot so you may not get 2 years. Just be prepared to replace when the inevitable happens.
BTW -Use plenty of blue Loctite when replacing.

I've bent mine back as well, so far, so good (fingers crossed.)

PS, I've gotta go out and get some blue Loctite!

I bent mine back without taking them off. I also tore a hole in the ends of both flappers. I repaired the holes with Shoe Goo, same as Marine Goop, and they appear to be as good as new. If I get 2 years out of them I will be happy. I have a TI so not as important to have a spare on the side. I saw some where on this forum where they repaired theirs the same way, so far so good.

If they are the new screwin type, and they snap off flush (using loctite), you'll have a real good time getting the stub out. Even on a bench.

I think Stringy would join me in advising that you invest in the drive repair/spares kit if you can. Having one means you won't be the one left sitting on the beach, waiting for your dealer to order more chains, masts, sprockets, etc.

I would ask Matt if they actually have kits for the newest mirage drives, but he's far, far away,..

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The Wind Is Your Friend...

Couldn't agree more Nohuhu.
I carry a spare idler cable and drivechain in the Hobie gear bucket always.

With the V1 drives I used to carry spare drive masts and sprockets as well but the V2's have been much more reliable and I only take a spare V2 sprocket and mast on camping expeditions.

Hobie have really improved the reliability of the drive over the years!

On the topic of holes in the fins. All it take is a lighter and you can melt the fin to a point wherr you can mold it back over the metal pin and its hardly noticable. I use a paper towel when molding the hot fin to prevent burning. Done this too many times to admit. Fins can last many years with this trick.

Vetgam

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I don't know about anyone else but I find the mirage drives to be extremely durable. Sure I have bent 3 or 4 rods over the years and had to straighten them, but have never had one break. Same with the fins, yea I have had the rod tear out at the bottom on maybe 3-4 fins, but that us isually easily repaired (as discribed above), on some of our older drives that are all scratched up (mostly from beaching with the mirage drives parked), on those I typically take some 1/16x1" aluminum and fold and glue the alum over the end of the fin ( you could also glue fabric on if desired vs aluminum), we then use those crappy drives when in shallow and rocky rivers and such. I always rinse the drives off well, and lubricate with WD 40 monthly. It's not like we don't use them often either. We are typically out there pedaling weekly (I have always pedaled 98% of the time) and if averaged out (50 wks x 8yrs x 10 miles average weekly equals over 4000 miles). This is of course over several different boats over many years. Obviously when we sell one boat we sell it with the drives, then buy new (we have owned 7 different Hobies since 2008 with the last 3 being TI's). I'm pretty sure our newest TI which is a 2012 model and is slightly modified for offshore with massive sail sets and twin 2.3 Honda outboards makes the boat slightly more capable speed wise so some weekends we will do 50-60 milers. The only reason for that is It's cheaper and easier and faster for me to sail up to ft Desoto or Egmont key from our normal launch point at city Island than it is to drive up there. It's an almost 90 minute drive from our home to ft desoto boat ramps via car, plus it cost $6 bucks to park there. Egmont key is typically where we meet our powerboat friends, it's also one of the few nice snorkeling and scuba diving areas that we like up here in Sarasota (obviously we prefer diving off Key West and the Keys way more, but time management is a big factor). I always pedal my boat however even when going very fast (thats my exercise program and it actually does save me quite a bit in fuel cost). Sorry for the long story but the point I'm trying to get across is I likely have in excess of 4000 pedaling miles on my current mirage drives (not including any previous mirage drives ( this is of course just a wild guess on my part since I don't actually keep track). I have never broken anything on any mirage drives since 2008 (outside the few bent shafts discribed above). I consider this to be a pretty good testiment to their durability. Actually I have never taken one apart so I have no idea what my drives look like inside (probably a hot mess lol).
Obviously we are big hobie fans and more likely than not just very lucky.
Bob

I bent my shafts on a sunken log and had to heat them to straighten.
That would have been 6 months ago and they are still ok.
I bought 2 new shafts and taped them to the mast step support.
We camp hundreds of miles from a dealer and like to have the spares just in case.