Hardening your Island...WTF does this mean?

The term is bandied around a lot, but newer owners might not be sure what we mean. This is a brief (?) explanation. What we are trying to achieve is minimising the possibility of something coming undone and making life very difficult.

The three areas I will concentrate on are
(a) akas coming out of the crossbars
(b) akas coming out of the amas
(c) amas folding in suddenly due to a aka brace pin breaking.

(a) Tie a bowline loop around the pin in the aka knuckle (if the gap is too small, simply tie a loop tightly around the aka itself). Attach this to a similar loop on the other side, so that the knuckles cannot come out of the crossbar (this doesn't have to be drum-tight, but enough to prevent either knuckle disengaging from the crossbar). If you normally dismantle your Island, add a snapshackle and loop to enable you to disconnect the two sides. (V1 version AIs do not need this mod).

(b part i) Two separate mods here... (If yours is a 2015 or later model, only the second one applies). Doubling the bungees adds redundancy as well as reducing that bloody noise as the akas pump up and down inside the amas! You can either buy post-2015 double bungees, adding extra buttons on the front akas, (warning! The double bungee parts cost $20 each here in Oz, that's $80 for the four alone! Ouch!), or, you could do it the way I (and others before me) did, and widen the holes in the screw-in fittings so >two< bungees can just fit through. So make a bungee loop about 8cm long, tying off inside the fitting (hint: I preferred to use zip ties on each individually and together - if you pull them really tight with a pair of multi-grips, you can make a very strong fitting). Having done a loop for the other side of that aka, join the two loops with a shackle, which you then stretch over the existing button. Done, twice the strength and twice the redundancy!

(b part ii) We aren't done yet! This is probably a more important mod than part i... We want to add really strong limiting straps so that even with NO bungees, the amas cannot ever disconnect from the akas! Here, Hobie comes to the rescue, as you can buy dyeema rudder line (1000lb breaking strain!) for about $1.5 a metre. Thread this through the hole in the black screw-in fitting (between the two bungee cords) and tie a bowline loop to fit over that aka button. At the bottom end, tie it securely to the bungees, or do what I did and tie it off the a stainless washer too big to fit through the hole in the fitting. If you get the length right, it will be easy to slip it off the button if you are dismantling your Island, but short enough that the ama stays connected to the aka. Done!

(c) Scariest thing on an Island is breaking an aka brace pin - the capsize is virtually instantaneous! This is NOT a good way to encourage your family to join you out on the water, and in some circumstances, the outcome could be life-threatening.

Fortunately prevention is quite simple. Tie some stretchy line (nylon or similar) to the front crossbar inside the mount to the deck. Make a loop which fits over the vertical part of the rear aka. This does not need to be drum-tight (if dismantling, this loop will just drop off when you remove the aka from the ama -or you could add a snapshackle and loop to enable you to disconnect them). Repeat for the other side. Now, if an aka pin breaks, the ama cannot swing suddenly inwards till it meets the main hull, but will move slightly, giving you enough time to furl the sail and fit a new pin.

These mods will go a HUGE way to giving you more confidence that your Island won't let you down when the excrement hits the rotating cooling device. The beauty is that ALL of the above mods can be done for less than about $30 in total, not a big amount when you think that it could actually save your skin!

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

Which raises the question: why aren't Islands delivered with these safety devices?

Would love a photo or sketches of c) please Tony - this is my greatest concern when carrying my kids, so keen to do this mod. i have seen you refer to it before, but I don't think I understand it properly

I don't have a photo handy, so I will try to use words instead.
This is my latest version.

* Take some stretchy nylon line, about 4mm diameter will do the trick.
* Attach a snap-shackle to one end.
* About 12 inches from the end, tie a loop big enough for the opening of the snap-shackle to go into
* Wrap this around the vertical part of your rear aka, doing up the shackle to make a large loop
* Tie a bowline around the nearest front crossbar mount (to the deck), so that the new diagonal line is loose enough to enable undoing the snap-shackle, but not so loose it drags in the water.
* You're done!
* Repeat for the other side.

Note: you can simplify things a bit, if instead of tying that bowline, you simply thread the line in front of the mount, across behind the mast (so it won't get caught up when removing or fitting the mast), in front of the mount on the other side, and then back to the outside if the rear aka. Both alternatives will achieve the same result, removing the possibility that the ama can swing in suddenly if the brace pin breaks.

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

Let's not be too hard on Hobie.. after all, they DID add the second ama bungee, which eliminates 99% of the possibility of an ama coming loose from an aka.

Furthermore, we need some perspective here. I have only read on the forum (in the last four years) of a few instances of akas separating from crossbars. Remember that trampolines will tend to greatly reduce the possibility of this happening, and will also reduce the possibility of the sudden and violent folding in of an ama due to brace pin breakage.

The mods I have described are mostly designed to cover extreme conditions (in which I would certainly NOT deploy trampolines!), conditions in which Hobie would not be condoning use of Islands. It only silly buggers like me who revel in conditions where ALL my clothes get soaked through, and sandals get washed out of the floor of the back seat!

Also, gees, its only a few bucks, plus a bit of your time to add your personal touch. I love fiddling with my TI to make it better/faster/safer/cuter etc

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

Thanks for posting, Tony.

Yea Tony:
Thanks for posting, I try to re-post this kind of stuff every few months so new owners don't get themselves in trouble watching some of our extreme video, or reading about other TI owners offshore experiences.
In the past I have written about some of my offshore experiences off of key west and the keys in my heavily modified and hardened TI, then had people go out on their stock TI's and get themselves into real trouble. I feel very badly about this.

The main reasons I heavily modified and hardened my own TI was because I got myself into serious trouble too many times going offshore and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get back to the tiny Island because my basic stock TI just didn't have the capability to sail upwind into the normal 12-15mph trade winds and also against the 5mph constant current down the west side of the island. I was sailing like mad tacking back and forth but actually going backwards (negative vmg) for several reasons, the main reason being the stock boats inability to sail much closer than 50 degrees off the wind upwind. What was supposed to be a 3-4 hr sail ended up being a 12 hr ordeal where we didn't get back in till way after dark totally exhausted from having to pedal for our lives for 12 hours.

On a couple occasions I even had a very small outboard running wide open and still couldn't get back in.

My only word of caution to the guys with the Hobie spinnaker kit is you can get yourself into real trouble if your upwind capabilities don't match your downwind capabilities, this actually happened to us more than once (we have been running spinnakers on our TI for 6 yrs now), we sailed offshore in great winds with the spin, then couldn't get back to shore.
My advise is know and understand your own boats real (not imagined) capabilities. (it could save your life someday)
FE

I would add a corollary to FE's comments about upwind vs. downwind. It is no coincidence that I choose the days when the wind is blowing >towards< the coast, so that returning back to shore is not going to become a nightmare.

On the other days, I sail on my local lake. Nevertheless, the hardening I described above, is probably just as essential when sailing on inland waters...

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

Tony, any reason you brace to the rear aka and not the front one? This bloke has safety lines from bow to front aka uprights. Any issues you see with this setup? https://youtu.be/WfcUX9aJnEI

Sent from my SM-T355Y using Tapatalk

The role of preventing ama collapse is the same, whether from bow to ama like Chekika's (Keith's) video, and my suggestion. I only chose moving the lines rearward so that they are contained within the two akas, so they less likely to be in the way when wading around the vessel in the shallows, or when fishing. The choice is yours!

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

Good point. Thanks Tony. Might try to set this up before next weekend's sail.

Sent from my SM-T355Y using Tapatalk

"This bloke" would like to reply. The video you have there, Smithcorp, is a rather mild test of my keep-out lines. A much more serious test is shown in the following video. The downwind aka brace has been released. The only thing keeping the ama/aka from collapsing are my keep-out lines. I was making 7.5-8 mph during the video. BTW, my keep-out lines are easily disconnected so that they are not a hindrence to preping and packing the boat.



Like Tony, Fusioneng, and others, i have made extensive modifications to my boat to make it safer. You can see most of these modifications here:
http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&start=750

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

Haha - thanks Keith, I was posting on the train from my phone and didn't make the connection that it was your video. Thanks - do you use Spectra line?

No, I didn't use spectra line, but it would be fine. I used some simple cord I picked up at Home Depot.

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

Even better, thanks.