Mirage Drive Leaks Revisited

Hi,

I just purchased a Mirage Tandem. The neighbor has a single and sold me on the Mirage. There was some water in the hull and I didn't think anything of it because of different holes in it for the rudder and such and the possibility of leaking hatches. Wasn't a lot of water.

Anyway, I didn't find this forum until I was researching the boat late at night after the purchase. Of course I came across all of the posts that suggested weak drive wells on some the sand colored singles.

I was just wondering if there was anything new in regards to the sand colored Tandem and leaks? Would the MirageDrive Well Retrofit be of any benefit to an older boat like mine as cheap insurance?

I did check the wells thoroughly and they looked fine. I haven't had it in the water yet. The s/n dates it at September of '03 and an '04 model.

Thanks!

Hi Poncin and welcome to the forum. We have a Mirage Tandem that is a couple of years older than yours. It also leaks a little, mostly through the hatch mount aft of the back seat. That area gets a lot of water washing across and it tends to sit there. You would also expect some water to enter through the rear cable openings. Actually, all three of our boats take on some water. BTW, it's good to sponge out the water after each use and open the hatches to let everything dry out.

None of the Tandems were involved in the Retrofit.. In fact, the longer bolts may even be too long for yours. In any event, I'd recommend that you leave it as is.

The sand colored cracks were almost exclusively Outbacks. Sand also happpened to be the most popular color (at least then), so they had more cracks develop. Whether there was more to it than that I don't know.

The best thing to do is just use the boat and enjoy it. Keep an eye on things, learn how to lube and adjust your drives. That way, if any problems develop you'll be right on top of it.

Congratulations on your purchase!

As roadrunner mentioned, tandems were not included in the retrofit program due to the cam bolt length issue. Only the Adventure and Outback had an issue where short bolts were used in some serial number ranges. This was due to a change in the bottom of the Outback and then when the Adventure came out, we didn't change the bolt length because we didn't realize there was an issue.

Cam bolt length is the initial problem. If they allow the drive to slip forward... we have a second problem... a possible crack in the forward edge of the drive well.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thanks Roadrunner (The car? What year?) and Matt.

My thoughts were not necessarily the bolts, but being an older boat, a cam might crack (or some other similar failure) allowing the drive to move forward into the bulkhead of the well and the molded fiberglass well fitting might be cheap insurance if it even fits the well. I guess the best thing to do is keep on top of things and perform routine maintenance as RR said.

I did suspect that the rear hatch and rudder hole were the culprit(s) for the water because the boat... um yak was left outside in the rain and it looks like the cargo area could fill up with water.

There wasn't anywhere near the amount of water that people have mentioned who have had the cracks. I have yet to get it wet myself. The ice just left my lake. I just happened accross the reto fit kit and wondered...

Just my old squadron -- named after the bird. Not very cleaver, but easy enough to remember. Those Plymouth Road Runners were pretty swift though -- for a car.