Need help / advice on one time transport

Hey everyone! Long time lurker here -- great community and source for research. I finally made an account so I could post this.

After searching for a couple years for a Hobie TI, I finally found one fairly close to me and at a decent price ($3k for a 2012 in good shape). My wife and I live on lake Champlain, where we can keep the TI right on our dock for easy departures. We don't currently plan to bring it anywhere else, so a trailer isn't necessary for us. However, before me lies the challenge of getting it safely from the current owners home to ours, which is about a 100 mile trip.

In this case, I don't have the luxury of being able to sip some coffee while analyzing the boat and the trailer, taking measurements, and slowly think-tanking a solution. This is a 'load and go' situation, where I need to have everything in place before we pick it up (I'll be with help, and am foreseeing things being a bit rushed).

A relative has offered the use of his flat bed trailer which is about 12 feet long and open on the front and back (and wider than 4'). This is my best solution so far... The TI should fit on there , sticking out of the front and back. However, I'm not sure if I can safely set the TI down on a flat surface when secured with a few ratchet straps / tie downs... I'd hate to warp or damage the hull. Would it be better to set it upside down in this case?

One thought I had, as an attempt to distribute some of the down-force on the hull, is to set a full sized 8" thick memory foam mattress under the center of it... Is this a good idea, or recipe for disaster as the straps may become loose as the foam compresses on the road? Perhaps just a few layers of blankets underneath would be better...

I have to pick this up this weekend (in about 4 days), so I don't have much time to spare. Any and all advice is much appreciated! Cheers all.

100 miles is a short trip- maybe two hours. I would put a blanket or two under the hull and strap it down tight enough to keep it from flying off, but not excessively tight for no reason. It should be fine.

Most transport damage is due to tightening the straps too much. People do this to keep the kayak from sliding back and forth during hard braking, acceleration, and over bumps. Use additional lines back from the bow and forward from the stern to prevent this. Then the cross-straps do not need to be that tight just to prevent lateral movement.

Peter

Well, I did it -- I got the TI here without a problem. Thanks for the input here guys!

I ended up just taking a piece of 4'x8' plywood and screwing an old carpet to the top of it. I attached this to the top of the trailer, along with a couple 'bumper' boards on each side to prevent lateral movement (the TI fit exactly between these boards because they were 4' apart, screwed to the outside of the plywood). This seemed to work well -- it gives a solid, flat, slightly cushioned platform for the center 8' of the hull.

I'm hoping I didn't go too tight on the ratchet straps -- it's hard to know what pressure is too much or not enough, since I'm unfamiliar with the boat. I was fairly paranoid, so had them pretty secure... and the nature of the trailer made it hard to attach anything to the bow or stern. I didn't use gorilla level strength to click them down though, just enough to be pretty snug. I don't see any damage, except for some very slight hull deformation on the bottom, about 5 feet from the rudder. The previous owner had the boat stored on two saw horses, so it's tough to know if this was the cause or if it was my trailer rig and strapping pressure. I wasn't happy to see this, but I'm glad to read that it can be (hopefully) easily fixed with sun or boiling water.

There are a few other little things that need to be fixed, but I suppose that's the nature of buying a used 11 year old kayak... A fair amount of scratches and a couple gouges on the bottom, but normal stuff I think... The smallest batten fell out, presumably without the previous owner noticing (easy to miss I suppose). The rudder lift line doesn't work for some reason, so that will take a bit of analyzing.

I do also have a leak in the hull -- after a few days of initial usage, it had taken on quite a bit of water... I just noticed last night that I was sitting lower, so I had to bail it out with a bowl and now am analyzing everything on the lawn. I'm hoping I just didn't have the drain plug tight enough. So far, I don't see any cracks anywhere, so it's still a mystery. I'm hoping this isn't caused by something that happened during transport.

So ya, not perfect, but that would be an unrealistic expectation.

Are you sure the leak is in the hull? When you were sailing did you get water over the bow? If so probely the water went inside through the bowhatch seals! Carefully closing and maybe new bungee’s can help a lot ( it won’t be watertight)
Another spot to check are the 8” hatches for leaks
Good luck and have fun on the water

I'm not sure! I'm going to take it back out again for a paddle once the rain lets up... and I'll be staying close to shore .

I don't think I would have taken in that much water through any of the top hatches because we were just pedaling along on a calm day, with little to no over splash.

One thing that may have happened is an overload situation. We had company over when we first launched the boat, and I invited four adults on board (2 in the seats, 1 on each trampoline). The total weight was probably around 570lbs, but I figured it would be fine since I'm still below the official weight limit... but, maybe I was riding low enough at some point to start taking in water through the rudder control line holes, which would seem to be a slippery slope, because then you are riding even lower and those holes will be submerged even more...

Or, perhaps the o-ring wasn't properly sealed on the drain plug... shrug. I really thoroughly inspected everything multiple times over and can see no sign of cracking anywhere on the entire hull -- it's in pretty good shape aside from a few scratches and one medium sized gouge underneath where the last owner probably hit a submerged rock (but there is certainly no hole there).

I'll report back soon.

We took it out for a sail again yesterday -- had a great time, but thought I was noticing the water level around the pedals slowly rising. Sure enough, when we got home, we had taken on gallons of water... enough where it took maybe 15 minutes to drain through the drain plug. It's way too much water. It almost certainly it isn't coming from the top hatches because we were sailing in fairly calm conditions on lake Champlain... maybe 3 knots of wind.

Sooo ya, we have a major breach somewhere, and I couldn't see anything awry on visual inspection. I guess I'll try the 'dry cloths inside the hull' trick, and either spray it all over with a hose or just put it back in the lake...

You may also be able to see the cracks or thin spots using a flashlight on one side and looking for where light is coming through.
Also consider getting a plastic welding kit for repairs. I have not had to repair my Hobie but I was able to repair a bumper and the mud flaps of our van. The mud flaps were a good place to practice since the repair needed to be strong but not pretty!

Lisa

Thanks for the suggestion Lisa!

Until last night, I was running on the assumption that a 2 part epoxy would do the trick. Now, thanks to your post and some research, I see that the best (only?) way to go forward is to weld the plastic. I'm good with a soldering iron already, so I decided to just buy a cheap plastic welding iron from Amazon, and also just ordered some 'Hibiscus Red' rod stock from a dealer. I'll do a few practice runs before attempting the actual repair, of course.

A local dealer recommended that I not do the repair myself, and instead hire a pro to come do it... he said it may discolor and the repair may be 'soft' (?)... and that the repair would only be around $30-$50. He has a point. I think, though, that this is a 'give a man a fish or teach him to fish' scenario. With my own gear, I'll be able to fix most other issues that may occur in the future.

If you choose to tackle this yourself, the topic below has a post from me with some pointers.

https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=69923

Peter

Thanks for the link! I'll post another update once progress has been made. In the mean time, our paddleboard is our main vessel .

In your July 6 posting you said:

"I'm hoping I didn't go too tight on the ratchet straps -- it's hard to know what pressure is too much or not enough, since I'm unfamiliar with the boat. I was fairly paranoid, so had them pretty secure..."

Suggest you avoid ratchet straps when tying down a kayak and use cam lock straps instead. It is easy to over tighten a ratchet strap and cause damage.

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I was knowledgeable enough to not go 'ultra' tight on the straps, and lucky enough that the tension I did use seems to have not caused any damage.

In the future, I think I'll just go with some rope and tie some trucker's hitches... then there is a firm hold, but not too tight, and all I would need is some rope. Also, it would be soft with even pressure where it touches the kayak, whereas with the straps I'm always having to be careful where the actual ratchet buckle rests, as this in it's self could cause damage.

I've been meaning to post a conclusion to this thread. It's a happy ending to the story. I found the leak by just floating the hull in knee deep water and very methodically and slowly scanning every square inch. I also was watching the inside of the hull through the hatches to analyze where the flow of water seemed to be coming from.

Eventually I spotted a crack in the front 'pocket' of where the rear mirage drive pedals sit. At first glance it just looked like a scratch in the plastic, but closer inspection revealed a very small crack, sort of in the shape of a letter "H".





Fixing it ended up being no small task... To start, I was a total newbie to plastic welding. The spot was very hard to work on because it's in such a deeply recessed hole, and the utmost care needed to be taken to not damage the surrounding area with a careless hand and a soldering iron. I also wanted the repair to look at least somewhat passable, as well as being strong. I practiced on a bucket lid for quite a while before attempting the actual repair. Although my first fix worked as far as stopping the water ingress, I had to re-do the repair many, many times in order to have it be fully functional. Why, you might wonder? Well, it turns out that this particular spot was molded very precisely, and with very little tolerance for it to function properly with the pedals. When I made the repair, the added width of the mesh plus the new plastic lifted the floor high enough that the mirage drive no longer would click into place... One CAM would lock, but not the other.

I had to keep carefully pushing the mesh down with a hot iron, and re-shaping the plastic to try to work it back to being close enough to the original 'height' that the drive would finally click in... I would get close, then go in with sandpaper and keep working the plastic down on the spots where it was still binding, until *finally* I got it to work properly. There were snags -- my first two irons just stopped working for some reason (cheap models from Amazon), and finally the third one worked well. Sometimes I would get the drive to finally fit, but then realized the mesh had become exposed from sanding (which may have been fine, but I wasn't sure if it may corrode over time), so then I had to sink it in a little deeper and recover it with new plastic, and work the spot down again with sandpaper until it once again fit...

Finally finished:



I know, this post is agonizingly tedious, which is an accurate reflection of what the repair was. I expected it to be quick and easy... maybe a couple hours at most, as almost anyone looking from an outside point of view would assume. Haha, ya right -- after having done thousands of little jobs like this in my life, I should know better by now than to expect anything to be easy... especially when at the beginning of the learning curve on a new skill. It would be much easier if I were to do it again, with the experience I now have (he thinks, consoling his future self).

Moving on -- the TI is fully functional now and doesn't leak at all. I've made many other little restorations as well: new bungies, 303 protectant, replaced a lost sail baton, bought a hand held trailer, etc. etc. It's incredibly fun and fast at times, and mellow and relaxing at others. I have the old style inflatable seats and I find them perfectly comfortable... What a cool ride -- completely what I had hoped for after reading about these for over a year. Cheers everyone, and thanks for all the input and help!

Great work!

Did you drill small holes at the crack ends to prevent further cracking?

I would have used a flat centerpunch and pushed the material in a bit before soldering to permit a thicker surface.

Peter