ST or Turbo

Had the Outback for over a month now and have had a ball. I have installed an anchor trolley, fish finder and a Scotty rod holder with extension. Next I want to upgrade to a sailing rudder and new fins. I am wondering which is better the ST or ST turbo fins. Obviously with the STs I don't have to buy new masts and they work in shallower water which would help in surf launches. Or is the performance of Turbos that much better?

I would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks
Charlie

Depends how much more speed(with added) effort of course you need.I would go with the regular STfins they are faster than the standard and are easier to peddle and are better in shallow water.

I like the turbos, but have not used the ST. Speed won't be much more with either the St or the turbo...

I went with the ST's after I went to purchase the Turbo's and found out the dealer was going to have to order the Turbo's as he didn't have the ones that went with the V2 drive units. I'm certainly no expert but the ST's have been great. I have an Oasis tandum and a few weeks ago with a friend we were able to easlily get up to 5.6 mph with little effort. When a couple of 60+ yr. old guys can get a boat up to or near hull speed before it goes on a plane I think that's a good testament to the design of the propulsion system. So what do you want? At about $20.00/fin as compared to about $45.00/fin how much difference is there and is it worth the cost differential? Now that's a personnal question that to which I don't have an answer. All I know is that getting a 14.5' boat under human power up to that speed is nothing to sneeze at. Good Luck my friend. May you enjoy your Hobie even half as much as I have enjoyed mine! - Roger

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Roger
2010 Oasis
Lucie Belle

Have just ended up ordering a set of turbo's after talking to the one and only dealer in NZ. Have to wait a while for them to turn up as we are the last stop in the Hobie delivery chain down here

On another note have just bought a second hand Sport complete with sail kit on an online auction for my wifes birthday . A guy bought it over from the US on his yacht. Cost me $NZ1300 which is pretty good considering the Sport is $NZ2900 without the sail here. My wife liked the Outback and never really liked paddle yaks as she hasn't got great upper body strength. We both ride bikes which I find very compatable with peddling the Hobie.

Now who gets to use the sail

Now who gets to use the sail :lol

I love sailing my revo and my daughter sails her sport. You will just half to get you another sail set-up and both go yak sailing!

I went from the standard fins on our Revolution to the Turbo's and LOVED them. I also own an AI which came with turbos and when I use it as just the kayak, it's also great.

To me, when I upgraded, I looked at both the ST's and Turbo's. It didn't take me long to go with the Turbo's. Why pay to upgrade, and only get a different shape? If I was going to upgrade, I wanted to get the most noticeable difference that I could, so I went with the Turbo's.



I hear what you're saying with having to buy new masts, and that's a decision that you'll have to make, but I question your logic.

If you're in shallow water with your standard fins, you'll need to flutter them (keep them close to the boat) I've found that there aren't many situations where you'd take full sweeps with the standard fins, but you wouldn't with the Turbo's. They're only a couple inches longer. If you're within an inch and a half of having your standard fins scraping the bottom, you probably should be fluttering them, instead of taking full sweeps anyways. If you're careful and don't take full sweeps when you're really shallow now, you'll probably find that your concerns about the Turbo's aren't warranted. If you're consistently touching your standard fins to objects now, then don't get the turbo's because you'll have to make an adjustment to get used to them.

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I upgraded to Turbo fins as soon as they came out for the extra speed they gave over the standard fins but I am in the process of DOWNGRADING one of my drives to the ST fins. The reason for this is that I am finding that I am consistently breaking the Turbo fin masts which snap off at the point where the mast exits the sprocket assembly. I have been through about 8 masts - usually it is the front one which goes.

When this happens far out at sea it is obviously of concern and I have taken to carrying a spare mast and a small toolkit with me at all times just in case. I have been lucky, though: to date I have only had a breakage at the very furthest point from land and on that occasion I was able to paddle & then sail back (I only go a long way out when wind & tide are favourable and conditions are good) - most frequently I have had to cancel a trip because the mast has snapped on my way out or it has snapped on my way back in.

By the way I am ALWAYS careful with my drives so I can quite categorically state that the masts are not getting broken by being bashed into hard objects - the breakages I have experienced are simply related to wear induced by pedalling. However I do quite a lot of Hobie Kayaking and am getting reasonably well conditioned for pedalling these days being able to consistently maintain speeds of 3.5-3.5 knots with the Turbo fins - so maybe I am testing the limits of the fin masts just by becoming stronger in the legs?!

That said I am beginning to think that for me the ST fins may be the better bet until Hobie finds a way of beefing up the Turbo Fin masts (I think they need to be about 30-50% stronger at the base than they are) - this is because the force on the (shorter) fin masts will be substantially less when using the ST fins and therefore breakages should be reduced.

BUT I have yet to try them. And of course the issue for me is that I most need the drive to be reliable when I am going on a longer trip but the thing that makes the longer distances possible is the bigger fins.

I've had problems with a couple masts breaking as you described. I now have the V2 Mirage drive, and have not had any problems. If yours are still the V1 version, you can just replace the sprockets and masts with the V2 and get the same results (#81129122 about $50US). The rest of the V2 upgrade is the cables/chain/drum which can get pretty pricey.

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

Stobbo,
What Bob said!
I broke a lot of V1 turbo masts. Some after not much use at all. I think it may have related to slight wallowing of the sprocket hole. I upgraded to V2 sprockets and haven't had a breakage. I've bent and re-straightened them twice now and still no problems!

Maybe. In any event, your stroke rate will increase by about 20 to 25% when you downsize and you'll loose some thrust. Otherwise the ST is a nice little fin.

If you're primarily looking for better reliability, invest in the V-2 threaded sprockets and masts as Bob and stringy suggest, even if you switch down to the ST fins.