Hobie Compass part 2, on the water

This is part 2 of a two part series. Part one can be seen here: https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=61536

I was lucky enough to get the use of a Compass over a long weekend and wasted no time heading to the water. I got a chance to look at performance, handling, stability, hull characteristics and on-board storage.

Performance: The Compass comes with ST fins so I pedaled an hour and covered 4.2 miles at a "fast cruise" on the local lake. The next day I "upgraded to ST Turbos and did the same hour, covering 4.7 miles. Conditions were similar both days -- no current, light winds, mostly flat water. The difference was like night and say -- the boat came alive with the Turbos with much better acceleration as well as speed, bringing the boat up to its potential. Here's a shot of the exit wake at that speed.



For comparison, the Compass with Turbofins is approximately similar in cruising speed to the Outback and Revo 11 (also with Turbofins). The MD-180 Turbofins performed much like the ST Turbos except that they allow reverse operation. The boat can be sprinted over 5 MPH with any of the fins, but that's not a realistic running speed.

Handling: The rudder system is really well designed, IMO. If properly tuned (more on that below), it tracks well with little need for correction. The handle is sensitive so a little correction goes a long way. Unlike the PAs, rudder response is immediate.. It has some authority at low speed (less than 1 MPH) and excellent and responsive turning at any traveling speed. Turn radius is excellent. One great feature is it receives funneled water from the moving Mirage Drive, enabling you to hold position against moderate wind without actually moving.

The only negative aspect of the system on the test boat was that rudder tuning was affected by temperature. When it gets hot the boat expands, making the directional control lines very tight and the rudder handle difficult to turn. In cooler weather, the boat shrinks enough to slack the rudder lines and the control is very easy to turn but tracking becomes sloppy as the rudder is able to move independent of the control. Once the lines are adjusted for seasonal temperature this shouldn't be a problem. The point here is, learn how to "tune" the rudder for your climate and you will be rewarded with excellent rudder performance and tracking; fail to do so and the boat will need constant correction. You want taut, not tight, but no slack in your rudder lines.

Stability: Initial stability is good and secondary stability is excellent. Even though the seat height is somewhat elevated this is no problem in turns or at any other time. I deliberately took boat wake swells on the beam to see the hull reaction. On most wide hulls the boat tilts with the wake but the Compass absorbed the wakes very nicely without a lot of rock and roll -- very impressive for a boat of this width!

Standing capability: My feeling is stand-up stability lies somewhere between the Revo 13 and the Outback, but closer to the later. It's possible I am under rating this, so I poured through all the videos and pics and could only find stand-up pics with the H-Bar accessory:



Notice that her feet are straddling the hatch, just in front of the seat where is more stability. Part of this limitation is the boat's light weight. The heavier the boat, the slower it moves from under your feet. If you're standing to fish, you want to concentrate on the fishing, not the standing, so the H-bar would be great accessory to have.

Hull characteristics: Some of the Hobie hulls are amazingly quiet and others are notoriously noisy. The Compass strikes a happy medium. At mid to higher cruising speeds the bow pushes a small amount of water, much less than the Outback. Ripples can be heard laping against the hull while underway. This is a by-product of hull volume and stability and just par for the course.

The hull handles wind and chop very well. Any spray stayed low and out of the cockpit. Even with beam chop, the seating area stayed dry. The bow area kept mostly dry heading upwind. Here's what you would expect:



Looking at the bow view, the boat has a lot of freeboard, but wind resistance is mitigated nicely by the chine bevels as shown in this view:



The Compass had no trouble zooming around with the wind surfers:



Inside the cockpit: The first thing you notice is the spaciousness. The distance to the drivewell is ample so that a reasonably tall person should have a good pedaling position. The cockpit / cargowelll separator is low enough that the seat back can be disconnected and positioned horizontally for a siesta -- you just need to bring a pillow!

Storage: One thing lacking is small item storage space. Of course you can add a gear bucket for the hatch, mesh pockets for the sides or a dry bag.

Hull storage is also limited to what you can fit in one hatch. Substituting a larger rectangular hatch is an option, and adding a bow hatch was discussed in part one. There is no aft internal storage available. On the positive side, there are fewer openings to leak. Most of us don't require much if any internal space and the cargo well is quite generous for easy access. The bow cargo area is also a great feature that is unique to the Compass -- sealed and accessible. With a longer bungee and / or some extensions you could pack quite a bit in that forward bay.

Overall, the Compass is a great all-around boat -- light weight, stable, maneuverable, with an excellent hauling capacity.

Sounds very positive so far. I'm surprised that the standing isn't as stable as an Outback, but perhaps that is because of the sharp bow angle compared to the Outback's more rounded nose. That is a trade-off I am willing to make so that I don't have to deal with the Outback's hull-slap though.

The space issue is going to be important for anglers. I know many that "need" the two front rod holders and love to take a ton of gear with them. These people almost always go Outback or Pro-Angler.
Since I fish out of a Revo, I have this covered. The space under the seat looks sufficient for a flat tackle tray, that mitigates the side pockets. The bow storage situation is ok for me since I like to put my 42-inch catch bag there anyway and I'm happy not to have anywhere water from breaking surf can get into the hull. The rear storage area is large, like a pro angler, and I think I'm going to need a larger milk crate (or H-Crate part number 72020088).

Normally I put my fishfinder battery in the rear 8" hatch, however that isn't an option here; I guess the center hatch will do double duty for me for battery storage access (slide battery under seat) and tackle storage (Hobie Gear Bucket part number 71704021).

RR does it fit in the back of your car?

_________________
Mark
Tandem Island- 2013
2 - Sports - 2014

The trunk is already full!

Thanks for the report.

It confirm my feeling about the rudder. For me it's too loose. You say you have to tune it to your temperature conditions, but here we can have 35° to 0° C along the year. Hard to imagine I'll have to tune it every change.

I think it's normal the stand-up stability is under the Outback, as the hull looks like the PA12 which is rocking a lot ( not like the PA14 which is a boat! ).

Last point IMO it's better to fit round hatch on the front, there will be no problem of leak I guess...

_________________
François - French Hobie fishing team - Outback 2019 papaya
ex: Revo 13 2007 - PA 14 2008 - PA 12 2009 - Outback 2011/2013/2015 - Compass 2017

Since "tuning the rudder is important", I added/retro fitted Hobie's rudder boa to my 2013 PA-14 for the same reason.
It seems that adding the rudder boa to the new Compass would be a good solution

The hull does "shrink or grow" based on the sun/heat/external temperature and the boa works great to either tighten or loosen the rudder's spectra line tension.

_________________
Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Warrenton, OR

I'm a new guy here and relatively new to Hobie (I picked up a 2012 Revo11 late fall last year and promptly decided that I'll never paddle again). I then sold two paddle kayaks and bought a 2016 Revo11 demo to add to my 2012. Well, 9 days later, Hobie releases the Compass and it's basically everything I wanted (wider, clean deck/layout, built-in h-tracks, lowrance ready, kick-up rudder, and affordable). So I resold the 2016 and pre-ordered a slate blue Compass. I picked it up last week and took it for it's maiden voyage/fish sliming yesterday. I'll add just a few thoughts here, to what is an excellent summary of the boat. Bear in mind, I'm a 43yo, 5'6", and below average weight. And my only real comparison is to the Revo11. I stayed away from the Outback because of its weight, lack of efficiency, and cost. For me, the Revo11 was the ultimate in portability and very efficient on the water. But it was cramped and while I could stand and cast on flat water, it was dicey in any sort of chop.

The Compass is completely stable for me - I've owned wide fishing kayaks (Ultimate/Slayer/Ride/Big Tuna) in the past and this is as stable as any of them, except maybe the Tuna. It's actually wider than I need it, but I'm smaller than their targeted buyer, so I get it. I did notice some flex in the deck, primarily under my right foot. It's not a concern for someone my weight, but those closer to the max weight should demo one and check out the one that they buy. I hooked up with my biggest fish of the day while standing and I had no problem at all maintaining balance. I did find that my right foot pressed up against the close-to-useless cup holder lip, which was uncomfortable.

I found the hull to be very efficient. I'm sure it's less efficient than the Revo, but it can't be by much. I was pleased, especially given all the stability and roominess gained. The seating position and freeboard are so much higher than the Revo, so in a large crosswind, I expect it to be pushed around a bit more. I did notice that the hull was noisier at speed than the Revo11, but it wasn't unreasonable. And the Revo11 is unbelievably quiet.

I didn't have any issue with the steering - it was easy to turn and was responsive. I'll have to monitor it in the cooler months ahead to see if it gets sloppy. Compared to the Revo11, I felt like it had about the same, if not a slightly smaller turning radius. I like that the rudder is tucked away under the boat and that it will kick up automatically. Huge advantage over the Revo11.

The layout is just awesome. While I haven't figured out the placement of all of my fishing gear, I have many options, which is nice. I opted to have a 8" hatch installed up front. I'll likely use that hatch for a fishfinder battery and maybe some random, low priority bits, below that. I considered replacing the standard 8" hatch with a rectangular hatch, in front of the seat. And I would have re-used the 8" round up front. I ultimately decided against this because I wanted nice flat sections of deck for standing, and you will certainly give that up if you install the rectangular hatch. If the cup holder wasn't on the right side, you probably could make due with the amount of deck space left, but even then it would be close. I'm also not 100% sure that you're getting a rectangular drop in box to fit inside the hull.

The seat...it's really the only thing that I have a legitimate gripe about. I used the CT seat twice before selling the 2016 Revo and I liked it a lot. Though I did find that the bottom wasn't very deep and wasn't supportive in the thigh area. I felt like my butt was barely on the CT seat. This seat is deeper and more supportive in the thighs. Other than that, this seat is inferior to the CT. Primarily because it doesn't attach as easily to the boat and it lacks lumbar, height and pitch adjustments. It's a bit of a step back to have to bungee the seat down and to attach the side straps to the hull instead of to the base. But that's not my gripe, because I understand this was all about getting the cost down. My gripe is that the seat-recline straps are about 1/2 to 1" shorter than they should be. There is basically no recline to the seat at all. I like to adjust position at times, to relieve pain points or to relax if need be. It has been suggested that I could add a carabiner to each side, which would lengthen the strap and allow me to actually use the range of adjustment in the straps, instead of being all the way back. I'd prefer have to longer straps and not have to hack a new kayak, but I will if need be.

I knew I was getting a kayak that isn't as portable as the Revo. While it isn't much heavier, it is much more difficult to load and unload for me. It is by no means a dealbreaker though. I may end up adding sturdy handles mid-boat, but I'm going to try a few things before going that route.

Hope that was at least moderately helpful for someone. I do so much lurking here, I thought I'd give back a little. LOL.

JR

Jr, welcome to the forum! Very nice review.

You mentioned the short straps on the seat. On mine, one strap was short as well. I made a short loop from Spectra and tied it to the padeye then fastened the seat strap to the loop. It worked well and I forgot to mention it in my review. Evidently Hobie needs to make some adjustments there if they haven't already.

The adjustable lumbar support is the strap in the lower back side of the seatback. Tighten it to get more lumbar. Unfortunately, this is difficult to do on the water -- much easier to adjust before you launch. I found the upper back a little loose initially and my back hit the top of the frame. There are two straps at the top of the seat back that can be tightened to give firmer upper back support. After a little adjustment, my seat back was quite comfortable. Everybody's seat requirements are different so those strap adjustments should make a difference for you.

Good point, regarding the lumbar - I messed around with it this morning. I initially didn't think of that as much of an adjustment, but it does make a difference.

Hi Jr

I found that replacing the 8" centre round hatch with the rectangular hatch actually stiffend up the deck area ahead of the seat on my 2013 Outback. The plastic is thicker and stiffer than the decking and it just about covers the whole width. I don't stand to fish (too clumsy, I'd spend more time in the water than fishing) but I think it would be easier with less flex, but I haven't seen a Compass yet to speak on its deck stiffness.