Check out some trips that I've done with the boat.
Texas 200 2016
Photos - https://www.flickr.com/photos/chadbach/albums/72157669512125092
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUleDjy3CPg
Sailing with Dolphins, Corpus Christy Bay
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2ODnZa2vus
Texas 200 2017
Photos - https://www.flickr.com/photos/chadbach/albums/72157685273775725
Intro and the Boat
Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself and thank everyone for the great ideas and shared knowledge on these forums. I have come from growing up around power boats when I was a kid, to kayaking the local lakes and rivers, and now have gotten into sailing thanks to the Hobie Island. I've owned my 2014 TI for a little over a year and have been lurking/learning on here ever since. I'm in the San Antonio, TX area and try to get out to Canyon Lake every week or so.
I thought I'd share my take on some of the mods that I learned about on this site.
First up is my set of haka benches with pivoting mounts that allow the akas to fold without removal.
Here they are in the folded position:
And here is the port side with the akas extended:
Here's a shot of a mount, which is basically a two hole pipe clamp bolted to an aluminum plate:
The top plate (the plate on the left) acts as a big washer and gives the haka a smooth surface to rotate on. It gets sandwiched between the bottom plate and the haka bench
A 5/16" stainless steel bolt is then ran through the bench and through the mount and secured with a nylon nut.
My goal was to minimize time at the boat ramp rigging and un-rigging the boat, which also brings me to my next mod, bungee-less ama retention. This idea came from another member on the forum - http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=46952
I basically did the same thing mentioned in the previous link. I made the retention devices out of HDPE cutting board that I picked up at the grocery store. I was going to use stainless wing nuts to hold them on, but decided to try making my own out of the same cutting board. I cut out the "wing nuts", drilled and tapped a 1/4" hole and screwed them down onto a 1/4" bolt that protrudes from the ama bungee fitting.
Here a shot of my hiking stick, which is an adjustable broom handle with a 1/4" stainless steel eye-bolt bolted to the end and threaded into the steering handle.
Lastly, for now, are my homemade spray skirts, which are also rigged to allow the folding of the akas without removal.
The boat is almost as fun modding as it is sailing. I plan to do a few more things before I'm done with her.
Edit: images fixed... kind of a pain hosting images with dropbox.