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PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:29 am 
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Location: Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK
Wow again, just wow.......... absolutely love the riser!!!

Do you have a link for the spine boards? Thanks....

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 3:49 am 
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Location: Sweden, sjöbo
Haliboo wrote:
Wow again, just wow.......... absolutely love the riser!!!

Do you have a link for the spine boards? Thanks....


Sure mate! Failed to post the link yesterday. Here it is.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Army-NAR-Spi ... 0005.m1851
The shipping for the two boards was about £40 to Sweden so that is rather acceptable. I had to email the seller to get confirmation and an invoice with the shippingcost.
The seller also has other types of boards but I went for the one above.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Army-Spinebo ... 0005.m1851
http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Army-NAR-Spi ... 0005.m1851

I think the first one has a totaly flat top as I would like it. I will post a review on the haka topic thread once its is delivered.

Glad you like my project. So far I am very satisfied apart from all the weight. The motormount, beachwheels, rails and the riser weighs about 35Lb all togheter. But I am planning this to be a "One man tandem kayak" anyway.
About 95% of the time I go solo anyway and with friends who have there own yaks. Accually I have found that sailing the TI with windspeeds above 15 knots is much more comfortable with more weight in the kayak. Very often (probably to often) I use the "Brown short technique" to judge when its time to furl the sail. LOL. (I hope to enjoy clean underware) :lol:
The TI is more planted when I have someone riding shotgun it the front.

The thought of capsizing is scary but I will have to execise and try this out. Folding the akas with all the gear on my TI will be almost impossible.
I have looked at this automaticaly inflatable mast float.
http://www.marinechandlery.com/secumar- ... loat-15979
Two versions 20 and 40 liters. Once I am done with the project I will make the TI turn over with both akas out and see how much lifting power it takes to keep the top of the mast in the surface. I hope that this would work if the TI capsizes so I can righten it more easily.
The hollow carbon fiber mast filles up with water pretty fast and thks ads to the problems with rightening the TI. AI am considering to fill the mast with foam to keep the water out. Maybe this also could help a bit.

All the best!
/Gustav

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!


Last edited by Husse0416 on Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:40 am, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 10:19 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 1:46 am
Posts: 249
Location: Sweden, sjöbo
Time is never enough...

I started off early with the last items on the "to do" list before the testride.
First I re-mounted everything to check the bolts and alignments.
The T-screws in the rails are a nice sollution but its almost impossible to see if they have rotated into the right position so they are securely fastened. I did my best to check this and also added spring/locking washers. I am not sure if the washers I had i my old storage are A4/316 but time will tell. (I just hate rust)
It was accually very easy to strip down and remount everything. Took me about 20 minutes without any haste. Only use a handful of simple tools for the mount. I will make a set of the needed tools and keep them in the TI.

Continued on with the supporting tubes/distances to strengthen the motor cross bar that I had noticed was compressing in a hazardous maner yesterday when I tightened the bolts to the front struts.
I used a piece om 25 mm stailess tube and cut out some foam from an old camping mattres to center the tube around the 8mm bolt and prevent any rattling. I put some big washers in the ends and slided it all inside the crossbar.

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They fit like a glove and it really makes a big difference. The crossbar does not show any compression at all now.

Ok job well done....
Next... time to adress the issues with fastening of the swing mechanism of the motorplate.

This took a lot more time then I enticipated... sigh....
Lots of holes to drill and align... no easy way around this.

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I welded on 8 mm flange nuts (the welds are sloppy as usual). Then messured up and drilled the holes thru the motor crossbar. There was some issues with alignings the holes correctly but it finaly fits ok.

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For the time beeing I will just use a regular caps allen bolt but later I will change them to some bolt with a handle/lever to enable easly tightening by hand.

When I tightened the bolts at the motorplate I noticed the motor crossbar compressing very much again so I just have to make similar strengthening tubes/distances for the motorplate to. :roll:

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Stomach grumbling and its allready late ... looks like I am out of time for the testride... again ... sigh... :cry:
Well then I can finish the last details this evening and start out tomorrow morning for a full day on the water. I just long to get out there and do some fishing. (Over a week now since I got my lines wet!! Starting to get "the shakes". Angler withdrawal syndrome!!)
A full day out gives me more time to testrun the motor too. I got to read the manual tonight.

But first I am heading for the kitchen... got to get fed!!
:mrgreen:
/Gustav

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:10 pm 
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Location: Sweden, sjöbo
Oboy... this was a looong day!

Started early and made the distances for the motorplate, made in the same way as the others. Seems to work fine and the the plate is much stronger now.

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So finaly I had to finish the stainless steel crossbar for the beachwheels that also holds the motormount.

Something looks very strange with this picture!!?? Rod welding and plastic kayaks dont mix!! :lol:

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To enable to keep the exact position I wanted to tack weld the base for the beachwheels in place while mounted in the rails.
I put wet towels around the weld points to protect the kayak....
All went well and I could unscrew the base and do the rest of the welds and also added two more welded nuts to fasten the motor crossbsr.

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I weighed all the new hardware. The total weight of the wheelstand with wheels, motormount and the rails is about 15kgs (30Lb).
Could be worse... :shock:
Remounted everything and checked all the bolts again.
After a short lunch I finaly was of to the local lake.

I had planned to do some fishing but the clock was allready late and the motor had to get "broken in".
Mercury instructions state the first hour only run the motor max half speed/2000 rpm and the second hour max 3/4 speed with short burst of full speed. And I remembered to fill engineoil in the brand new motor.... :roll:

Nice to finaly arrive at the beach.

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I geared up and headed out. I added a safety leash to the motor... you can never be careful enough. I like scuba diving but a leash is easier.
A bit windy today but still warm in the evening sun.
The motor started fine. The next 2 hours I cruised around the lake to brake in the engine.

The stearing was kind of weird. Very hard to stear with the motor. Maybe its the long shaft on the engine or just the lenght if the TI?
Anyway the regular rudder worked great.

In gear on idle the speed is just under 2 knots.
The noise is no problem on idle. For longer runs I will use earplugs anyway but noise is ok and the exhaust thru the prop helps.


At 1/4 throttle the speed is around 4-5 knots and the kayak handles very well. Good cruising speed.
On 1/2 throttle the speed is abou 7-8 knots but a lot of water gushes up thru the front scupper holes and the from Mirage port. The kayak also start to dig down i the rear still not to bad.
I was riding solo and had no weight in the front. Some more weight in the fron could help I guess.



I will go for a new testride soon and load up the kayak in the front and also plug the scupperholes and seal the mirage port a little.

After a while took a short brake and turned off the motor.... thats accually the best ting with motors... the silence when you turn them off ! Supernice!! :D

At the beach I shifted the akas to the rear position. I hoped this would improve speed and handling.

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And yes there is a little bit of improvement but not fully. Still needs more weight in front.



Less water gushing in but speed did not improve.
Max speed is about 11 knots at 3/4 throttle and does not improve at full throttle. The kayak just digs down more.

So am I happy with the testride?
Sure yes!
The motormount is rock solid!! Nice!
I will check all the bolts tomorrow but it sure seems like a good build.
Does the 5Hp Merc perform? Yah sort of. Room for improvement working with the weight and balance of the yak. I hope that plugging the scuppers etc. will also help.
A smaller engine 3,5Hp would nearly be just as good and save a lit of weight. I doubt the extra Hp does very much. Maybe I get get better perfomance at lower revs and keeping the noise level down a bit.
Had I found a lighter smaller engine with external tank option, reverse gear and exhaust thru the propeller it would definately be a better choice.

Is the long shaft a good choice?
Not sure. I think the roastertail and splashing is reduced. My rear compartment was pretty dry. For my setup the long shaft is better when combined whith the foldable beachwheels. The shallow position is to high and the prop just cavitates, so thats pretty much unusable.
So for most users I would recommend a short rig.

I will manufacture a prop guard so I can navigate i the shallows without fear of damage to the prop. The prop guard will reduce power a bit but power is allready plenty.

I am planning a new testride/fishingtrip in a few days. Its so great to "get out there"! Then I will combine the sail with the motor.

First I have to get my fishfinders mounted!!
I had reports of the BFT tuna arriving and I guess the bonitos to!

So the next thing on the project is to mount the double rails under the mid aka crossbar, and to mount the middle rail system that will hold most of the electronics.
Lets get to it....
:)

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!


Last edited by Husse0416 on Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:48 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 1:46 am
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Location: Sweden, sjöbo
Water leakage thru the Hobie hatches....

Yesterday I hardly had any water in the kayak and still at times there were about 10cm (4") of water over the front hatch. I figured this would happen so before I set of for the test run I prepared the hatches. I ceaned the grooves and put new silicone grease on the rubberrings and assured there were in the right position.

Today I see again that the rubberrings allready has rotated and are twirled. Unfortunately Hobie has made the groove in the hatches a little to wide and this lets the rubberrings to slip and rotate. (Shape up Hobie!)

Too cure this problem I will try this fix.
I put a small amount of Sikaflex in the grooves of the hatch to stabilize the rubberrings. Put on the Sikaflex with a small tops and tried to keep it tidy. I carefully smeared the thin layer of Sikaflex as evenly as possible and wiped off the excess från the edges of the hatch before reinserting the rubberrings.

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I hope that the Sikaflex will keep the rubberring in place in the right position.
Then I put silicone grease on the edge of the hatch as usual.

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I will report back if this was a succes (or maybe a total failiure).
It sure would be good to know that you can rely on the hatches not leaking.
/Gustav

EDIT: 2017-08-19
Degrease the grove in the hatch and the rubber carefully before applying the Sikaflex!! (I use etanol)

After opening and closing the hatches about 50 times the rubber rings stay in place in the correct position all the time. No leakage from the hatches at all, none, nill, nada, zinch!! :mrgreen:
I have drenched the hatches hard with the garden hoose and it has been raining the last few days and the kayak is still bone dry.
Seems to work so I am very happy with this fix. :lol:
Sikaflex usually grips hard and stay on good. I dont know for how long it will hold but if needed I can allways peel of the Sikaflex and redo the fix.
All the best!

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!


Last edited by Husse0416 on Sat Aug 19, 2017 8:41 am, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:19 pm 
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Location: Sweden, sjöbo
Ok time to continue the project.

Next up are the rails and handlebars in the middle.
I am planning to mount the aluminiumrails under the "middle" aka crossbar. Removing the crossbar and drill thru the aluminium railplate and fasten the aka crossbar again ontop with longer bolts. This will raise the crossbar by 16mm. I am a bit worried about the lenght of the longer bolts and how they will be able to handle the forces from the akas. :shock:
I guess I will notice if the bolts brake!! :lol:

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On the starboard side at the front end of the rail it is almost impossible to fasten it with bolts thru the plastic hull. Sadly the dagger board slot takes up all the room under the gunwale. I will try to utilise the two brass nuts that are molded into the hull that otherwise hold the rear end of the dagger board cowl. Also I will use a fair amount of Sikaflex to glue down the rails properly.

I cut up the main pieces and ruffly "mocked up" the layout to get a feel of how it will turn out.
I think this will work. :)

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Looks pretty nice. The stainless handle bars will be good to grab when getting up from the seat. They will also serve for mounting some of the electronics. Ontop of the bars I will try to place a removable fishing/fighting chair. The rails will hold mounts to some of the fish finder transducers that can be folded down into the water on the sides.

Tomorrow I will work out how to get all this hardware securely mounted.
When this is finished I can finaly start to install some of the electronics. I sure have been missing my fishfinder.
So much to do... so little time...
:mrgreen:

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!


Last edited by Husse0416 on Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:12 pm 
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Posts: 380
And here i am trying to figure out how i want to mount my H-rails.... this build is epic. Just waiting for the carbon fiber to come out.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:40 pm 
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Location: Sweden, sjöbo
Defy wrote:
And here i am trying to figure out how i want to mount my H-rails.... this build is epic. Just waiting for the carbon fiber to come out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks mate!
No carbon planned! :lol:
I lack the skills and eqipment for vacummolding of carbon but it sure would save a lot of weight!
Steel, aluminium and glassfibre/resin is cheep and easy to work with.
I will have to do some reinforcing with g/f resin later on in the project when I do the front mount for the electric trolling motor.
But in my dreams I can vision a Tandem Island copy/remake with an entire carbon hull, well its just a wet dream. :roll:

The H rail system is very nice. If I could order the plain H-rail tubing and connections sockets etc to fabricate the details I need I would gladly use that system but they sadly only sell a few sets of rails without much option for customising.
I use 1" stainless aisi 316 tubing, 1,2 mm thickness for the handlebars and rear riser. Its pretty cheep, easy to weld if needed and fairly strong.

I will keep on posting as the project continues. Vacation ends soon but I still have a week to work on the TI3.
Still much left to do.... :?
All the best!
/Gustav.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:04 pm 
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Yeah i have a PA 17 and got a discount when i bought it on all the h-accessories so i have a ton. So adding the rail makes sense for me. In you situation its not cost effective.

Carbon fiber is hard to do if you want it too look good but otherwise its just like fiberglass. I made a lens hood once for a Nikon 400 2.8 lens cause Nikon wanted 600 for a new one. Cost 50 bucks in material.

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Didn't look so hot but it was strong. So don't give up on carbon yet!


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 12:29 am 
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Defy wrote:
Yeah i have a PA 17 and got a discount when i bought it on all the h-accessories so i have a ton. So adding the rail makes sense for me. In you situation its not cost effective.

Carbon fiber is hard to do if you want it too look good but otherwise its just like fiberglass. I made a lens hood once for a Nikon 400 2.8 lens cause Nikon wanted 600 for a new one. Cost 50 bucks in material.

Didn't look so hot but it was strong. So don't give up on carbon yet!


Nice work with the carbon!! :D
Well I might give it a try further down the line! :) Its allways fun to learn new things and techniques.
I will be molding a cowl covering the deck in front of the mast to spread the forces of the 55Lb Motorguide xi5 that will be mounted at the starboard side just in front of the mast. On top of this "hood" I will add a mounting plate/bracket for the electric motor.
I am making a mold for the bulid later on in the project. Started off just when I had the TI delivered before summer and made the plaster cast of the area but since then I have had no time yet to make the positive mould. Will get to work on it in the next few weeks.

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Thanks for the carbon idea, the cowl would for sure be stronger and look great in carbon.

Time go get out into the workshop! I just love the mornings!
/Gustav

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:04 am 
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Continuing the work with the dubble railsystem and the handlebars.

The 1" rail fittings unfortunately dont have the same width for the bolts as the dubble railsystem. :(
Wish I was that lucky but this is the "real world" governed by "Mr Murphy"and his associates. :lol:

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I want to have the option to easily remove the handlebars if needed in the same manner as I can do with most of all the rest of the "junk" on the yak. So puttings bolts all the way thru the rails is not really a good option.

I figured a small plate clamping down on the rail fittings would do the job. T-nuts securing the plates is just perfect.
I trimmed down the corners of the rail fittings and cut and drilled all the plates. Lots of holes to drill.. took a fair amount of time!! :roll:

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I testmounted one of the handlebars to get a look of the result. Well this wont win any design awards but I guess it will do the job just fine.
The attachment is at least really solid.

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Just one problem.... well its accually four small problems...
When making the small plates for some reason (stupidity I guess) I only did 4 pcs of them.... yes I need EIGHT!!

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So I owe one more session in the workshop before dinner!!
:mrgreen:

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 10:30 am 
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Finaly the double rails are mounted! Phew!!

Started of finishing the clamps for the handrails. I am rather satisfied with the sollution. :)

Went on with the mounting of the double rails. Seemed like a quick job but it accually took me all day to get it right. :roll:
Fighting the rain during the day was not very comfortable and took some time of the work. :cry:

It is allways hard to messure up the holes from allready fixed nuts. Also the brassnuts that are casted into the plastic are not straight and the bolt are pointing in different angels, propbably caused by the shrinking of the HDPE in the colling process.
Anyway after a decent amount of swearing and faul laguage I finaly got it right. :oops:
I managed to use all eight of the original brass nuts and only had to drill four new holes in my yak. :D
Somehow its just not a good feeling to drill holes in a brand new "toy"! :|

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I put Sikaflex under the rails as I did with the rear rails but only large washers on the inside for the four 5mm bolts thru the hull. I figure the loads/forces on theese rails wont be as high on theese rails.

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Some of the bolts will that are a bit to long will be exchanged tomorrow when I tighten upp all the bolts but otherwise this job is all done and I can now continue with mounting electronics and other fun stuff!

Fishfinders, transducers, batterymonitor and VHF are all waiting to be mounted.
:mrgreen:

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 12:29 am 
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Last two days of my vacation....
I wanted to take a short trip up to the west coast for some fishing. This time of year we somtimes get bonitos so that would be the target.... Unfortunately the winds will be ruff this weekend, up to 25 knots knots in the gusts, making the sea pretty ruff so I will prospone the trip untill next weekend. :cry:

Continuing on with the build instead, still lots left to do. :)

Will work on the front motormount for the Xi5 today.
I have an idea about the layout of the mount. As the rest of the accessory hardware on the TI3 I want the mount to be easily removable.
I am thinking about mounting two bimini deck hinges ontop of the front aka crossbar to make two fastening points at the rear om the mount. I will then fabricate a double sandwich plate from stainless plate steel or aluminium and connect it to the rear hinges. The double plate sandwich will be supported by a g/f resin cast covering the deck area between the aka crossbar and the front hatch. The double plate sandwich will be screwed down and secures to the g/f resin cowl. This should keep the rather heavy electric motor ( 38 Lbs! :shock: ) stable without risking any damage to the hull.
The shaft of the motor will be about 50cm (25") in front of the mast. It will still be manageble to deploy the motor standing on the tramp and I hope that the motor will manage to hold the kayak in position even with the wind pushing at the mast. :o
(The Hobie Islands allways want to swing around with the mast downwind)

Sun is up, coffe is brewing, this will be a good day!!
Lets start with removing the masking tape from the rails and check out the results from yesterday!
:mrgreen:

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:00 am 
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Wonder if you turned the amas around, facing backwards, if you would get extra buoyancy in the rear and the boat would flatten out? Love the mods. Thanks for all the posts.

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“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:19 am 
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vetgam wrote:
Wonder if you turned the amas around, facing backwards, if you would get extra buoyancy in the rear and the boat would flatten out? Love the mods. Thanks for all the posts.


Hi Greg!
Thanks for the feedback! :)
I just got in from the workshop for a cup of coffe and a short brake. :)

Nope I only tried the amas in the rear position so far facing the right way. That gives some extra boyancy aswell.
I think the amas might submarine if you turn them around considering the shape of the stern end of the amas.
I will give it a try when I have the opportunity just for fun but I doubt it will work very well.

Rear boyancy dont seem to be a big issue after all. With the 50Lbs OB + myself in the back seat (and no weight in the front) the TI was pretty dry i the rear compartment.

I might try to design a pair of small foldable hydrofoils (the kind usually mounted on OB motors) and mount them at the stern to get better handling when going fast with the OB. I dont think a regular hydrofoil mounted on the OB will work because of the side mounted/offset motor position.

Time to get back in the workshop!
All the best!
/Gustav

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