Will be in Sarasota area in Jan thru Feb

I will be spending some time in Fl in jan. and Feb. to visit the Grand Kids in Osprey. I will be staying in the Sarasota area and plan to trailer my new Al down. It would be great if I could find some folks to sail with that know the area.Let me know if anyone is interested.

Ken
2010 Al
2008 i12s

I'm out in Sarasota bay most weekends on my yellow TI (the only one out there with a jib and spinaker). I always launch from the park right next to Sarasota Yacht club on City Island (nice bunch of people), near St Armands circle. You can back your vehicle right next to the water and launch from there. It's protected from the wind a little so you don't have to contend with surf and wind when launching (verses beach launching, parking is also a pain pretty much everywhere else (in season)). There is another launch just south at South Lido park, but be advised Lido is pretty shallow for quite a ways out (great for paddlers but not so fun with mirage drives, I hate paddling). Plus I have a motor on my rig (not allowed at Lido) that I use for emergency only, I've been caught a couple times now out at sea when the wind died, or rudder broke, and the motor really came in handy ( It's a small 20 lb Kamo motor (http://ioutboardmotors.com/20hpoutboard4cycle.html)). I ran aground and broke the rudder cable 4 miles west of Key west, and had to motor home (not fun)
There are plenty of fun places to kayak/sail in the area. The local Hobie dealer is Economy Tackle in Sarasota (nice bunch of people), they may be willing to help organize outings with other AI and TI owners.
Bob
1 2010 TI
1 2008 revolution

correction:
I launch from the park next to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron (not the yacht club) on City Island.

Thanks Bob, I have been to the sailing club before, nice people and a nice facility. I hope the weather is better then it was last Jan, Feb. A friend of mine belongs to the club, I may try and keep the AI and trailer there when I come down, so that would work out great.
Ken

Ken,
Osprey is a half hour or so from my place, so if you want to come down to the Charlotte Harbor area, let me know.

There are a few good ramps to launch into the harbor, and if it's too windy and cold for harbor sailing, I sail in the creek right behind my house.

Bob,
I'd like to check out your jib and spinnaker arrangement. I put a jib on my Adventure Island, but have found that if there is enough wind to make me want to go sailing, it is not needed, and if there is not enough wind, it does not really change things.

Thanks Tom, I may take you up on that. I wish I could have made it down to watch the Suncat ationals, I have a Precision 16.5, but I have always liked the Suncat.
I'm looking forward to getting out of the snow here in Indianapolis and sailing my AI. Have a Great Holiday everyone.

ken

Tom:
Below is a pic of my Tandem Island rig. The line in the front is the pull up line for the 135 sq ft assymmetric spinnaker, the sail works great in low winds anywhere from 90 deg to 270 deg. The second sail is the 120% Genoa furled up (about 35-40 sq ft), the mast has been stiffened slightly to help improve upwind performance, I can now sail around 20-25 degrees off with the mainsail only(used to be 45 at best). The gas motor is a 20 lb 4 stroke (2 hp) for emergencies only, it mounts in the rod holders on 2 3/8 steel rods through PVC pipe. The winds in Sarasota are mostly too light so I added all the sails not to go fast but just so I can sail on days where it would be hard to get anywhere ( < 8-10mph winds most days) with just the standard sail. I have over 500 miles on the boat without any major problems so far (except the rudder line breaking a couple times, before making the mod). The Genoa sail is a little too much sail for the boat in more than 12 mph winds unless you have it furled in some (reefed), otherwise the boat becomes Nautilus (the front totally submerged the day I took this pic in a 18 mph gust). I have the bow re-enforced to withstand 1600 lbs of pull ( I'm a design engineer), thats the only mod I have made to the boat itself besides stiffening the mast just a little. The mast top is a 1 1/4 dia brass drain tube over the mast end which allows the main mast to spin freely, and holds the tops of the jib and spinnaker (pretty simple design) . The jib is roto furling, and the spinnaker uphaul line you can see right next to the mainsail (accessible from the cockpit).

Bob

[img]<object%20name="Slideshow"%20id="Slideshow"%20width="425"%20height="425"%20align="middle"%20codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab"%20classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param%20name="movie"%20value="http://www.shutterfly.com/flashapps/flashslideshow/Slideshow.swf"%20/><param%20name="flashvars"%20value="configurl=http%3A%2F%2Fws.shutterfly.com%2Fshare%2Fexternal_slideshow_config%3Fsid%3D0CZs2jVs2asnPg"%20/><param%20name="allowscriptaccess"%20value="always"%20/><embed%20id="Slideshow"%20%20width="425"%20height="425"%20name="Slideshow"%20align="middle"%20%20quality="high"%20%20type="application/x-shockwave-flash"%20%20flashvars="configurl=http%3A%2F%2Fws.shutterfly.com%2Fshare%2Fexternal_slideshow_config%3Fsid%3D0CZs2jVs2asnPg"%20%20pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"%20%20allowscriptaccess="always"%20%20allowfullscreen="true"%20%20bgcolor="#869ca7"%20%20src="http://www.shutterfly.com/flashapps/flashslideshow/Slideshow.swf"></embed></object><p%20style="width:425px;margin-top:0;text-align:center;"><a%20href="http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CZs2jVs2asnPg&eid=118">Click%20here%20to%20view%20these%20pictures%20larger</a></p>[/img]

Picture did not come through, Bob.

Tom
Hopefully this works

Bob,
Here is your pic. Very impressive rig.

Certainly a very impressive rig - but likely to go unnoticed by most due to strange thread heading

_________________
Mickey
2016 AI Hibiscus
purchased NEW Nov 2021 - My 5th
Adventure Island Sailing since 2008

Agreed Mickey. Those mods deserve their own post.
How about it Bob?

Stringy:
That would be fun, but I wouldn't know how to do that, or what to call it ('Bobs really cool Hobie TI', or 'Way better than a WETA'), I also have a really hard time posting pictures to this sight.
As I mentioned earier I'm a inventor/design engineer, thats what I do for my work, my Hobie TI and sailing is my escape from all that and for my own enjoyment only since moving to Sarasota Florida 3 yrs ago. I can't help myself when it comes to designing stuff and new ideas (pretty boring to most people, especially my wife). I designed and made the Genoa and Spinaker sails myself (total cost around $150), and they work way better than I could have ever imagined (studied and read as many books as possible for almost two years before proceeding).
In the last post I mentioned that because of the extra sail loading the front of the boat dives underwater, well I'm happy to announce that I solved that problem by converting the front Mirage drive into a hydrofoil (Don't give me credit, the Hobie mirage drive already has one of the most efficient hydrofoil designs I have seen (thats how it works), I am only locking the attack angle to my advantage without putting additional stress on the drive unit(the hull bottom gets the added stress)) , the bow now rides high enough in the water, and no longer dives (and my butt is not underwater). The mod was so simple, all I did was attach a couple small plastic braces onto the the mirage fins, when the fins are up against the bottom of the boat the braces tilt them down slightly, this creates enough lift to raise the bow just enough to keep my butt dry, and the boat actually seems a little faster when hydrofoiling (probably imagined) but thats not my main concern, I'm just tired of a wet butt and getting soaked all the time especially in the winter and 60 degree water. There doesn't seem to be any extra drag from the braces when not hydrofoiling, and the pedal system works almost as well as before to propel the boat (you just start pedaling again). The cool part is you turn them on and off by just locking the pedal in the forward position ( I use my foot, or the bungie) This pretty much solved my Nautilus problems, total cost $10 dollars. With 265 sq ft of sail area (about the same sail area as a WETA boat) I think the boat will do ok speedwise in lighter winds (I'm not a hardcore sailer, I don't go out in rough seas or high winds at all).
I'm concerned if people start trying to do some or all of these mods without understanding the underlying engineering and careful attention to the design limitations of the boats design/materials and stresses involved, it will be a disaster.
I doubt many people are interested in the hobby mods to my boat (pretty boring reading). It takes me 35 minutes to unload the boat from on top of the car and set up with all my gadgets, motor, rigging, and mods, my wife won't go out with me because of that, so I don't wish this curse on anyone else. Below is a pic of the Mirage drive hydrofoil mod.
Bob

Wow Bob! Brilliant
I can understand your concerns but there would be many on these forums who would be very interested in your ideas and mods!
It's from these types of ideas that the product gets improved.
I don't use facebook but the problem with your pics is that you are posting the link to the facebook pic and not the original pic hosting site. I use Tinypic http://www.tinypic.com/ which is free and doesn't require registration. Upload your pic, copy the IMG link and paste it into your post.
Your mods are well worthy of their own posts in the Accessories, Mods, Ideas forum where I guarantee you will get a response.
Genoas, spinnakers, bracing, reinforcing, foils, outboards - all incredible stuff and each deserves a separate post.
Please reconsider!!!!!

Yes, Bob -- great stuff! there are a bunch of tinkerers around here that post all kinds of custom projects -- booms, modified rudders, barber haulers, etc. etc. don't be shy!