Just got my TI on Friday. I feel like I already have earned some experience
My two questions so far:
1) For those who use the scupper cart with the cradle, whats your secret to putting it on at the end of the day? We did a lot of struggling to finally get it in there and it wasn't the most graceful thing. I was hoping to launch and retrieve this boat all by myself but at this point I'm not sure I could handle it alone until I can get the technique of that. The boat is simply too heavy to lift and roll with the cart in the 'easy rear holes, but very very difficult to get the cart plugged into the front holes. I tried to put the cart under the boat while in the water and the beach wheels were so buoyant, it was nearly impossible to get it lined up. I am wondering if I made the correct cart choice...
2) What is the reasonable conditions or indicators that make you furl your sail? And how much mast flex is OK? We really got ripping a couple of times in what I would guess were 15-20 MPH puffs, and the mast really bent over, perhaps to 25-30 degrees. I was worried and furled it a turn, but then the wind died so we put it back out. Rinse and repeat. What indications do you use to tell you that you need to furl sail on this boat?
So the rest of the long story is below.........................................:
Friday evening my wife and I took the boat out and sailed it for the first time - light winds, but we did notice one of the akas kept coming loose from the crossbar. sure enough, in my garage I can pull it loose with a few up & down tugs that simulate the forces of tacking left & right. My dealer promptly responded monday morning to my email so I feel confident that Hobie is on it based on other info I've read here. I tied some paracord keeper lines on all 4 corners that night as we did actually have the ama fold in on us in (luckily) light winds.
Saturday was my friends birthday, and my wife was working, so I took him out on the new boat. We had a total blast, sailed over 15 miles in bay and coastal waters. A few hours into it I think we were both feeling fairly confident and I made the mistake of coming around a tack without first having him sit back in the seat from the tramp. Well, with 200 Lbs of dude on the downwind tramp and some pretty decent winds, we promptly flipped the boat
. Luckily I have been doing some reading on these forums for some time and I had an idea of what to do about it, we almost had it righted once by ourselves, except my friend was pulling on a bungee and it snapped loose, sending the boat turtle again. We started the process again and at this time, the local harbor patrol had already pulled up (maybe 2 minutes after the flip? very quick!) and one of their guys jumped in and helped us get enough weight on the folded-in side to right it quickly. Lesson learned, and I'm glad I was not either alone or with my wife the first time that happened. We gave the harbor patrol a shout on the VHF afterwards to offer another thanks, I think they were surprised we had a radio at all.
Anyways, it's great to be here and actually have the boat in my garage rather than watch all of you guys have fun on the internet