My opinion is go with the TI, it can handle way more weight, doesn't weigh much more than a AI2 (very little). Most of us use trailers anyway so launching and rigging time is the same with an ai or a ti. My wife and I are long time kayakers and both have always loved kayak sailing hobie mirage kayaks. We often go great distances exloring rivers, and the backwaters in the keys, (we live in SWFL and the keys). When we had a pair of matching Revos, we also had an oasis. It takes twice as long to get two (sometimes 3) kayaks down and ready (yea I do all the work).
There is a huge difference in our physical abilities. I think 80% we would go say a few hrs up a river and my wifes legs turned to jello, so I would end up towing her home most of the time. After a while we started using the tandem oasis all the time, and the singles just ended up sitting in the garage. In 2010 we bought our first TI, basically replacing the oasis. For kayaking (no big sail or ama's) the TI is way nicer and way faster than the Oasis ever hoped for, and is actually easier for me to get on the roof than our oasis was (because it's longer and you only ever need to lift 1/2 the hull anyway. I weighed our Oasis and it was a tad under 90 lbs, and our TI (hull only, not including ama's, seats, etc) weighed 100 lbs. plus it took way less time to get just one boat down and all rigged an setup vs our previous 2-3 (one Oasis and two revos, all with sail kits). We sometimes have four people along anyway (sometimes more). We eventually sold all the other boats and only have the TI now, ( our family boat). We have way over 250k road miles now with hobies on the roof and camper in tow. We drop in any body of water we can find (even mild class 2 rapids once in a while). We have the tramps on ours, and have had up to 6 people on it several times (obviously way overloaded with that many so we stay in safe waters, and not far from shore). We are mostly divers and snorklers. When we have way too many people we have an inflatable dingy and two inflatable kayaks that we tow behing the TI for all the gear, coolers, and extra folks. Lol we have towed 4 single kayaks, plus the dingy several times now (we call it the party barge). The TI single hands no different from the AI2. When tandem you have full sail controls from either seat, and my wife and I always take turns sailing the boat. However I have to warn you about a very serious thing....it's called fake peddling. We can be peddling on a long day (we are sometimes out ten or more hrs), and the boat just seems to be crawling (we are both pretty spent by then), I call back are you peddling,,, "Yes", boat doesn't change speed, I call back again, are you peddling,,,"yes",,,,, I stop peddling and the boat stops,,,,,haha got ya. She does that to me all the time, to be honest I don't really care, I enjoy the company, and the boat pedals and glides like a dream even with just one person peddling. Your goin to have a lot of fun. FE
|