New scupper drains

Here are some pictures of the new scupper drains on a 2015 Revolution. I'm assuming they will be the same on the TI/AI. One of the pictures shows a TI cradle laying on the overturned hull. Another shows a piece of 1.5" pvc pipe in the scupper groove.
The piece that lies in the scupper groove appears to extend up into the scupper as a hollow cylinder.
In other words, it's all one piece of plastic. It looks like the whole thing is held in by two screws but the dealer could not tell me if it was otherwise attached with any kind of adhesive. Fortunately, the screws are into molded in nipples as with other fittings and do not breach the hull if removed.
I'm hoping that this piece can be removed completely and easily. It makes sense that it would be removable because of the need to replace it if damaged. I will certainly take mine off immediately. Not only do they hit the cradle , but they also interfere with PVC bunks. Someone mentioned in another thread that you can move the bunk over on that side. This would change the way the boat aligns and stays centered on the bunks. I'm planning to call Hobie and get an answer on whether the drains can just be pulled out after removing the screws.
Hope this is useful to others who are wondering about this new feature.

Considering that the new seat keeps your butt out of the seat tub, what purpose do they serve? You want them open all the time. Any water that splashes in just runs back out. Any water that remains, due to the same outside water level, is no longer a problem - your butt isn't in it. Take 'em out and forget them. You don't need them.

Yes, I am also not keen on the new scupper drains on the AI/TI. A friend who saw them said they were great, just pull the line and the water drains out. As Tom says, why bother with them. If you are sailing in any kind of chop, you are going to have water splashing into the cockpit/seat area. It is going to fill up and, if you don't like a gallon or 2 of water sloshing around below your seat, you will need to pull the release to drain the area--constantly! Why bother on an AI/TI. Now, if you are simply using your boat to fish from, and are on some back water pond with a few ripples, then the drain plugs will keep water out. In similar situations, they may be useful. But, for an AI/TI, I just don't see any use for them.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

The drain can be cleated open. I'm not sure about the usefulness of this new setup myself, at least in warm waters.

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

I was just testing you guys. I think you have overlooked the many possible uses of this new "feature".

Examples:

During the EC it will prevent baby snakes and alligators from crawling up the scupper tube to nest in the seat well.

It can be an important task for your significant other to perform. " While underway, it's very important that you pull that handle every three minutes"

If you happen to be passing over a whale that is about to blow ........

In Texas, it keeps our firearms dry and ammunition doesn't fall through the scupper. And the seat well can be used to ice down beer for the beach party.

In Australia we ..........

- Chris

I did view a new 2015 11 foot Revo yesterday and only recall seeing one scupper drain in the seat well. My worry would be that perhaps one small drain won't be enough if a lot of water is coming into the cockpit. I know that on my present AI and TI, I sometimes have so much water come in all at once that it takes a few seconds for it all to drain back out. If the number of scupper drains has been reduced, this could be a problem under certain conditions. But I have no idea how many drains will be on the new AI and TI models.

There's just the one on the AI, I'll start with it cleated open. The seat well isn't as bowl shaped, so it looks like more water will drain out the drivewell.
Surf launches on my old boat always flooded the cockpit, and drained too slowly for my liking. Hopefully, with the flatter seat well there won't be as much pooling to begin with.

As a Design Engineer myself, I see a lot of designs and innovations that are done more because they are cool and neat in someone's mind with great influence over the product's (they are called pet projects) vs practical and actually useful and relevant , and whomever's idea it was kind of pushes it down the pipeline, I see this all the time. I think the automatic scupper drains is one of those projects (a non-existent problem that was solved (too little too late)....). In the case of the old AI design, well the seat was below the waterline and water clearly purged up and filled the seat well, however on the TI ( and nearly all kayak designs since, the problem was solved by not designing the seat bottom below the waterline to begin with. Another reason for the CT Vantage seats is because they naturally sit higher. Bottom line Hobie had a design flaw on the original AI (not the TI) with the seat area below the waterline and has been living with and fighting for literally years, this flaw has influenced pretty much all subsequent kayak designs (they now know to never do that again). Unfortunately this fix is 10 yrs too late, and no longer useful (was solved by other means long ago).
The siphoning drain is one of those pet projects that solves an old problem that is actually no longer relevant, and just needlessly adds cost for no reason to the boats.

Here is the real reason it's there:

Many of us are using PVC pipe bunks mounted on 11 inch centers to hold our boats on our trailers, which is a much more practical on boats like the AI/TI vs the cradles that Hobie promotes for their boats.
Think about it, pretty much any TI that gets mounted on a trailer, or is stored in a garage/kayak racks needs to be cradled. Hobie cannot make any money on $10 dollars of PVC pipe, but they make money hand over fist on the $400 to $500 cradles sets. Designing a part that protrudes into 11" center runners (on pretty much every Hobie kayak) pretty much puts a kibosh on any PCV runner designs, and forces everyone to purchase the $500 Hobie cradle sets (problem solved for Hobie).
Hopefully the drain unit protruding from the bottom can be removed, as it serves no purpose, except to force everyone to buy the very expensive cradle system that Hobie pushes (purely for profit).
As an example, look at pretty much every boat trailer and boat out there on the market, pretty much all of them have cradles that run the length of the boat vs sideways across the hull. To the best of my knowledge Hobies cradles are a strange oddity unique only to Hobie.
My 2 cents.

Anonymous

My Hobie dealer told me they were having to replace their display stands and no longer store on the floor for fear of the scupper drain deforming the hull in the heat of their showroom. This doesn't bode well for what might happen out in the sun on a hard surface.

Yes it really looks like a "pet" or Junior Engineer's project unless cradle sales had something to do with it. The plastic piece on the bottom does little more than form the attachment point for the bungee that pulls the rubber ball down. After looking at it, I thought of several other ways to do the same thing without the hull protrusion. But why bother for something fundamentally useless ?

- C

Most hulls, when loaded, may leave the floor below water line. The drain allows for one-way flow of the water due to the Venturi effect of the fitting below the water.

PA floors are not an issue, so the fitting was not used.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

They are impact resistant and can be removed / replaced.

Unless you are very light weight and don't load the hull... or would not mind using a bailing bucket... I would not remove or cap off.

On most models, the part is recessed into the channel and not an issue related to setting the boat on the ground.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I was pretty excited when seeing this-- a worthy replacement of my Duct Tape venturi scuppers, that worked, but weren't one way.
I'll get my 15 AI in the water on friday for sturgeon and can't wait to see how it works out. Anchoring stern first in the current i'm thinking i'll have to snub down the ball to keep water backflowing into the seat area, but we'll see.

I'm fiddling with the bunks tonight to see if there's any worry about that bit that pokes out hitting them

They look to be something to get in the way for those that transport using the parallel PVC cradle method, so glad to see they can be removed.

Why all the hand-wringing? If you use the PVC tubes for bunks, just cut a section out of the PVC to accommodate the new Venturi Drain. Go look at the dealer's new display stands to see how it's done. No big deal. If you can't find an example of the cutout to look at, contact [email protected] and we'll send you a photo.

Hi

If you make a cutout in the tube bunks is it possible that you might break the Venturi off when sliding the kayak on and off the trailer?

I'm still building a trailer for a TI that I don't own yet and an tossing up between the tube bunks and the Hobie cradles.

Cheers

Brad

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Brad K
Papaya Tandem Island - "Dry Reach"
Lengthened Jet Ski trailer
"Kayaking Bob" Spray Skirts
Trampolines