I have to admit that I'm a little frustrated at Hobie when it comes to the TI. We use our TI most weekends and just love the thing. When we bought our first one in April 2010 we fell in love with the boat, it does everything we want to do and is so versatile you can use it as a family boat for just about anything imaginable. We prefer to take the boat out in calm seas and flat water with winds typically under 7mph. The reason for this is when the wind picks up around here so does the chop and we get 2-3ft washing machine chop whenever the wind picks up and it becomes very uncomfortable out on the water. Another big factor is 90% of the time we want to go out the conditions are flat and the winds are under 7mph. Also Tampa/Sarasota bays and the keys are huge and right next to shore pretty much everywhere there is nothing but bare sand around any body of land (boring). Also our main pastime is diving and snorkeling and it's simply no fun to dive in rough seas (no visibility). The stock TI with just a single sail in light winds cruises at around 3mph. When in Sarasota the closest beach to us is South Lido beach, It's about 6 miles from where we launch ( there are no launches any closer). The other place we like to go is Egmont Key which is 25 miles from where we launch. Yes we could jump in the car and drive up to ft Desoto, launch from there and trek the 8 miles or so out to Egmont, but it almost a 2hr drive out there by car from sarasota (about $30 bucks in fuel with our truck (used to be $50). Then we have to sail the 8 miles or so out to Egmont, at 3mph thats 2.5 hrs sailing to get there from Ft Desoto). With our current setup we can get there by sea from Sarasota in a couple hrs and the fuel costs me about a buck or two for the day (We have hybrid outboards on the boat FYI) We meet our powerboat friends up there and spend the day typically diving and snorkeling. We also like to go to places like treasure Island and many of the oceanside restaurants all along the coast. Another major issue we have with a stock TI is the currents both here and in Key West are typically around 5mph, if all the faster you can go is 3mph you have a problem. What frustrates me to no end is I walked into the Hobie dealer cash in hand to buy a new H16, the dealer showed me the new TI. We took the TI out and it was apparent right away that it had too small a sail area (unless you like going 2-3 mph). They assured me up and down that Hobie was working on a jib and it would be released within a month or two (this was in April 2010). I went out a couple more times and did the 3mph thing, then decided I couldn't wait on Hobie to do the right thing so I went ahead and designed and built my own jib and spinnaker systems. The sail area went from 90 sq ft to around 260 sq ft and all my issues went away. That was almost 6 yrs ago now, most of the stuff I made I'm still using (most of it is looking pretty ratty now with thousands of sailing miles). I never took the boat out again without my mods, I'm perfectly happy with what I have, the boat is very capable in most any conditions and I have had no difficulties with the boat (almost 6 yrs of heavy use with this design). To the best of my knowledge I have the only car toppable complex sail boat out there (though I often use my trailer just for ease and convienence (it takes me about 15 minutes to launch or retrieve from the trailer)). (Complex meaning with jib/spinnaker sails). Because I go offshore I have always had outboard motors mounted to the boat mostly for safety reasons. Only recently in the last year or so I've been messing about with sail/ peddle/hybrid propulsion with my hybrid motors and wing sail crap (what Hobie calls Tri-power), with really good success. (Thats another whole other subject Hobie should be all over, after all they invented it (lol)) Whats frustrating to me is every other sail boat Hobie makes have optional jibs and spinnakers that can be added. I can only assume Hobie has on purpose limited the capabilities of their Island line of boats so as not to impinge on their sailboat sales. Basically telling us if your a rank beginner get the TI, but if you want to really sail get rid of it and get a real sailboat (ie...H16,Getaway, etc). Personally I prefer my TI way over any of the others, way more versatile, and actually mine is faster than any of them in really light air. And the best of all it's a great kayak with mirage drives when you want to use it that way. Both the jib and spinnaker options should have been released 6 yrs ago, (it's not rocket science). I'm seeing the promised spinnaker going down the exact same path as the elusive jib from 6yrs ago, purely political because hobie doesn't want to hurt their cat sales so they purposely impair the TI capabilities. (Of course this is just my opinion). Personally I don't care either way, I'm all set with what I have and extremely happy with what I've been running for almost 6 yrs now with no major issues (ie.. Jibs, spinnakers,etc), so Hobie can't tell us it can't be done, they just don't want to do it... It's pretty apparent I'm alone in my feelings, and nobody wants or needs these kinds of options (based on feedback over the years whenever I brought it up). Ok I'll get of my soapbox now. (Yea I'm still mad about the jib deal) FE
|