Chekika wrote:
I think the greatest danger is that one of your akas may break. If that happens when you are 1-2 miles of the coast, you have a major problem. Could you consider buying a new pair of akas?
Keith
The reason I mention the aka breaking is that there are many of the first AIs out there still in use. Many of them do have akas corroded both outside
and inside. In my opinion, there are going to be akas on these early AIs breaking. Last year during the 2017 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge, CaptGnarly broke an aka and repaired it while traveling along coastal everglades on the Gulf of Mexico. You can read about it here:
https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&start=960 Scroll down on that page. This year at the start of the 2018 Everglades Challenge I asked CaptGnarly how it happened. He said he was on a reach and the windward aka broke from the up/down jostling of the airborne aka/ama. He had anticipated the possibility and actually had prepared a wood insert to fit inside the broken aka tube.
In any case, I think we will see more and more of these early akas breaking.
Keith