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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:20 am 
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Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2011 1:58 am
Posts: 2893
Location: Forster, NSW, Australia
I'm a spring chicken at only 68, but I have been through the wringer healthwise. Sometimes I think my TI is my "mobility sailboat", as I know there is no point in adding hakas, as I don't think I could drag my butt out there and back... However, I just can't get my butt in that seat often enough, and suffer withdrawal pains if I don't get my TI fix at least twice a week all year round.

My TI sleeps in the garage and my tow car sits out in the open - I reckon I have my prioities right!

_________________
Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:27 am 
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Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:14 pm
Posts: 3323
Location: South Florida
Tom, your advice to your employer was excellent, but like so many excellent ideas, it was before its time, and it died an ignoble death.

I'm old enough that Tony seems young. In fact, I did my last, 2-week, self-supported, self-guided kayak trip in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, when I was Tony's age, a bit older actually. In Sept, 2007, I bought my first AI with the idea of doing the Everglades Challenge--but, never did (yet.) I also thought it would extend my time on the water camping. It has.

I agree that the AI/TIs serve an older group of people who like to sail & camp; nevertheless, I would guess most AI/TI EC competitors were in the age range of 40-55 yrs. Most of these people were strong--you must be to lug a TI around on the beaches. It may have been Chumbucket, when having a beer in Key Largo with Hobie Engineer Jim Czarnowski, quoted Jim as saying, "the TI was designed for the WaterTribe Everglades Challenge."

Here are a few pictures of competitors:

AhMaChamee aka Bryan Tindell

Image


Dogslife aka Paul Kral

Image


DivesWithKraken & WyomingWolf aka Tom and Debbie Turner

Image

These pictures were all taken about 6:45 AM, Saturday, Mar 1, 2014, at the 7:00 AM start of the WaterTribe 2014 Everglades Challenge.

I'm not going to try guess anybody's age here, but they all look young to me (they are.)

Keith

PS Tony, my wife and I have had a kayak or 2 in our house for the past 6 yrs. The garage has 2 sea kayaks, 1 surf ski, 2 AIs, and misc bikes and junk. Our cars sit and suffer in the driveway.

_________________
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


Last edited by Chekika on Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:16 am 
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Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:14 pm
Posts: 3323
Location: South Florida
Dogslife will probably comment on this himself, but here is what he posted on the WaterTribe forum:
Quote:
I have been busy since the EC so I did not participate in this conversation:

    1) Mirage drive breaking: According to Penguin Man, it is only the newer drives that have the pedal breaking due to a change in alloy by the supplier. Hobie is not only correcting that but also improving the design.

    2) Paddling a Adventure Island for any distance is very inefficient. I was double screwed. In the Nightmare I broke both ends of my Hobie Paddle off. That is another topic. I was not doing anything more than what I do with my regular Kayak paddles. Hobie needs to take a serious look at their paddle. At Shark Chickee I flipped the boat when I had one Ama folded in, trying get my gear up to the Chickee. Next morning at 3AM I noticed I was missing the drive!!! Diving around a Chickee for a half hour, in dark and a alligator in sight was a experience I will not forget. "Up the creek without a Paddle";

    3) Numbness in the feet is something that I experience all the time. I pedaled almost the entire trip. At 1000 cycles per mile, 300,000 for the entire trip, the feet were hurting. It got so bad that every hour I would switch, Boots on, bare feet, toes only, heels only, desperation, use your hands...

The Hobie's do have their short falls. But in the end the Adventure Island boats are still the best all-around boat for expeditions like WaterTribe...


Regarding the paddle problem, I've switched to a cheap, single-bladed paddle. I would never try to paddle any distance with it, but I think it is a good option for landing/launching/maneuvering around docks--or bush-whacking through Nightmare with an AI.

Cheap Carlisle paddle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AI0PP6/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Keith

_________________
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


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:19 pm 
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Site Rank - Admiral

Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:18 pm
Posts: 287
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Sorry for staying off the Forum for so long. Out of four EC's this was the most enjoyable. Warm weather, plenty of sleep and adventure. The wind could have been a little better in our favor instead in the face.

Broken equipment:
Both ends of my Hobie Paddle broke off paddling the boat through the Nightmare and broad creek. Did not apply any unusual pressure. Had to use the dagger board the rest of the way;

One rudder pin when I ran over some oysters trying to cut the course around some mangroves. While trying to replace the pin in chest deep water standing on mangrove roots lost my towel I use to protect my knees from the sun;

With several thousand miles on it, the Mirage drive is getting seriously worn out. Pedals wiggle side to side. Everything is loose;

Forward dogger fiberglass pole: When I was unloading the boat at the Shark River Chickee I had to fold one ama in to get to the ladder. When I reached into the forward hatch I leaned too far and flipped the boat. As she was going over I fell on top of the dogger and broke the fiberglass rod. Also all my gear I had laid out on the tramp went flying into the water. Current running. Lost my dinner. There is a happy raccoon out there. At 3 AM getting ready to get underway I noticed that my Mirage drive was also gone!!! Ended up diving for a half hour in the dark with a Gator watching me from the bank. Eventually I did find my drive.

Lesson learned: Do not tighten your rudder lines in a freezing garage. By the time I got to the Everglades the lines were very tight. Had trouble putting in the new rudder pin;

I do have a lot of video. My poor old computer needs to have some drive space freed up. It might be a while.

More to come as I get time.

_________________
Paul
DogsLife
2011 Adventure Island


http://dogslifeadventures.blogspot.com/


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:46 pm 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:29 am
Posts: 3
Location: Wichita Falls TX
Tom Ray, we might've been the oldest of the TI/AI wranglers. We're 63 & 60. Many of the competitors looked a lot younger. Not sure how old Juscuz is - he might be my age or so. We've been competitive sailors forever. Bought our TI last summer specifically for the EC and trained pretty hard for six or eight months with an eye toward taking full advantage of the TI's strong suits. We didn't run a very good race from a tactical standpoint, and were pretty much overwhelmed by the sensory overload, never having experienced an EC, or even S Florida for that matter, before. I think we'll show better next time.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:30 am 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 9:09 am
Posts: 11
Location: Florida
Hi all,

I think I was one of the exceptions in this event, as I didn't have any Hobie equipment failures. I did learn a valuable lesson about my electrical system and I am working on a post to share my learnings with some photos as well.

I am going to share a video link here for those that didn't see it on Facebook. I had some fun with this, as I am still compiling the rest of my video and photos for a longer version. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/F58qUpaUK4E

~Butch


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