VaBeach1:
Here is my take on the AI vs TI. we wanted a family boat that we can just throw on the car and go anytime we like, basically anywhere there is water. I wanted to be fast enough so that it wasn't a total bore sailing, yet easy and fast to rig (if you ever watched anyone rig a Weta or a Windrider 17, thats not what I want). We like to snorkle and scuba dive down in the Florida keys mostly, and island hop excursions, nothing grueling like multi day, just up to maybe 30-40 miles max. We also like to do river excursions (not multi day usually).
Right now we are down in the Keys near Islamarada (visiting my daugher who is on spring break from vet school). She likes to sail so I threw the TI onto the roof and brought it down from Sarasota,FL. We are staying at a place called Fiesta Key Resort and they have a boat launch, marina, and mooring balls for small boats.
He is a pic of my TI moored for the duration of the stay.
We take the boat out once or twice a day just sailing and once in a while anchoring to snorkle. The water here in Florida bay is pretty shallow and protected (not like open ocean), yesterday we sailed out into the bay with 3 adults and 2 children on board (yes the boat was sitting pretty low in the water), but we got to sail a little while, then found a nice spot to snorkel, dropped anchor and snorkled for about an hour. I have a regular boat ladder on the boat so it's pretty easy to board (even with heavy scuba gear). Most of the time when we have visitors (relatives from up north) we typically have at least two or 3 people on the boat, and take turns going out sailing. The rest of the time I go out solo (pretty much every weekend) and just have fun sailing and exploring. I'm not a big guy and don't find the TI anymore difficult to load onto the car than our Oasis was, actually I find it easier because it's longer and has better hand holds. Of course you only ever lift half the boat at a time, and I always load and unload the boat myself (every weekend). What I do is park near shore, unload the boat, put the seats and gear into the boat, I then roll the boat to shore with the scupper cart. I tip the boat on its side, put the sail in, take the wheels out, tip the boat up, put the AKA/AMA's on lash the tramps and off we go, it takes around 30 minutes, but I'm kind of a putzer, and my extra rigging (3 sails, motor, anchor system, etc) takes a little longer to get ready, but I don't like to go out without all that stuff (running with the spinnaker is the most fun for me, and I basically will not go out without my emergency gas motor).
I'm pretty sure that there is no other boat on the market today that you can do all this with and still car top and throw into your garage. If I had to guess we have driven over 100k miles with boats on the roof, and over 2500 sailing miles on the TI's so far. We have had no major issues except one scupper hole tear 2 boats ago where Hobie replaced the hull (they shipped the new hull the same day I tore it (in front of the dealer, while he was watching). There is no other company out there like Hobiecat as far as service and support goes as everyone on the forum will agree.
Here is my TI on the roof of our 3rd tow vehicle (we wore out the other two), I use a T bar hitch mount and a pool noodle which works out really well for us.
. I hope this sets your mind at ease that the TI is usable as a family boat. We used to have a Sea Ray powerboat, a Sunfish, and several kayaks. At this point we have sold everything else and just use the TI now as our SUV for doing anything water related.
Hope this helps you decide
Bob