av8erdunn : In 2010 I went into the local Hobie dealer cash in hand ready to purchase either a new H16 or a Getaway. The dealer had just got in the new TI and said he thought as kayakers we would get much more use from the TI over the Getaway, and we also have a serious storage problem living in a restricted subdivision (no trailers allowed), and down here in Florida any storage costs a fortune. We use our Tandem Island as a family boat, basically everything we used to do on the Sea Ray powerboat we now do on the TI. We often have kids (grand kids and friends kids), and they all seem to enjoy their time on the boat. We don't have HAKA's but I do have strengthened spray skirts on both the front and back of the boat, the boat is very dry now (very similar to a Windrider 17, which is also nice). The rear ones someone could hike out on if they wanted to, and I have had kids sitting on them. The front spray skirts are not quite that strong but they are strong enough to stow gear on, things like dive bags, dry bags, etc. I am thinking about making new super strong front spray skirts. The spray skirts also help re-enforce the AMA's to prevent them from folding. Yea we overload the boat weightwise once in a while, but it doesn't seem to effect it's pedaling and sailing performance as much as you would think, but then again I have a lot of extra sail on my boat, so performance may vary to a stock TI. We always carry 6 PFD's just in case. We also have an inflatable 4 person boat that we use as a dingy, and tow it behind the TI which gives us an extra 650 lbs and 4 person capacity, it tows surprisingly well. Another thing we do is use the TI as a party barge, often pulling 2-4 other kayaks when we have too many people. Especially if all the kayaks have mirage drives, you can really move along even when there is no wind, works well as the home base/mothership, where we can safely take a group of kayakers 5-6 miles out to the Mule Keys in more open water, where normally you would not take a Revo out that far. I'm fully equipped with Radios, flares, backup gas motor, etc ( we call the dingy our life raft (LOL). The TI is actually quite seaworthy, and actually handles rough seas and open water fairly well. Kids like when I tie a ski rope to the center rear of the boat and drag the small kids around on boogie boards, it has to be tied to the center though otherwise you can't steer (the rudder on TI's is a little small). Keep in mind there isn't much wind in Florida (if any) 10 months out of the year, so we pedal most of the time. That's another thing you can peddle 20 miles with very little effort, and get up and do it again the next day (very easy to pedal, and it takes very little energy), with two pedalers you can easily maintain 5-6 mph in no wind all day long, when your legs get tired, you just paddle for a while, and if the wind comes up (once in a blue moon), you get to rest your legs and arms and sail for a while. We also have a rope ladder that we use for re-entry to the boat. Since we are scuba divers and snorkelers, down here in Key West we just stop and drop anchor anyplace and just go snorkeling. Another big thing about the TI 'we are avid kayakers', and the TI turns out to be one of Hobies best and fastest kayaks, we actually ended up selling all of our other Hobie kayaks and just use and travel with the TI anymore, either on the roof of our SUV (when our camper is in tow), or on the trailer (which is faster and easier to launch). We have owned 8 Hobies total. It costs us nothing to store (we just keep it in the garage). Depending on what we want to do that day, we just take along what gear we will need for that trip (if any). I don't think there is a more versatile boat out there. These are all of course just my opinions, and experience, we are on our third TI now, and are very happy with what we have with about 3000 sailing miles under our belts, and no regrets, it's the perfect boat for our Florida lifestyle, and we use the heck out of ours every weekend all year round. I could go on and on, (someone stop me please LOL) Bob
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