showmethecoffee:
We have been using Hobie Mirage kayaks for about 10 yrs now, for the longest time we were going out pretty much every weekend. We are also campers, and have if I had to guess 250k road miles with camper in tow and Hobies on the roof, putting in any body of water we could find all over the country.
We have never taken a hobie out on any water without a Hobie sail kit strapped to the side of the boat (not even once). Whenever we buy a new kayak we always buy the sail kit with the boat (usually at a pretty good discount, when you buy stuff with the boat).
On most, if not all of the Hobies they have a bungy on one or both sides for attaching the standard double end paddle. We just attach the furled up kayak sail to that. Heck we go thru mangrove tunnels and everything with the thing on there, just on the off chance we may get a little wind and be able to kayak sail. Heck we have even kayak sailed up the Sante Fe river (in Florida, bunches of crystal clear natural spring there. (lol, with all the monkeys from the 50's tarzan movies cheering us on (yea they have a monkey problem there lol), makes goin up stream a breeze if the wind is right.
We attach all the ropes and pulleys for the sail kits onto every kayak we own permanently. Actually I dangle/drag the 1/4" dia sail control line behind the boat to improve tracking on the smaller hobies (like our revo's), which don't track and glide all that well when you don't have the mirage drive and rudder down, (just paddling), we tend to paddle more up really shallow rivers than pedal, especially the one's with lots of weeds, then on the wider and deeper areas, we peddle and sail if there is any wind.
We made our own PVC furler kits and put them on all our Hobie sails , (they only cost $2-$4 bucks to make and 15 minutes, just using a drill and regular 1 1/2" PVC (about 8" long, and two end caps from Home Depot). I'm sure Hobies furler works great, however I've never owned one, so I don't know, (lol probably because I have a half dozen of those crazy pvc furlers layin around the garage (they unfortunately last forever)).
It only takes 30 seconds or so to grab the sail kit toss it into the hole in the boat, clip the control line to the clew, and your off and sailing, just furl the sail in and out as needed, often times we run with the sail partially furled in higher winds.
We never used and pontoons or side kick kits, (we call them training wheels). Once you get the hang of kayak sailing, you will likely leave them home. Yea of course you go over once in a while kayak sailing, it's a pretty good idea to practice getting back on board your kayak, ( it's way harder than most people think). We practiced for hours on end in our heated pool in the winter, I'm sure the neighbors thought we were nuts.
Kayak sailing is the most fun aspect of kayaking in my opinion.
Here is one of our revo's, you can see the pvc furler on the sail. I wouldn't bother with the jibs and spinnakers starting out.
Here is our most current setup, the kayak will be on that roof for the next 3 months.
On big water we use the full rig, (with AMA's and big sails), when just kayaking we furl this kayak sail up on the side of the boat, just in case we find any wind,
Yea of course we go over when kayak sailing, I tell my wife if she goes over and gets scared, just to stand up, 80% of the water we kayak sail in and around the keys is only waist deep (lol).
Have fun
FE