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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:25 am 
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Do the 2015+ boats still need a spray skirt or is that just a feature of the previous models?

Why does Hobie not offer spray skirts? If they had I would have ordered a set with my new boat.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:25 am 
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Location: Collie, Western Australia
The newer boats are a bit dryer than the older ones, mainly because you are not sitting down in the hull.
Mine is a 2012 TI. I THINK they put the first seats in the 2015 and changed the hull design a little bit.
But once you are in the rough stuff, water is still comming your way.

I have not sailed any of the new ones so I don't know how dryer they are. But once the wind gets up and the chop and swell is comming at you, the water is still going to be comming off the fron Arma bar.

Some of the pirates over here at West Oz Hobie Adventure Island Community, have fitted skirts to the new TIs and AIs. They love them. So the newer boats must still dump water on you.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:00 am 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
One thing about these boats is they sit very low in the water. I’m sure in lakes that’s not an issue. And if the water is warm it might be refreshing. However even warm water when it comes on you in torrents is annoying.
We mostly sail in SW Florida and the keys, and mostly offshore.
One thing about Sarasota bay is really bad washing machine chop, on a typical day when the winds are 10-12 mph the constant washing machine chop is around 2 feet and without spray skirts you get totally drenched, making things miserable for us,(not fun at all). When the wind picks up more (over 20mph), the chop and vertical waves get over 4 feet at times, no different from being in a washing machine, these boats are very light, and many waves when you hit them stop the boat or turn the boat making it difficult at times to sail up wind, (my chief complaint about the stock boat is it’s inability to sail upwind in strong winds and currents).
My opinion is the spray skirts and tramps make sailing more enjoyable in not so great conditions.
We don’t sail much in sarasota in winter (January,February) because the water is too cold for us. When we do go out in colder water, we mount both front and rear spray skirts, (similar to what a windrider 17 looks like), along with the tramps, this keeps us pretty dry. Actually we have never taken any of our TI’s out without the tramps on, and since kayakbobs sprayskirts came out, we have never launched without them installed.
Highly recommended.
FE


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:10 am 
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I'm with you Fusioneng. My spray skirts live on my TI.
But I haven't tried doing this with spash skirts. It may prove interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm9NrI8HU0c

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:38 am 
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I've seen most spray skirts made of shade cloth while others look like vinyl. Videos show the spray going right through the shade cloth. With vinyl if the aft edge of the skirt is lower than the forward end water should roll off the back. What makes the shade cloth better?

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:20 am 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
Actually we use neither. We shredded quite a few spray skirts made of several different materials, (5-6 sets), because we are on the highway so often, (were talkin close to 1/4million road mile over the years). Plus we want to be able to sit on and store gear on our spray skirts so we made all of ours extra heavy duty. We ended up using vinyl covered pet screen, (like you would put on the bottom panel of your screen doors when you have dogs).
Around the edges we have 3/8” pvc waterpipe folded into the edges for the ropes to pass thru.
Our boats were a little different than most, (they were all heavily hardened and re-enforced for offshore use). We had 3/4sq aluminum braces extending from the front aka hull brace up to the big bowsprit on the bow. We folded the spray skirt material over those 3/4 bars. To make everything strong on the folds, I hand sewed high strength dyeema fishing line into the overlap, ( like a fisherman would repair their fishing nets). I then place the overlap onto some aluminum bar stock, (i used 1/4” x 1” around 12 inches long, two pieces). I set it on the bench, over 1 alum bar, then using my hot glue gun I squirted about a 6” bead of hot glue then immediatly pressed the other bar down, oozing the glue in thru the screen material. The aluminum sucks the heat out of the hot glue quickly, making a very nice flush weld about 3/4” wide. We incorporated our safety lines into the spray skirts, so the 1/4” rope going from the front bow to the stainless cleats on the center of each ama, (ours was an older model TI). Result is you can sit on the front or rear spray skirts, ( about the same strength as the tramps). In retrospect I should have just used tramp material. Down here in florida all pools are required to have 4ft child fencing, (similar to the material Hobie uses for their tramps) that you can buy on line by the roll. If I ever need to make new ones I will use that tramp material.

Our front spray skirts are never removed from the boat. Actually they are folded over the bow during transport, and cover all three furled sails, masts, and all the rigging, (we always leave all the furler ropes and control lines connected, nothing is ever removed). The tramps protect everything from the road wind. Yes we shredded several sails from road wind, prior to incorporating the HD skirts.
When launching I simply open the AMA, and clip the safety line to the AMA, that’s all, takes all of ten seconds, once the safety line is clipped, the skirts are good to go. When breaking down, I uncip the clip, fold the ama in, then fold the skirt over all the masts and sails laying on the hull, and I’m good to go.

The rear spray skirts are a bit harder to make because you also need to incorporate fiberglass pultrusions into the design. They have to be strong enough to hike out on, and also climb aboard the boat when you launch. Lol we went thru all the work designing and building the rear skirts, but only ended up using them twice, definately not worth the effort unless you plan on far offshore sailing in cold rough conditions. Setup and breakdown is the same as the front spray skirt, (one clip).

Hopefully this is of some hope to someone.
FE


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:03 am 
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Location: Central Florida
The shadecloth lets water go strait through , but deflects most of the water coming at an angle. So most of the waves and spray is deflected but any water that does makes it through looses most of it's power and drains strait off.

My first Sprayskirt was made of microfiber cloth, waterproof like the vinyl ones. 10 minutes out on my first sail with it I had to cut slits in it with my knife to drain the puddle holding down the bow! Waves and wind will effect the boat much more if they can't go through the material. If the bow goes into/under a wave it will not recover quickly if the material doesn't breath.

The most of the spray going through the shadecloth Sprayskirts in the videos doesn't reach the sailor.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:39 pm 
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fusioneng wrote:
The rear spray skirts are a bit harder to make because you also need to incorporate fiberglass pultrusions into the design. They have to be strong enough to hike out on, and also climb aboard the boat when you launch. Lol we went thru all the work designing and building the rear skirts, but only ended up using them twice, definately not worth the effort unless you plan on far offshore sailing in cold rough conditions. Setup and breakdown is the same as the front spray skirt, (one clip).

Hopefully this is of some hope to someone.
FE


Is there a reason to use the rear spray skirts with the tramps installed or do the tramps accomplish the same job?

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:10 pm 
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Location: Collie, Western Australia
"The shadecloth lets water go strait through , but deflects most of the water coming at an angle. So most of the waves and spray is deflected but any water that does makes it through looses most of it's power and drains strait off".

Bob is spot on. If you watched the video where I burry the nose of the TI with no skirts, I would not want to do that with vinal skirts. Once the nose went under, you now have a lot of water trying to hold you under.
I don't doubt the TI will come back up, but it may be held under with the weight of the water now on the nose sitting on top of the spray skirts.

When we burried the TI 5 times in one 6 1/2 hour ocean sail in rather dubious weather conditions, I would not have wanted solid splash skirts up front.

Kayakingbob s skirts may have held the nose under a little longer, but the TI would have recovered a lot faster.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:08 pm 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
I only used the rear skirts twice around 4 yrs ago, when my daughter was down here over christmas, (she likes to go out sailing with me when she visits from Chicao), so I built the spray skirts, they just sit in the garage since then, kind of a wasted effort.
When in the front seat solo I hike out on the tramps, but when in the back seat No place to hike out without the rear spray skirts. Plus it gets really wet offshore, no fun in cold water.
FE


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:10 pm 
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thank you. I do appreciate all this valuable information. I'm collecting all the input I can about the TI while I wait for spring and my TI to arrive.

My TI would have been here last week but the winter weather has been holding on longer than usual. A snow storm has been holding my TI hostage in Minneapolis. It doesn't really matter though since the lakes around here are still frozen.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:14 pm 
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fusioneng wrote:
I only used the rear skirts twice around 4 yrs ago, when my daughter was down here over christmas, (she likes to go out sailing with me when she visits from Chicao), so I built the spray skirts, they just sit in the garage since then, kind of a wasted effort.
When in the front seat solo I hike out on the tramps, but when in the back seat No place to hike out without the rear spray skirts. Plus it gets really wet offshore, no fun in cold water.
FE


So I'm guessing that these rear skirts attach behind the tramps. Is that correct?

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:28 pm 
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Yes, we made a triangle with 3 lengths of 3/8“ dia pvc tubing, the short leg was about the same width as the tramp. The rear of the triangle was attached to the base of our motor motor mount, (in the rod holders with paracord lashing loops, ( like you would hold a log raft or teepee together with)). On the short leg we had three straps (similar in design to Hobies tramp straps). The leg of the triangle closest to the hull we attached using spectra string to wherever we could attach that length of pipe to, existing things already on the hull, ( examples... the ball that the aka brace attaches to. The little button that the paddle bungy attaches to, the seat cleat, ( older boats), and the cleat that the rear cargo bungy attaches to, etc). The longest leg of the triangle needs to be much stronger, we ended up sliding fiberglass pultrusions into all the tubes. In retrospect we could have eliminated all the pvc tubing and replaced with larger diameter fiberglass protrusions, (1/2” dia or larger would have worked nicely, make sure you get the strongest type of pultrusion, (ie... 60-80% glass, similar type to what we used on our mast topper, bowsprit, and mast re-enforcement, (we inserted fiberglass pultrusions into the bottom section of some of our masts to make them stronger)).
We folded, and sewed with dyeema fishing line, then welded with hot glue all the foldovers, (around all the tubing), just like the front spray skirts construction method.
We used that same pet screen material, if I had been smart, I would have used tramp, (aka pool child fence) material.

On the short leg, (near the hull) you want to leave about a 5” gap between the short leg, and the inner tube so the whole skirt can fold over the hull for transport and storage, (that was an afterthought, after first trial , oops).
All of our spectra connections along the hull, we just used spectra loops, so the skirt is easily and quickly removed from the boat when not needed, (aka summertime).
Of course you can’t sit on the rear spray skirt without the front spray skirt connected, ( or it just snaps the aka sheer bolt).
When we don’t have the rear spray skirts on we use a paracord line tied to the rear aka cross brace,( where it attaches to the hull), then ran under the tramp and around the front aka bar and slipped over the little button on the end of the front aka bar, (where the ama bungys attach), with a spectra loop on the end where it fits over the button. Those lines are never removed from the boat, when the ama is folded in, that line relaxes and is just thrown in the hull during transport.
It’s a whole lot of engineering for nothin, we abandoned ours after using them twice, sure it all works, but why bother if your not into hardcore offshore sailing, ( kinda stupid, lol).

I can’t post any pics because we sold the boat last fall, and threw all the mods away.

FE


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:49 pm 
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Can the akas be folded in without disconnecting the spray skirts?

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:31 pm 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
Most spray skirts have a simple loop that slips over the bungy button on the end of the aka bar. It typically only takes a couple seconds to slip the loop over the button once the ama is opened. The loop needs to be removed before you can fold the AMA’s in.
Most people just drape the spray skirts over the bow during transport.
Kayakbobs spray skirts are the best I know of.
FE


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