Hobie TI rear ended. Advice wanted.

Well my worst nightmare when trailering my TI happened and I was rear ended yesterday on the highway. Luckily no one is hurt but the TI and trailer are severely damaged. The trailer is probably totaled and the TI has a damaged main hull, ama and a couple broken akas. Guessing it is totaled too but haven’t spoken to insurance yet since it’s a holiday weekend. I am curious to hear from anyone who has been in an accident with their island and what your experience was with insurance. Feel free to PM if you don’t want to publicly share. Thanks!

Does the person who rear ended you have insurance? If so, why wouldn’t their insurance pay for it?

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2015 Hobie Tandem Island
Ivory Dune
Trampolines, Spinnaker Kit, Lowrance Hook4, Vantage Seat Accessory Bags, GoPro Hero3+, RTIC SoftPak 30, WaterPORT Day Tank

They do have insurance and I have started a claim with them but I am just prepping to have to battle a bit over value and what not.

I have the same fear....towing my TI....

I have attached one of those high visibility orange / yellow reflective "vest" to the TI rudder to act like a large warning flag when towing.

Please let us all know your outcome and any lessons learned.

Few pictures of the damage may be interesting also.

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Jim
Hobie TI 2022 - Offshore rig - Outboard - having fun!
Hobie TI 2021 - Offshore rig - Outboard - sold
Hobie TI 2016 - Offshore rig - Outboard - sold
Hobie Kona 2014
Hobie AI 2015 - sold
Hobie Rev 13 2014 - sold
Hobie Outback - 2008 - sold

It ended up getting towed to a yard which I am regretting a bit. I can’t attach pictures for some reason and I don’t have them hosted anywhere else so I can’t post at this time. I can see a bulge out on the main hill near the front hatch in one picture but I am not sure if there is other damage to the main hull in the pictures I took. One ama is crumpled and the akas sheared at the ama. The trailer is completely toast and it’s kind of crazy for a galvanized steel trailer how it deformed. The tongue bent/twisted and the rear member tacoed a bit.

The TI and trailer are probably effectively totaled. In this case, I would settle for nothing less than full replacement value for the TI and the trailer. The TI is not like a car where the used replacement value is a set/known value or what it would cost for repairs from a body shop, so neither you nor the insurance company has a general precedent to stand behind. In this case, the settlement will probably be open to interpretation.

Many insurance companies often give a low ball settlement at first hoping that you'll take it. Since the only way to make you "whole" again is to replace the Ti, make it known that you want full replacement value for the TI and the trailer and stand your ground. Get a written quote from a Hobie dealer for a new TI and trailer and give it to the insurance company asap.

That was exactly my thought. Valuing (or devaluing) the boat due to hull damage is not straight forward. Additionally determining used values on these is incredibly hard I would say since they just don't change hands on the used market THAT much. There is most likely going to be some back and forth. The trailer probably could be de-valued/priced on the used market easier though. The dealer I bought the boat from is ~2 blocks from the yard so that may be helpful.

While replacing the boat is not cheap, if the boat wasn't there he would have rear ended the car, which had myself, wife and 1 year old and our camping gear for the night. It could have been much worse, no one got hurt.

Did the driver that hit you get a ticket? It could be important, as it proves guilt and while your insurance will make the payment they then go after the ticket driver's coverage. Your boat and trailer are toast, sorry but even without pics it sounds like it. If the trailer is in a yard, see who has to cover the parking fees as they add up and can be an unwelcome surprise.

Not sure where you are, but there is an incomplete TI in central jersey CL. It is missing the mast, one ama and some other stuff. Might help.

Got the boat to my dealer to have it evaluated (thank god the dealer was only 2 blocks from the tow yard since the trailer isnt really safe to take down the road). There is a big crack at the rudder area which seems like it would be very difficult to safely fix given the loading in that area of the hull. They were going to reach out to Hobie and see what the factory's opinion was. Still waiting on insurance to evaluate too...

Fixing any large crack in the hull should be out of the question, it cannot be done reliability and could never restore the TI to its original condition. That hull is totaled if it's cracked.

The minimum fix would be replacing the primary hull with a new or used one and rebuilding it using any undamaged existing components. This should be done by a qualified repair technician at a Hobie dealer. It's a lot of work and needs to be done right. My guess is that after the cost of a new hull and the cost to rebuild it, it may approach the cost of a new TI anyway.

I, myself, would settle for nothing less than a settlement for a new boat because I would not trust anyone to rebuild the TI from its existing used parts. Building a TI is something done regularly only at the factory with brand new components and special manufacturing tooling and techniques. While there are boat techs qualified to do it, it's probably not something they do a lot and therefore they probably don't have a lot of experience with a full rebuild. It can be done, but it'll be up to the repair tech to do it right. Some boat techs are brilliant while others are not. Who knows who'll you'll get? Again, it's not like rebuilding a car which is done regularly by experienced body shops.

This is just my opinion but I think you know what I'm getting at.

The trailer may be repairable depending upon its current condition. Repairing it is a lot simpler and a good weld shop can probably fix it if it's not too badly damaged. If it's galvanized, however, that would require special treatment to restore the finish after welding.

Dealer's evaluation is the boat is not safe to fix between the large crack in the rear/transom and the compression/buckling of the bow. It also appears that the aka cross bars may have been shock loaded and have loosened or ovaled their mounting holes. Honestly given the hit, it's amazing there isnt more damage. Kind of goes to show how burly the boats are (which is funny since they get minor scratches/rash so dang easily!!).

As far as the trailer, the rear cross bar, one of the side bars, and the tongue are buckled, plus the winch stand is torqued and the rear lights are busted so my guess is it would be more work to fix that then to get a new one.

Now I just need to wait on insurance...I agree that full replacement would be the only thing that would "make me whole" but I am guessing that is going to be an uphill battle....