launching mirage oasis

could anyone comment on this, please...we are considering buying one..and we worry about the weight...of launching ..like down a ramp, etc.
do some of you use dollies?

thanks so much..it looks like such a fun boat..

sailmom

You will need a dolly or cart to launch it, otherwise it will be real tough. It’s not an easy boat to carry, even with two people. Even tipping it on its side to remove a plug-in cart takes some good technique.

_________________
2011 Oasis with Sail and AMA's
2011 Necky Looksha 14

My wife and I are in our early70's and are basically sturdy/active people.

We have had our Oasis for a year.

Once we have it in the water with my wife in front and me in the back with the yak being propelled in the water with the Mirages, we love it.

Getting it into and out of the water, it is a huge PIA.

I have a Honda Ridgeline and racks on top didn't work. We ended up with a trailer. Having to use a trailer to get to some of the launch sites has eliminated many sites. However, the trailer has saved our backs/shoulders and other body parts as well minimizing dings/scratches on the Oasis. With the Hobie cover, the trailer is an excellent way to store the Oasis upside down.

We use the big wheel Trax set. This works very well. We have used it to take the Oasis well over a hundred yards of rough/rocky areas. There is an engineering flaw with the safety pin to hold the Trax insert rods, in the Oasis. It kept going down into the arm that goes into the yak. Getting it out and re setting it was not worth the time. We just insert a small bolt that fits through and use a plastic electical wire connector as the nut. It works and the cost is about 20 cents. I keep our spare inserts in my Ridgeline, our emergency dry bag and in my yakking shirt when we head out.

Once the Oasis is in the water or beside it, my wife and I have to turn the Oasis on its side to get the Trax out of the scupper holes. I put the Trax unit in back of the rear seat using the bungie cords. That works well. Then, we load the stuff that is need for the trip on top or in the hold.

We use the Hobie Stablizers which work well. I hold the Oasis steady while my wife gets in with the bow pointing out the direction where we want to go.
Then I straddle the Oasis and sit down. If the water is deep enough, my wife has her Mirage unit ready to pedal when I shove off.

The only time, we turned it over was when I tried to get in without the stabilizers and sat on the port side. The Oasis flipped and put my wife in the water and stuff was floating around.

This system works if we have boat launch or a nice flat area with the water a foot or more in depth.

Getting the Oasis ready to go back to the trailer is another venture.

When we return my wife raises her Mirages to the neutral position and uses her paddle without the top half. We have the handle attachments which work great. She helps guide the Oasis in. I steer and pedal until the water starts to gets too shallow. I put the Mirages into neutral, and lift the rudder up. My wife continues to paddle to keep us heading in straight. I grab my shortened paddle and get the yak straight or put the stern in parallel the shore line. If there is no wave or wind action or both, my wife will often get out as I bring the stern around.

Then we take all of the gear paddles, pfds, coolers off the yak and put them on the shore. I get on the shore side and lift the Oasis up on its side in the water. Then my wife holds it steady while I insert the trax unit into its holes.

Then, we lower the yak, reload the gear and roll it up to the trailer. We put the bow on the rear trailer rack and remove the forward Mirage. We have a Malone sports trailer with the big black storage boxe. We store our PFDs seats and other articles that fit on the top. That way they are ready for the next trip, and we don't forget these needed items.

Then I lift up the rear and my wife gets the Trax unit as it drops down. Then, we pull the yak up and put it to one side to flip it upside down for storage as per Hobie's storage rules/guidelines.

When we get home I wash down the yak, the Mirage units with a hose and towel. We chain the yak to the trailer and the trailer to rings permanently attached to 2X24 border board on the outside of our house. We open the scuppers and put the Hobie cover on until the next trip. I disconnect the trail and pull my vehicle out of that area.

We store the $1000 total for the Mirage units, inside after they have been washed off, hand dried, re lubed and air dryed in our back yard out of sight of the road.

We have gotten this in and out routine to a precision drill. We can be ready to go in about 5 minutes and through with securing and cleaning the Oasis in our driveway when we get back home.

My wife jokes that her home chores take about 5 minutes and she can be showering while finish with the Mirages and other minor stuff.

_________________
2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

Sailmom -

I just picked my new Oasis last night. So far, I have only transported it in the bed of my full size (8ft bed) pickup, so it has been easy to load and unload. I will be loading on the top of a 2002 Subaru Legacy wagon pretty soon, and that will probably be the primary transport vehicle. I will let you know how that goes.

My wife and I are in our early 50's, and are of average fitness. We owned a heavy 17ft canoe in our younger years, and loaded it on a similar wagon with little trouble. I purchased a Hobie heavy duty cart, and used it getting the Oasis out of the store. It was easy to handle - like a very long wheelbarrow.

I think the ease of loading and unloading in very much a function of the height you must lift it. My Subaru top is about 4-1/2ft from the ground. My wife should be able to hold the bow at waist level, standing at the front of the Subaru, while I lift the stern above my head and walk the kayak stern around to the rear - loading the car from the side. That is what we did with our canoe. I also anticipate just sliding it on the rack from the rear (kayak upside down).

_________________
2011 Oasis (papaya)
2012 Revo (dune)

We loaded the Oasis on the Subaru this evening - it went pretty well. We carried the Oasis out of the garage using the T handles at each end, set it down next to the Subaru right side up, and rolled it over upside down. Mary picked up the bow and held it waist high with straight arms, while I picked up the stern and lifted it about head high. Mary moved sideways to just in front of the bumper, and I set the stern onto the rack and shoved it over to the center. I then took the bow and pushed the kayak back and to the center and evened it up on the rack. Took probably less than 3 minutes.

Taking down was the reverse, although Mary started going sideways before I got the Oasis centered over my head and we ended up rolling it over as we lowered down, but it we didn't lose complete control of it. The weight is not so much a problem as the size and awkwardness. The rudder gets in the way, and I will probably figure out a better way to handle that end.

The cart works well to move it around too, although you have to roll the kayak on its side or lift one end high to insert or remove it. I don't think we will have much problem handling the Oasis out of the water. We have already used one on the water, and were absolutely delighted with it. We are really looking forward to taking our Oasis out next week for its baptism. (Father's Day activities make it impossible this weekend.)

Sailmom - you are right: these really are fun boats!

Don't be put off by the size & weight - there are tricks and techniques:

Re the "dolly" - yes you will need a cart.

Personally I do not favour the scupper hole carts for a couple of reasons:
1 - you have to lift the kayak (heavy) and reach under it (awkward when holding a heavy kayak up in the air) to get the cart into place. Or you have to turn the kayak over onto its side which often isn't ideal on hard or muddy/sandy surfaces.
2 - the cart ONLY goes into the kayak where there is a set of scupper holes
3 - if you leave the kayak on the cart the bar on which the kayak rests will dent your pride and joy.

IMO you are better to get a cart that:
1 - has a stand - you simply stand the cart up beside the kayak and then lift the kayak onto the cart.
2 - has a strap which goes round the kayak - this allows you to position the cart at whatever balance point along the length of the kayak you want: if you position it more to the middle of the kayak you will find that the effort required to lift the boat up by one of the handles to tow it is much less
3 - has wide pads rather than a bar - that way you can leave the kayak on the cart for extend periods of time even in hot weather without getting a dent in your boat.
4 - breaks down easily for stowage inside the boat: then you can take it with you for security or to use at your lunch stop/destination - either way there will be no need to carry it all the way back to the car if you can take it with you.

You might want to check out the c-tug cart at http://www.c-tug.com though there are others I am sure.

As regards to car-topping a heavy kayak the answer (if you do not want to shell out lots of $ on fancy loading systems) is to load it one end at a time. To do this (assuming that your car is not too tall which will depend on your height vs your car's height) you need a station wagon, 2 roof bars, rubber kayak cradles for the bars and a thick blanket of some sort.
1.Attach the roof bars with their cradles to the car with the back ones as far back as you can get them.
2.Cover the back 2 cradles and the back of the car roof with the thick blanket (so that you don't end up scraping your paint job).
3.Drag the kayak on its cart so that one end is beside the car's rear wheel on the side nearest the cradles and the other end is on the ground behind the car lying along the centre line of the cradles on the bars - I load my kayaks with the back of the boat pointing towards the direction of travel.
4. When using cradles the kayak loads "right way up" so no need to turn it over, but if your cart is not one which will just drop off as you lift it you will need to de-attach the cart at this point so that the cart falls away as you lift the kayak. You might also want to put something under the rearmost end of the kayak if it is on a hard surface to avoid scratching it as you load it.
5. Lift the end of the kayak that is beside the wheel up and onto the back of the car roof (on the blanket) so that the end of the kayak is pointing up at an angle between the cradles.
6. Go to the other end of the kayak, lift it and slide the kayak forwards over the bars and into the blanket-covered rear cradles (the blanket allows the kayak to slide in the cradles rather than having them grip the kayak). When the kayak is in the right fore-aft position on the car drop the front in to the uncovered cradles on the forward bar.
7. lift the rear of the kayak up and remove the blanket covering the cradles and the car roof and strap down the kayak (with cradles you do not have to strap down super duper tight because the cradles should hold the kayak fore and aft and side to side)
8. unloading the kayak is essentially the reverse of the loading process.

Using this technique you are never lifting all of the weight of the kayak and it is MUCH easier than trying to lift the whole thing into the air like a weightlifter with a dumbell (or even a couple of weightlifters with a dumbell) to load it. Because the kayak loads right ways up you can leave the seats in place and you have access to the hatches and the parcel shelf under the bungees if you want to put things in/on it while transporting (I have not found that larger/heavier things get lost if you put them under the bungee - but you need to use common sense).

In fact I frequently fill our kayaks (Adventures and an Outfitter double) up with kayaking clobber before I load them. I definitely would not be able to lift them up on my own when full of clobber, nor can my wife and I working together (while she can just about manage the extra weight at one end she still struggles to lift it high enough to place it on the cradles on car because of the height). But I can load any of them, very easily, in fact, full of clobber, one end at a time in this way.

Hope this helps

Sailmom, as you can see, everyone has developed their own way to move their Oasis around to suit their own situation.

Three of us have Oases locally. We all use carts from the vehicle to the water -- either at the boat launch ramp or at the shore. We all load the boat with all our gear, roll it right into the water, then remove the wheels. Same thing coming out. We each do our boat handling unassisted (my friends are in their late 60's but in good shape) while our wives supervise, using variations on the method stobbo described. I attach the scupper cart while the boat is still in the air -- without any of stobbo's problems.

I use use the standard Hobie scupper cart -- it handles the load with no problems and is rated up to 150 lbs. The cart position on the boat makes it easy to lift. Life would be much more difficult without it!

Put the Oasis in the water for the first time. Took ~ 90 minute tour on the Willamette. When I mapped it out on Google Earth after I got home, I figured we went at least 5-3/4 miles in that time. Some of that was drifting, and we stopped and switched drives, as we have one w/Turbo fins and one w/o. Turbo has more resistance, but not a lot more. Hard to tell any speed difference, since we both pedaled all the time. We also got careless somewhere along the way and hit a Turbo fin on something and popped the mast end through the side It popped back in place though, and I will now try my hand at patching the hole I've seen elsewhere in the forum that some judiciously supplied heat should do the trick.

We used our scupper cart to move the Oasis around in the parking lot, and to and from the water. Worked really well. I felt especially good about the purchase when I watched another kayaking family poop out carrying their boat.

_________________
2011 Oasis (papaya)
2012 Revo (dune)

Some folk mentioned using a trailer for towing. I live in a housing development and don't have space to stow a trailer. I also have an older Mazda pick-up to move my 14.5' Oasis--small truck. The length is handled smoothly via a 'ladder extender' that plugs into my class II trailer hitch receptacle. The extender is 4'ish long which leaves 2'ish overhanging. Flags and reflector tape on yak and ladder extender helps increase awareness with other drivers. Extension pieces interconnect via pins and cotter(?) pins. Locking pins increase security against thieves. No problems to date. Whole set-up counting mounting class II hitch receptacle cost $400ish, a couple of years ago. Ladder extender comes in handy carrying long wood stock too, though it sometimes bottoms out over low spots in road. Carried four 5''x6''x16' pieces for a shed I'm building. No wheels and bearings to maintain, no trailer tag and registration, and extender pieces fit under my yak in the garage.