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Daft:
Hobies model years typically begin in September, current model year is 2015. I don't have a Hobie inflatable but am familiar with them. I had a similar situation with our hard sided mirage kayaks as you (many low bridges, and mangroves that we had to pass under). The sail kit on the inflatable is the same sail we had on our revo's with the only difference being the inflatable sail has a couple stay lines added for strength. The stay lines easily clip to the sides and can be removed easily when you want to remove the sail. The sail itself just slips into a 7/8's hole in the hull and can easily be slipped in and out to pass under bridges. We had simple PVC furlers on all of our sails (lots of posts on how to make them, they cost about $2 bucks to make). When we would get to a bridge we would furl the sail, pop it out, pass under the bridge, then put it right back up, took all of ten second, and you can do while pedaling underway (no need to park and get out). I believe in your case with an inflatable you will only need to unclip the stays before furling, then just furl the stay lines into the sail when you furl it up, then when you put the mast back in you unfurl, then catch the stay line and clip them back on. I would assume in light wind or short distances between bridges you can just let the stays dangle. Actually we added our own stays onto a couple of our revo's trying to get better sailing performance, that were modeled after the Hobie inflatable sail kit.
When you plan to take the sail up and down often, just forego the fore stay line, and tie it bundled up at the top, if you think about it most of the force of the sail is always side to side, or forward, very seldom back, if it was me I would just leave the fore stay line off, in light winds or you plan to have the sail in and out a lot. If you don't want to do that, you can put a longer forestay line on that goes up to the bow, then loops back to the cockpit, so you can release the forestay line to lift the sail out, then when you put the sail back in you simply pull the fore stay line tight again (from in the cockpit), then tie it off to a cleat in the cockpit area (saves having to get out of the boat). This is probably what I would do in your situation. Actually I would just add a line and eyelet to the bow, that the forestay line clips to (like an anchor trolley line), that allows you to set and release the forestay line from inside the cockpit.
We have a couple non Hobie inflatable kayaks that we tow behind our TI when we have too many people, they stow nicely in the back of our car. I wish they were Hobies though, I keep my eye out for used ones, hoping to pick a used one up, but used ones in good condition are very hard to find.
I don't think the inflatables change much from year to year, as far as I know the only recent change is the new mirage drive. My opinion is the new mirage drive is not worth holding your breath for, and holding out buying an inflatable for. The older mirage drive that came with 2014's and older are still really good, and I have heard that the older Mirage drives can be upgraded to the latest roller bearing design for around $160.00 bucks or so if someone just had to have the latest mirage drive (though I have no idea why, I'm perfectly happy with the old mirage drives).
Hope this helps you
Bob
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