Hobie Cat Forums

After reading the posts about surfing with an AI, I'm a little jealous. I'm a great lakes sail-yaker and we seldom need to worry about tides or eight-foot waves, but we do get some great wind, steady 20-30 mph and 2-3 foot waves (sometimes bigger). I also noticed mentions here and there of broken parts. I have had my share. I'm into my third year with two Adventure Islands and when an aka brace connector breaks off in 30 mph winds, the ama swings in and over you go, into the lake! I now carry an extra aka brace assembly taped inside my hull. Last Sunday I was sailing at Torch Lake in northern Michigan in some excellent wind and broke a rudder pin. The reason I'm bringing up all of this, is I think Hobie and regular AI sailors should have a standard list of "most likely to fail" parts to keep in stock. I had read in the forum a while back that steering handles sometimes strip, so I added one of those to my toolbox. I plan to try working up a definitive list, but I'm sure the rest of you AI users will have your own suggestions. Thanks for listening.

CliffSevak

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Cliff

Good being prepared for the worse, while enjoying the best.

Here's a couple of old posts on tool kits and spare parts.

http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=8424&highlight=

http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=10418&highlight=

Breaking parts when unprepared can rune a perfectly good day!

Kayaking Bob

Yikes....Every Tri has its limits......Thankfully this sailor certainly looked prepared.

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Sarasota, Fl
s/v BonaFide

G'Day Bob,
I'm interested to know what caused the capsize shown in your pic.
Is that ama floating away?
Anything more you can share?

That happened back on 11/9/2007.

"I'm interested to know what caused the capsize shown in your pic."
The plastic piece that holds the aka brace to the aka cracked and the whole cross-brace sunk.
She (Marielis) slowly rolled till she dumped out, 50 feet in front of me.

"Is that ama floating away?"
Nope, the ama is attached, just upside down.

Since then we tie the aka brace to the aka like below.

Kayaking Bob