Puget Sound and San Juan islands

Great pictures and looks like a great trip. We took our TI to Vancouver Island this summer but stowed it in our 22' toy hauler travel trailer. That really makes the ferry ride expensive. I bought a T-bone extender for very short distance hauling from camp site to launch. I would like to build a roof top system like yours so we wouldn't have to put the TI inside the trailer. It's not bad when we camp in one place for several days, but the hauling out and tying down is a PITA if you're moving nightly. Do you have any photos you can post of the rooftop rack without the boat on it? Is the prop on your trailer hitch just used for weight support or do you use it to help you get it up and down as well a la the "goal post" type loaders you can get.

A thought about launching. If the ramps to the boat docks aren't too steep (and in the San Juans, they can be at low tide), sometimes you can get the kayak down to the boat docks on wheels if you take off the amas and mast/sail and strap them on top of the center hull. Then you can assemble on the dock and slide it in.

I would be pretty skeptical of crossing the Rosario Strait from Anacortes due to currents and waves. I once had to sit out a day in Anacortes when the waves were way to big and uncomfortable for my Venture 23 of Newport.

Did the new seats keep you reasonably dry? I'm considering the Atwood SAS seats for my 2013 cause we just get way too wet with the stock Hobie seats.

I'd also like to see some closeup photos of your bow splash shield if you have them. Are those custom made. They look different than the ones you can buy on the web.

My wife sits in the front so I did a little extra to keep the front dry. I made the skirts and the lexan dodger, pictures are here viewtopic.php?f=69&t=11179&start=60 We hoth had kayaking spray gear (tops and bottoms) and both stayed mostly dry. One day we came back in some fairly windy conditions (filled in white caps) and got a little wet but not enough to get cold. I dont know if the 2105 seats made a big difference but I do think the 2015 TI as I have it set up is way dryer than the 2010 AI I sailed up until this year.

I was maybe a little over prepared for the current as I had a 2.5 hp gas outboard (thread here viewtopic.php?f=69&t=53785&start=45 ) and with this setup, I had no issue at all with currents but I was mostly sailing around Friday Harbor and Jackson beach, one time crossing to Lopez island (by pedal sail only) and then from Roche harbor out to nearly the end of Henry Island. I thought about going around Henry Island but this requires going through Mosquito pass which I understand gets some big current. That outboard runs the TI at 7 knots by itself, up near 8 knots if we add pedaling and over 9 knots if we have wind in the right direction. These speeds are higher than about any currents we may have encountered. I used about 1/2 gallon of gas the whole time including some sailing at Poulsbo meaning I probably motored maybe 15 miles but we pedal sailed a lot more than that even through some areas that had current. After the first day, I didnt even check the tide tables. The currents added a little "excitement" to the sailing.

I also had the safety leashes on (link to thread viewtopic.php?f=69&t=54811&start=15 ) which I was glad to have. I didnt hit anything with the ama but there is some driftwood floating around and at times we were doing close to 9 knots which would probably pop the sheer bolt in an impact.

The rack.. Ill have to post something later when I have the time to put together some pictures.

I put some pictures together of the kluge car top rack setup I did here

http://analogengineering.com/sail/hobie/roof_rack.html

Its way nicer to use the TI from a trailer (mine is back on a trailer now) but it also shows the versatility of the TI - you can sort of car top it. I just put 3975 miles on this setup mostly at around 73 mph and the best thing.. the boat stayed put on top of the car!!! This worked fine for us but cant say its the best way.. but maybe someone can get some ideas for there own setup.

I also took some video that shows about how dry my setup was - in the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=y0Ae5VrFspQ

San Juan Island is a fun place with the TI!!

Great engineering. This is an inspiration to me.

FYI, I got some ideas for what I did from this thread

viewtopic.php?f=73&t=54070&hilit=roof&start=15