2015 Mirage Adventure Island—What’s in a name?
Where to start, that is the question. Everything I’ve seen seems to be a logical improvement over the pre-2015 AI model. So, if you ask, “what are the deficiencies, the tradeoffs?” There are a large number of improvements; only time and user experiences will suggest further improvements. My purpose here is to give some of the physical comparisons of the AI (2006-2014) and the 2015 AI. Some things like the centerboard vs the daggerboard, are like comparing apples and oranges. Personally, I like the idea of a centerboard, but it depends on the type of sailing you do. If the 2015 AI is the first AI you have owned, the question cb vs db will never come up.
First, however, the name—now there is a point I could argue. My wife and I have a place in the mountains of Northern New Mexico—we are at 9600’ (ca 3200 m). Our street was never named, simply called “switchback 1” to distinguish it from “switchback 2” and several other “switchbacks” in the area. In 1989, when my wife, Nancy, was President of the American Dietetic Association, we spent the whole year there, and our street needed a name. We chose, “Coyote Lane.” We even had a nice, engraved street sign made, and I bolted it on the corner telephone pole. The sign was stolen within a few years, but the name stuck. Our area is now a small, incorporated city in NM, and our street has an official street sign. It bears the name, “Coyote Lane.”
That is a long story, but it may explain why I think the 2015 AI needs a name to distinguish it from everything that went before—I think it is that different. If you simply saw the progression of names, 2006 AI, 2007 AI….2010 AI….2014 AI, 2015 AI, etc., you would think not much that happened to the AI over those years. Frankly, in my mind, the only significant change from 2006 to 2014, was the change from the Rube Goldberg rudder to the vertical rudder in the 2011 AI. So, with the AI looking rather stagnated, I was beginning to look around at alternative boats. The Tandem Island was not one of them because it is too heavy for your average senior citizen, of which I am reluctantly a long-time member. Fortunately, along came the 2015 AI—it has changes, lots of them, big and small. They are everywhere: dramatic new amas, sleeker hull with more free board, a 3-batten sail which will clear your head, centerboard in place of a daggerboard, “glide” technology in the Mirage Drive, and a spectacular, new elevated seat. Of course, there are small changes, the akas are spaced and sized the same as the Tandem Island, the mast is 15-18” longer (depends on where you start your measurement), amas which fold in parallel to the hull (rather than angle outward in the pre-2015 AI—I almost picked off a tourist along the Tamiami Trail here in south Florida with an ama, which stuck out much further than the side of my car. I’ll bet he won’t be standing on the edge of the pavement anymore. Good lesson for him—maybe save his life from a future accident.) In any case, a folded, parallel ama is good, even if we all have to buy a new set of cradles—it may save lives and prevent lawsuits.
Bottom line, the 2015 AI is VERY different from everything that went before. No problem calling it an “Adventure Island” to indicate its heritage. But, there has to be more, because it is so much more. I’ve given it a name, like we named our street, Coyote Lane. These are simple boats, a simple name will suffice. The 2015 AI should be known as the "Adventure Island 2" or simply “AI 2,” and that is the designation I will use.
Keith
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