TI Eyelet on AMA

What is the use of the metal eyelet by the carrying handle on the AMA?

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Bo Karlberg
Taby
Sweden
Sail Tandem Island No P1787 in the Stockholm Archipelago (some 40,000 islands and rocks)

For the future jib sail.

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Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

But don't hold your breath for that jib - the stress it put on the bow in early testing was more than they expected, so who knows when or if it will appear.

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Mitch

2010 Tandem Island
2010 Revolution
Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore

My sailing blog
Our sailing videos

That's a bummer, was looking forward to the Jib.

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I'd rather be sailing,
Mark.

I agree that the front cleat is not strong enough to hold a jib or Genoa sail, I have a jib/genoa sail on my TI. I built an external mount on the bow that can withstand around 1600 lbs of pull ( I'm an engineer). Even with that I don't put my big sails out except in light winds (more typical where I live in Sarasota, FL). I had the jib/genoa and main up one day in higher winds (> 20 mph) and the entire front of the boat submerged completely about 1 ft underwater, and never came up again until I got the sails reefed/furled in (I call it nautilus mode). All kidding aside in other words, just strengthening the front cleat doesn't solve the basic problem when trying to add more sail area to the boat, the power from the larger sail area submerges the boat completely in higher winds (anything over 15 mph) on a reach, that can't be overcome without a major re-design of the boat itself.

That's pretty interesting. We've had our new TI out a half dozen times now, and did about fifteen miles yesterday in fifteen kts. of wind. Two other days we were seeing 17-20 kts with gusts to 25. We have noted that the main wants to bury the bow in those conditions.

Is that the reliable sign that it's time to reef in some main? When the bow hatch tends to stay under water more than not?

I have been eyeing the Hobie sail that came with our inflatable i14t, which we are no longer using ( got a new TI for my birthday!!) and thinking it would make a good jib....

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Island life in the Devil's Triangle:
http://2gringos.blogspot.com/