TI Sail & Mast Road Rash

Mast, sail and bag badly damaged...

After sailing this morning, I decided to visit the Oklahoma City Regatta Festival. This is a national rowing (shells & kayaks) competion and related festival. So, with my trailer in tow, I show up at the event and because I have a trailer, they parked me amongst the collegate team and other team trailers (probably 30-40 of them). These were large trailers holding many shells (length looked greater than 30 feet). Needless to say, I looked very out of place and many people were staring at me and my Hobie boats (TI and Adventure). While I was visiting the event, I suspect the rear strap holding my mast/sail bag to the trailer were sabotaged. Either that or when I loaded it after sailing this morning, I clipped the rear strap together without putting it over the bag (dangling underneath). I specifically remember clipping this strap and sinching it down tight over the mast and sail. Unfortunately, I did not check all the tiedowns on the trailer before leaving the festival. Upon arriving home after the 15 mile highway drive, I notice the mast is on the ground, not dragging from the back, but the front was tipped down and spearing into the roadway. This was impossible to see from the rearview mirror of my Yukon XL while driving. Here are some pics of the damage.









I think the mast will be fine to use like it is, but the sail will need repairs. I think the long batten is salvagable too. I should be thankful it wasn't worse, and it could have been much worse.

Lesson learned - Always check your tiedowns after a stop.

_________________
Mark
2010 Tandem Island
2010 Adventure
Hobie Cat 14T
Home built sailboat (in progress)

Edmond, OK

OW! I feel for you.

_________________

Hobie Island Sailing since 2006

Ugh! That sucks. Hope you can get things back in order.

_________________

I'd rather be sailing,
Mark.

Ouch!

That's a sad sight to see but I would clean it up, repair the sail and take it out. Doesn't look like it's completely dead yet.

_________________
Mitch

2010 Tandem Island
2010 Revolution
Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore

My sailing blog
Our sailing videos

yakaboutit,

I feel for you. I did something stupid and thought I destroyed my TI when I first got it.

My trailer is the older galvanized version that Hobie used to sell. It is set up for two boats side by side.

I picked up my TI at the dealer after they fixed a problem with my rudder and I did not have another boat on the other side of the trailer. I was in a big hurry to meet some people so was going a "little" faster than the posted limit getting on the ramp which curved to the right. I heard a noise and looked in my side view mirror. The trailer was up on one wheel and the TI appeared to be dragging on the ground and there were sparks flying out from under it. I slowed down and the trailer dropped down on 2 wheels. I felt sick walking back to check it out and was surprised to see that the only damage was to a piece of angle iron I used to increase the width of the cross bars on that side of the trailer to hold the TI cradles.

Moral of my story is if you're carrying one boat on a trailer designed for 2 boats you need to be really carefull. Actually it's probably a good idea to be really carefull whenever you're driving.

_________________
Jerry D.
St. Johns, Florida
2010 TI
2008 AI

Yikes! I feel your pain...

Looks like you have to at least sew in a new nylon strap to the top of your mast and make sure you sew stops or patches to prevent tears from going any further.

Might also have to inspect the rest of you mast. Hopefully there's no cracks that resulted in the joint at the mid-section.

From old fiberglass repair experience, it looks like you might be able to repair the top of your mast. If you can get a replacement plastic mast top from Hobie, then you can use some fiberglass repair methods to fill in and strengthen the top of your mast.

Hope this helps...

cliffs2yak

Cliffs2yak,

Thanks for the advice. My parents own a fabric fabrication shop. So, I think they can fix up the sail and replace the webbing at the top. One of the bigger problems with sewing on patches and restiching where the stitches were ripped out is putting more needle holes in the fabric, which will shorten the life of the sail.

The mast does not appear to have suffered any damage other than at the tip top as shown in the pics. I have not worked with fiberglass before, but I can probably figure that out. I wonder if carbon fiber works the same as fiberglass - to keep the material consistent with OEM and the weight down. I'll be interested to see if anyone at Hobie comments on the condition of the mast and how to fix it.

_________________
Mark
2010 Tandem Island
2010 Adventure
Hobie Cat 14T
Home built sailboat (in progress)

Edmond, OK

Mate that brought a tear to my eye seeing that, bad luck for sure. As others have said, it doesn't look catastrophic and most should be reparable, not perfect but should service many more years all the same.

Agree that you need to attend to the mast top with fiber glass or carbon if that is what is needed, the edge as it is will fray becoming quite sharp and dangerous to fingers and sail life.

Best of luck cleaning it up cobber and hope it's not to long before you are back on the water.