Mark: I guess it's all about expectations from your boat and what you like to do. It sounds like just cruising around enjoying the lake and just being out on the water will be your main thing. You will discover how suitable your lake is for sailing over time, even a light breeze (5-6 mph) is enough to sail the TI at the speeds you are talking without having to peddle at all. Only if the wind dies completely will you need to pedal. Don't worry much if your wife has no desire to pedal, one person can pedal the boat easily at the speeds you are talking (around 3-4mph) all day long as long as there is little to no wind and not a lot of waves. The boat glides very easily over the water on flat water and it's almost effortless propelling the boat. My wife and I have done many long excursions where we had to pedal for ten hours or more, the whole trick to it is just pedal at a leisure pace don't try to break any speed records, otherwise you get tired out easily for no reason (it's just not necessary to pedal hard or fast). When the wind is there open up the sail and use it for all you can get out of it, and relax your legs, like I said even a light breeze propels the boat nicely where you won't have to pedal constantly, as long as you not in a rush and your not a speed demon wanting to max everything out. I'm no athlete by any means, and am in my mid 60's, I'm pretty certain I could pedal your lake as you describe it all day long and not get bored with it (that's the kind of stuff we like to do), if the wind picks up then we would sail, if not no big deal we can pedal the boat all day if needed without getting tired. My wife has never been big on pedaling, this was our main reason for getting a tandem kayak vs two singles. She likes to go on the excursions but falls short when it comes to covering any distance, she figured out in tandem mode she can sit in the back and fake pedal, and we still get where were going just as easily. I call back to her are you pedaling, she say yes (no change in speed), I call back again are you pedaling, she says yes, I stop pedaling and the boat stops. We laugh about it, but to be honest I love her company I don't really care if she never pedals at all, with the TI one person pedaling can propel the boat just fine ( we couldn't do that with our old Oasis, it took both of us pedaling always). Honestly the TI is the fastest kayak Hobie makes, and it literally glides through the water (more to do with its length than anything special or magical). Keep in mind that when not sailing and there is little to no waves, when you are pedaling, the AMA's are out of the water typically on flat water, so there is very little difference in speed between kayak mode and adventure mode (with sail furled, and AMA's out), except for the weight difference of course. Exactly what your are talking about doing with the boat is what the boat was designed to do (probably better than anything else on the market or on anyone's drawings boards for years to come, I'm serious about this). We've been pedaling Hobies kayaks for almost ten yrs now, the first few times out as we developed our muscles we kept our trips short and manageable, but by the next summer we could take on pretty much anything, rivers, lake, even rapids (we are campers and spent many years just traveling all over the country launching in any body of water we could find (obviously we love kayaking) and have put on many thousands of miles on our many Hobie boats. Sure on my particular boat I have huge sails, and twin engines, but I live in the Florida Keys/Gulf coast and need to cover great distances in open water to pursue our main past time which is scuba diving and spear fishing. Even with all my extras I still pedal my boat at least 10-15 miles per week (this is my exercise program (ok I cheat a little, I get my 15 miles done in about an hour and a half vs what used to take me 6 hrs)) I suggest you just use the boat for a while and get used to it, you will discover it's vast capabilities without having to add anything to it, then later on if you want to get into more extreme stuff, all of us here are more than happy to help you. The TI was custom designed specifically for what you want to do without having to add a darn thing, even if your wife fake pedals like mine does. Hope this helps you Bob
|