Weight Distribution when soloing TI

Hello everyone,

I am seriously thinking of purchasing a TI. Probably 70 percent of the time it will be used with two people, but there will be occasions when I solo it as a kayak and as a sailboat.

I weigh 250. Which seat (forward or aft) is the best when soloing as a kayak and as a boat. I have heard some people say that at my weight, the bow would be out of the water if I sat in the rear seat. If that is true, would the stern and rudder be out of the water if I sat in the front seat?

Thank you for any assistance you can give. The TI is a big investment, and I want to make sure I have all the necessary information, as there are none to try out around here.

Brett

Well I weigh more than you, and find sitting in the front seat is perfect for me. No problems with rudder control or ploughing into waves either. I can't upload photos on this phone, but I have sailing shots from side on which show my hull sitting "on its marks".

Go for it, you will have a ball!!!

_________________
Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

I weigh 300. When I sit in the back seat the bow does rise some, but it's still sailable. I don't particularly care for it, the wind pushes the bow around a lot more and I get a lot of hull slap on waves which drives me batty over time. Adding some extra weight toward the front of the boat helps, but I rarely carry enough with me to make a difference.

Front seat is just fine. I also built some wood hakas that can support me and hike out on them when in higher winds.

The front seat is pretty close to the center of the hull, works out fine. To raise the stern out of the water you'd have to sit around the mast.

Really the choice of which seat to use is just down to personal preference. There are many of us on both sides of that with plenty of reasons why we prefer one over the other.

That's one of the coolest features of the TI, there is no right or wrong seating (it's a great debate on the forum, and is split around 50/50 among people driving solo). Fact of the matter it sails fine from either position, I sometimes switch up just for somethin to do. The boat has two complete rigging setups for both the front and back seat positions, and I keep both in working order, I think of my TI like a small airplane that has two steering wheels and complete controls (I'm a pilot as well), when I take new people out they do all the sailing (or flying), but if they do somethin really stupid I can jump in and help recover. However the TI is so easy to sail most everyone picks it all up on the first outing (really easy to sail).
Personally I really like the trampolines, and like to lay out on them on long sailing legs sometimes, but all that is preferences that you will develop for yourself, some guys just love their HAKA's.
In kayak mode (without the big sails and AMA's) you will be pleasantly suprised, even solo you will find the TI to glide thru the water effortlessly like nothing else out there (because of it's long length, which in kayaks means everything). In kayak mode when solo you will likely stay in the front, but some of the expedition guys sit in the back and load hundreds of lbs of their gear in the front, it works fine either way the whole key is balancing the loads obviously, and boy can you load a ton of stuff (and passengers) into TI's. I consider the TI to be the best family boat on the market today in this new age (who can afford powerboats anymore lol).
Hope this helps
Bob

Try this - sit the in rear seat, but put any gear you take along in the forward seat. That will negate any tendency of the bow to ride too high. It's good if it rides just a tad up, and with some attention to weight distribution you should be able to achieve that.

250 lbs and 6'7 here. I fit just fine in this boat on the #6 pedal setting. (It goes to 7). And I sit in either seat, depending on what I feel like doing.

Fishing is more convenient from the back seat for bringin' them in. It also appears to be slightly faster when sailing if you're planning on sitting in the seats the whole time. With a set of trampolines though, I move to the front seat sometimes so that I can hike out onto the tramps to balance weight and grease out a little bit more speed. But the front seat is a wet ride if you've got good wind.

To answer your questions specifically though- the rear seat is better when soloing as a kayak. Either seat works great when in full blown sailing mode. The bow will not be out of the water if you're in the back, even if you're standing up and jumping up and down. The stern and rudder will not be out of the water when you're in the front seat. Nor will they be out if you're standing up on the very front of the boat.

Your weight isn't an issue. Not even a little bit. To go further- sometimes when it's a chillier day my girlfriend will scoot into the backseat with me to cuddle up. She'll sit on the floor in front of my vantage seat (with the pedals removed). So that's about 380 lbs in the back seat, and the bow still doesn't come up enough to cause any concern.

The TI is a big investment. I bought mine without any knowledge of sailing and without having even sat in one. And it was simply the best investment ever. When you pull the trigger on one, make sure you invest in an easy way to transport it around, whether it be a trailer or trolly. I wouldn't car-top this thing- too much of a hassle to set up, take down, and stress on the back.

Cheers.

Perhaps this photo will help you make up your mind. At the time of the photo, I weighed 300#, and you can see that my TI is sailing perfectly "on her lines" as designed.

_________________
Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

and to keep the answer as complicated as possible.

Front seat is nicer in a tack. I usually have to lift the sheet line over my head from the rear seat.

If you like to watch the sail tell tails.. your neck will be happier from the rear seat

If you collapse the ama often (like for docking), the controls are better setup for the rear seat.

I think my boat leaks a little from the rear control lines and from the rear seat, you probably get a little more water leaked in there as the rudder will be deeper in the water. From the front seat, this area would probably stay dryer, maybe less water ends up in the hull. On the other hand.. more of the rudder will be in the water always from the rear seat. Each vertical inch is maybe 7 to 10% of the rudder area

It “seems” to me that whatever mechanical mechanism that allows steering from both the front and the rear seat works a little better from the front seat..

You will likely end up having to modify the controls more for sailing solo from the rear. I ended up modifying both the furler control and the sheet. You may not have to modifiy anything for the front position sailing.

The TI from the rear seat is just absolutely sweet downwind in windy conditions.

Whatever seat you pick solo, you will probably stay there when you add a second person. If you pick the rear, your guest will have the wetter ride. If you pick the front, your guest will have to deal with the sheet during tacks.

At 210 pounds, I really dont have much issue with the bow "pounding" from the rear seat (where I sail from).

You see people of all weights who like either seat.. that should also tell you something..

In the conditions I pretty much sail in most of the time these days, I don't think it makes much difference which seat I'm sitting in,
In 4-5 mph winds it makes little difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q9SsExPxtQ



Here is another video of my TI with me in the front. If you look at the bow of the boat it is around 3 inches out of the water, I think this is caused by the lift created by the wing sail which is tilted forward quite a bit at bottom creating lift to the bow ( I think this is a major key to everything). With the spray skirts and tramps I stay pretty dry unless I crash thru a big boat wake head on. Obviously with 55 lbs of engines in the back, this effects balance, so my rig is pretty much balanced and configured for the front seat. The boat actually planes pretty well since I modified the rear end to look like the butt of a WETA ( at least I think so anyways).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1OjgyqBsXk



I think bottom line, sit in whichever seat your comfortable in.

Yea I know all my videos are extremely boring.
Bob