Last fall while at my partner's family's house I tried a hobie SUP with MirageDrive. They also had a tandem kayak. I've wanted both a small sailboat and a kayak/canoe for a while, and thought the pedal drive system was amazing. I looked at Hobie's lineup and found the TI, and immediately said that was the boat for me.
I've been saving money and I'm ready to buy one. There didn't seem to be a lot here in the midwest used when I checked last fall, but before pulling the trigger on a 2024 from an online dealer, I did a quick check and found this one on Craigslist:
https://racine.craigslist.org/boa/d/zio ... 78329.htmlIt's a 2016 TI. Asking price is $8500. Appears to be in decent condition from the pics. It comes with:
- Trailer - Modified harbor freight. Has the Hobie cradles, a spare tire, and a storage box.
- Trampolines
- Splash Guards
- Electric trolling motor and battery
- DIY PVC sail riser which is also the trolling motor mount
- Lowrance Hook fishfinder with transducer
- DIY benches on the Akas
With a new model I was also planning a cheap trailer from Harbor Freight or Northern Tool, slightly modified. I estimate that buying a 2024, getting a trailer, trampolines, splash guards, and a fishfinder would run me $10,900. I had no plans on buying a trolling motor but I'd certainly try it and probably keep it if it came with one.
Questions I have:
- What should I look for when I inspect it? I saw a post saying to open the hatch and look for any plastic cracking around the sail mount, and also around the drive units. What else should I pay specific attention to?
- I saw the Hobie manual recommends you tie the hull and amas separately when trailering. The pictures show ratchet straps going from the trailer, over the ama, hull, other ama, and down to the trailer, which is what Hobie recommended NOT to do. How big of a deal is this? What would I check for to ensure this did not damage anything? For example, if there's hull deformation, how would I check that if I have never seen one of these in person before?
- If the inspection is good, does the asking price seem reasonable?
Not sure why the list items show up in font so big, so apologies for the font size mismatch.