Island Adventure wont stay head-to in strong winds

I just inherited a 2008 IA, and took it out for my first sail.
Everything worked great, except that in strong winds on the port tack close hauled, I cannot keep the boat head-to wind. It falls off till most of the momentum is gone, and the rudder becomes responsive again.
The rudder was locked down, and it seems to be secure when I check it out of the water - any idea what could be causing this behavior?

Likely one of a couple things. Sailing too close and over sheeted. Or the rudder is actually coming up. If you are on Port, the old rudder system could come up when trying to turn right. Might cause the boat to round up.

Consider the larger balanced rudder for the twist and stow.
http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=44485&p=34026#p34026

Consider the up / down rudder line system.
http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=44482

All shown in the catalog or ask your dealer.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

You mean you are having trouble pinching? Or is it keeping her in/out of irons?

If you came from a monohull background, you'll be pretty frustrated by the way our tris point. Plus the old 2008 rudders were easily overpowered. The new ones are a great improvement in strong wind.

Also, our furling sails are unevenly shaped foils. As your twist and stow rudder will be when it's stressed. The rudder and up/down lines could just be stretching, due to age. Inspect them. Adjust them.

On the water, you can usually improve things just by using the dagger, reefing some, and pedaling slightly to maintain bearing. Also, my favorite: pulling the drives and hiking out.

Otherwise you may have an alignment issue with the AKAS/AMAS. Or some other source of drag on the port side.

_________________
The Wind Is Your Friend...

I find your post a bit confusing as well, so please forgive me if I misunderstand.

If you are describing going "into irons", where you cannot complete a tack and the rudder stops working, leaving you stationery until you drift around until the rudder becomes effective once again, there are several things you can do.
1. pedal your gut out while holding the rudder hard over in the direction you want to go, or
2. simply turn the rudder in the OPPOSITE direction, don't pedal, and just wait. As the wind blows you backwards, water flow on the rudder will swing the stern , automagically bringing the bow round in the direction you wanted it to go. Job done! This is called "wearing ship" and is the way old sailing ships used to tack (sometimes they would bear off instead and do almost a full circle till on the other tack).

I think there are plenty of hints in what others have posted, but I would tend to aim at the different sail shape if the sail has been partly furled (does it act differently with sail fully out or partly furled?) That might point to a solution. Over flattening the sasil can also make it harder to get going coming out of a tack, so it is worth letting out a few inches of mainsheet and see if it helps.

The older model AI has a twist-n-stow rudder, which definitely can lose more effectiveness on one tack than the other. Hobie even provided the ability to fully lock the rudder down, losing the ability to raise the rudder from the cockpit. Either way, if your model can take the upgrade kit to the up and down rudder, this is well worth it, as the older rudder blade could be overpowered by the AI's sailing loads.

Please let us know if the advice given by all of us helps... there are plenty of wise heads here who can sort you out.

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

If your used to sailing lasers and sunfish, the AI is a different animal. Most multi-hulls and cats don't tack as well as mono's just by their nature. And the AI doesn't point into the wind all that well, your lucky if you can get 40 degrees off the wind without a jib (that's why some of us add jibs so we can point closer to the wind. This is where the mirage drive comes in really handy. I find that peddling lightly all the time that I'm sailing really makes the boat come alive especially in light air. You can pinch a little higher into the wind and still maintain forward motion, however if you stop peddling when pinched that high the boat stalls and stops or you have to turn away a bit. Peddling thru your tacks is kind of a given with AI/TI's. My opinion is the boat is not a true sailboat so why pretend it is, you will only be disapointed. Just use it as it was designed (utilizing the mirage drive). Besides a little exercise never hurt anyone, on my TI I typically peddle at a light walking pace always, I can maintain that walking pace cadence peddling all day long if neccessary, no reason to exhaust yourself.
I used to own a sunfish, if I try to sail my TI like I did my sunfish I just get frustrated, the AI/TI simply can't perform that way very well, however a few pumps on the mirage drive makes all the problems go away, making the AI/TI way more versatile in all conditions (as designed). I keep clear in my mind that my boat is a peddle boat with sails, my opinion is if you remove the mirage drive and pretend it's a 'purist' sailboat you will be sadly disapointed and frustrated.
As is my opinion is the AI/TI is light years above all the others versatality wise, there is no day you can't go sailing with an adventure boat 'no wind,,,no problem'. If you ever had to swim your sunfish 2 miles back to shore when the wind died, then you know where I'm coming from.
All the above only applies in light air, in heavy air the AI/TI comes alive (don't need no stinken mirage drive lol), the boat performs on conditions way beyond anything my sunfish could ever hope for. With my old sunfish if the wind picked up I would tend to capsize a lot which is no problem when your young, not so fun when your old (lol). We have never capsized our TI, and have been out in some really rough stuff.
Bottom line a sunfish/laser works best in 7-12 mph winds, (unless your an expert and very athletic) the AI/TI if fine in zero to around 25mph winds (pretty much anyone, even us old guys).
I have yet to see a laser or sunfish more than a mile or two from launch, they appear to enjoy just zig zagging around small areas, I have never seen anyone fishing from one. We often take our adventure 25-30 miles from launch, and use it for anything and everything we dream up (our SUV on the water).
Hope this helps
FE

Thanks for the responses, I'll clarify a bit.

I have decent experience sailing my wife's H16, friend's FS and have had some experience with larger keel boats. I can tell the H16 and IA don't point as well, and I quickly learned that the mirage drive will push me through irons quite nicely.

I searched the forums and found lots of threads talking about the IA having trouble turning to starboard while on a port tack in strong winds - I think I'm having the opposite problem.

Everything is fine in light airs - I enjoy the pedaling and sail on all points well enough.

Close hauled with light air on the port tack (wind coming from the port side, correct?) is fine. Then the wind increases, the IA starts tearing along, and quickly falls off the wind to starboard, no matter how hard I crank on the tiller to turn to port, to keep it pointed into the wind. It falls off to a broad reach, and I regain rudder control.

I can sail close hauled in the same winds on the starboard tack with no problem. At no point was the wind strong enough to make me consider reefing the sail.

There is a small amount of play in the left/right rudder control lines that I plan on correcting, but the rudder down line seems secure when the rudder is down and the line is tightly engaged in the cleat.

Thanks for the advice!

Maybe try adjusting the dagger board position? Less board will help balance the rig. Tighten the rudder lines. Weird that it wants to go right and the rudder won't help. That is opposite of the issue of the rudder coming up. But... be sure the rudder IS staying down when loaded. Lower it ion land and when standing at aft... pull on the blade. You can tighten the down rudder line inside the boat.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)