First sail with outriggers, need spinnaker

I took my first sail with my new Hobie ama installed on the Adventure. The winds were light, but with gusts and I felt completely stable. Without the outriggers I was dumping wind out of the sail to keep stable and could not enjoy the ride. Ready to dump the mainsheet at all times.
With the outriggers, I could trim the sail, clamp it down in the clam cleat and enjoy the ride.
The Adventure seems to sail upwind better than downwind! I think I need a spinnaker. Has anyone fashioned one for a kayak? Seems like it would be an easy attachment to the Hobie mast and outriggers as anchor points. I did a search on the internet and found a few, but they were very expensive for such a simple sail, maybe they included the mast and mounts?

Thanks for the sailing report!

I haven't heard of anyone making spinaker for a kayak yet, but there are several downwind optimized sails that have been mentioned in the forums. Also, I'm sure now that the Adv Island is out, someone is going to eventually experiment with a spinaker for it.

Down wind?

Sail it like we do catamarans, tack down wind and keep the speed up. Straight down wind is slow and unstable. The Hobie 16 sails best (fastest in a race) downwind by keeping the apparent wind (true wind direction plus the forward speed of the boat makes the "apparent" wind more forward) at 90 degrees.

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

The 16 hauls big booty that way and downwind jibes feel like the boat is on rails . Add a spinnaker and you have to stand on the bow to keep it in the water
kepnutz

BTW Matt, when is Hobie going to do a spi for the Getaway. Where I sail (Puget Sound) usual winds are very light and I'd love a spi.

I have an Adventure Island on order. The sail look quite big and should haul the yak nicely even in light wind, but I look for ways to increase the downwind ability also.

Note: I've tried kites, but they actually need quite a bit of wind to work. In light winds, the kite takes off, then the ak starts to move and reduces the apparent wind for the kite which then proceeds to drop and act as a sea anchor!

Dead down wind... I use a ram air kite, sometimes called a parafoil, pulling from near the bow of the yak. Haven't done it since I got my GPS, but it is quick. And it's only about 1.5 m2. Fits into the pouch on the back of my seat.

Brian C

Well, I improved my downwind sailing quite a bit by adding a boom, or as Roadrunner has dubbed it a "Boombat" boom and batton. http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=4755
It's a 1/4" fiberglass rod along the sail foot, slipped inside the sewn pocket / slieve.

My next attempt will be to add a jib instead of a spinnaker. Just a line from the from boat handle up to the top of the mast for the jib luff, a couple fairleads with or without blocks and cam cleats. The sail itself is a simple triangle shape, should be easy enough to make. The jib luff might actually counteract some of the bending of the mast? What do you guys think?

Hey there Greg
That jib plan sounds like a real possibility . I would have to wonder if the mast can carry the extra firepower without failing ? Will the mast be stiff enough without side shrouds to not bend sideways under load with the Jib and the Main up and still allow both sails to stay trimmed. If the mast can handle it then it would remain to be seen if mast tube can withstand the extra load without cracking the hull in that area. But what a great idea. Maybe you could add a stiffener rod inside the two mast pieces and beef up the mast tube area with an additional sleeve inside it or around it below deck somehow. If it does work you will be very busy out there..pedaling , steering , trimming the main sheet and two jib sheets all while hauling boo-yang with a ear to ear grin.
Keep us posted
-Kepnutz-

Good point Kepnutz, maybe I need to add side shrouds that attach to the fairlead mounts. This should stiffen-up the mast to handle the extra load. I need to play with the design a bit.

So I mocked-up the side shrouds and think they will work well, especially if some or all of the lines are elastic (don't know if I want pulleys there or not). Add just a clip on each end to a deck loop and set-up will be fast and easy. The same goes for the jib sail, I'll include some in-line stiff elastic in the leech. I mostly sail in very light winds here on the Ohio River so I can use all the sail I can get. If by chance we get 15-20 mph winds, I'll just not put up the jib.

This should not require any more effort than a regular sailboat. With the Ama I can cam off lines as they are trimmed without fear of tumping over. So a typical tack or jibe will require no adjustment, because the main and jib will just flop to the other side, no boom to smack your head. All other points of sail are not much more, pick your destination and adjust each sail as necessary, pedal if you want, if not keep the flippers down.