I was out again yesterday doing my regular exercise routine on my Tandem Island around Sarasota bay and had an 'EPIPHANY' (an enlightening realization).
It appears my boat is unique for some strange reason.
Yesterday was my 5th trip out in a week ( I was bored at home and the wife is away on business). I was out powersailing around Sarasota bay doing my exercise routine (I pedal 100% of the time whenever I am out).
There were a lot of sailboats out yesterday but there was very little wind (<5mph) so pretty much every sailboat out there big and small were just sitting dead in the water with all their sails up.
I started thinking about it, and I don't recall ever running across any sunfish, lasers, and really small dingies more than about a half mile from the harbor, they seem to just tack back and forth in front of the harbor, but never appear to go far, and don't appear to ever have a destination. And I have never seen anyone fishing from one. (that's one epiphany)
All the larger sail boats, what are they doing when they are just sitting in one spot (in irons) when the wind dies sometimes for hours, they must play cards or something (that's two epiphanies). Add to that how in the heck do they get back to the harbor when there is no wind, quite a few of the boats I saw had no motors (unless they were inboard motors that I couldn't see). When I was younger we would just paddle the sunfish back to shore with our hands if the wind dies, how do you even reach down to the water with your hands on a 40 footer (LOL).
I always look at every sailboat I go near, and have never seen any type of wing sail on any of them (ever), either wing jib or mainsail, do I have the only one, I just can't imagine that as efficient as wing sails are (in my experience), you would think every boat would have one (that's three epiphanies).
Yesterday I circled Sarasota bay (about 15 miles total for the day), the bay was like glass (no waves). In total I used one dollar worth of gas. Just as a test I started my motor before raising my sails, I set the throttle to 1/4 throttle (like usual) and the boat sped up to 3.5 mph, I immediately began pedaling and sped up to 4mph. I then opened up my sails and the boat immediately sped up to 6 to 6.5 mph (my average speed on my GPS was 6mph for the day, and my top speed was 8.3), never varied the throttle. Just the wing jib alone or the main sail alone doesn't seem to work, either/or only gets me to 5mph, but working together with the mainsail pulled as tight as I can get it, the boat consistently goes between 6 and 8.5 mph, If you go to the thread Powersailing the TI (
viewtopic.php?f=71&t=49014) you can see many of my GPS tracks and results from many trips now, so this was not just a fluke occurrence yesterday (that's four epiphanies)
I have over 5000 sailing miles on my TI's over the last 3 1/2 years, always with a jib sail and always with a motor mounted on the boat. I have attempted power sailing before, using just my standard (non wing) jibs and my old Island hopper motor which is a 4 stroke 2hp gas motor, the Honda is a 2.3hp 4 stroke and weighs slightly more than the Island hopper did (29 lbs). Here is an old video of me powersailing with my old setup, it was very painful and loud, and seriously just not worth the effort, plus that motor used a lot of gas, I would get around 30 minutes of run time on a tank of fuel at full throttle, with the Honda at 1/4 throttle I get 3-4 hours of run time on one tank (same size tanks on both motors (1/3 gallon).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiK_GM_U9pY[/youtube]
That was an old video of the island hopper posted over a year ago, basically with the motor on full (very loud), without the sails open the boat went 4.5mph, with all the sails 5.5 mph, and that was about it, hardly worth the effort in my opinion (that's five epiphanies).
Now here is a video of my latest setup (previously posted on Powersailing the TI), this shows the wing jib, and the Honda running a little over 1/4 throttle (I discover that after making the video, if you listen to the engine rpm compared to some of the other videos, the rpm is a little higher (oops, probably the reason for the higher average speed)).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cTju3DYzPA[/youtube]
Here is the GPS log from that trip in the video:
That makes 5 epiphanies all in one day.
The questions I have for everyone is why are there no other boats like mine out there, my boat appears to be unique, none of this stuff is rocket science or expensive, it's all actually pretty simple stuff. For those that are not into gas motors, I see absolutely no reason the gas motor could not be switched out with an Evolve system, adding solar panels and a spare battery would extend the range in my opinion to all day. Think about it my hybrid TI gets better fuel economy than the best hybrid cars out there, I think that's awesome, but the funny thing, nobody seems to care LOL. It's not like it's overly complex or anything, basically you just start the motor, start pedaling, and open up the sails, nothing complex about it, and it doesn't seem to care which direction the wind is coming from at all, and appears to work just fine in even almost no wind.
My next question is at least in my experience exploiting the tri-power capabilities of the Tandem Island (wind, pedal, and electric/solar, or small extremely fuel efficient gas hybrid) in my mind is the future of boating (my opinion). People are really tired of spending a fortune in fuel (rightfully so) for very expensive powerboats and jetski's. Most Island owners and kayak owners that I talk to are former powerboat or large sailboat owners, but could no longer afford to keep them (our situation). Now this doesn't mean that now days people don't like the water, everyone still loves to go out on the water (especially around here), it's just few can afford that luxury (and fuel) any longer.
This is just my opinion of course (and I'm sure I will hear about it), but in my opinion the days of everyone joining yacht clubs and walking around in polo shirts and white shorts are long gone many years ago. There is still a small community of people that are still into sailing around bouys, and pitching their skills against each other in restricted one design classes, where you can't change your boat from factory specs (not even a screw). My opinion of that whole one design system created by the industry manufactures is just like the inkjet printer industry, where they sell the printers at cost, then make 1000 times the revenue on the ink and supplies (we were all suckers on that one). Hey to each their own, and if that's what these people like to do, more power to them, that’s not the point of this thread.
My opinion is if companies want to attract new people to sailing and being on the water, following that really old horse is not the way to go. My opinion is people still like to go out on the water, but can't afford the expensive powerboats and jetski's, and the fuel (though that’s probably what displaced most of the sailing industry in the 70's and 80's). Yet families still want a means to go out and spend the day on the water. I still see a limited market for that club sailing for the people who just like that stuff, but I feel that's a very small crowd. I see the typical purchasers of boats in the near future mass market as young families, husband, wife, and kids, or Grand parents who grew up with boating (more so powerboating then sailing), and wanting to spend time with kids, grand kids and friends out on the water, a group 10,000 times larger than the sailing crowd of late. The vast majority have never sailed before, and have no desire or interest whatsoever in joining a yachting clubs and running around in white shorts, most are just regular people that want to go out and enjoy a day out on the water once in a while with their family without having to invest a large fortune on fancy powerboats and pay for the fuel and maint (everyone is a little wiser now, and not so easily sucked into that huge void).
My opinion is future family boats should be safe where the likelihood of capsize is extremely unlikely who would take their 3 yr and 5 yr olds out on a boat in possible rough conditions with a 50/50 chance of capsizing, answer nobody, we all know that.
I think the reason kayaking has become so popular is because it's inexpensive, and a means to still get out on the water even if you can't afford a powerboat anymore ( I have owned many powerboats). Yet kayaking is very limited, a typical paddle kayaker only goes a few hundred feet from shore, typically in very protected waters, and seldom venture more than 2 miles from launch (those were our limitations). When we got into Mirage drive pedal Hobies our range tripled, then when we added the sail kits our range tripled again. Even with the full setup (miragedrive, sail kit, AMA's , etc) you still can't get very far at a reasonable pace (a reasonable pace in my eyes is between 6 and 10 mph).
Then we got a Tandem Island, what we call our SUV, Our range and capability expanded tremendously, we love the TI. However the ocean and intercoastal system is very large, and in the typical light winds that get in Florida it gets very boring very quickly trying to get to a destination at 2-3 mph. Since we typically destination sail, we want to get where we are planning to go in a decent amount of time, and speed (clue….faster than 2-3mph). That’s my main reasoning for adding more sails (and the motor) to my TI in the first place so I can go 15 or 20 miles in a reasonable amount of time to our destinations (ie… sand bars and other islands to meet friends, go out snorkeling, and scuba diving, go to Treasure Island for the day (bar hopping), etc). Basically all the same things we used to do with our powerboats.
With my hybrid Tandem Island I can do all these things, even in very low winds, I can maintain between 6 and 8 mph all day if necessary, and if the wind picks up I can go way faster, massive sails and complexity is not what it’s all about though, and being able to do 25 mph on one keel isn’t what it’s about either. It’s about a family orientated general purpose boat that can be used for many things, is easy and fast to rig or car top, and all can be stored in your garage (no storage costs), can easily carry two adults and two or 3 children, and doesn’t cost a small fortune in fuel to use . What I would call a Hybrid family fun boat. Must be simple enough to operate for non-sailers to pick up easily (like the present TI), since 90% of this new million strong market have never sailed before, and have no interest whatsoever in joining Yacht clubs, or participate in one design sailing races in their white shorts.
If marketed correctly as the next fun family boat. A hybrid family fun boat ready to go out of the box and start using right away for under $8000 (Honda powered Hybrid 100mpg) to $10,000 dollars (Evolve powered with solar, and extra batteries, "totally green") would be a huge hit, since the next available option is to go to a full powerboat ($40k plus, plus storage, maint, and fuel).
Hobie already has all this with the TI, the Evolve system, and the Mirage drive system they just have not put it together as the next generation Hybrid family (tri powered) type boat for everyone, or tried to market it as such.
Even if offered with a small fuel efficient outboard as an option for those not comfortable with the electric/solar (because of it’s limited range and at least right now extreme cost) it wouldn’t be the end of the world, to be able to go out all day and have fun, and really be able to get somewhere for about a dollar in fuel. Paying a small amount for gas is not going to deter anyone in this new group (they are not tree huggers, but everyone is green conscious these days). They are not sailing purists, and could care less what the propulsion is as long as it doesn’t cost a fortune to operate (that’s the key). And as far as pedaling the mirage system goes, that’s all part of it, good exercise, and most young couples would have no problem pedaling along, it really is no extra effort, and it makes you feel like you are doing something. Heck I’m in my 60’s and I have no problem pedaling to get somewhere, and neither does my wife, we often pedal all day.
I can go on and on, but the point is there should be a family orientated family fun boat offered with hybrid (tri powered) capability, and marketed heavily as such. Of course all this is just my opinion, but I really think Hobie has stumbled onto something really big here, and doesn’t fully realize exactly what they have developed, and it’s ramifications.
My two cents
Bob