Hobie Cat Forums

I also want to adapt a 20.25 sq ft Hobie Kayak sail as a jib for my AI as described in this forum...

However, my dealer has checked with Hobie and Hobie will not sell a Kayak sail as a replacement!

Hobie will only sell the 20.25 sail as a 'kit' along with a mast and fittings!

So I guess if you own a Hobie Kayak with the sail kit and tear the sail...you have to buy the whole thing again!

I have tried eBay and CraigList without success.

Does anyone know where I could buy a 20.25 sail without having to
pay for the whole kit?

We just don't have enough call for replacement sails to plan for / make /offer and stock them specifically for that use.

_________________
Matt Miller
Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Hobie Cat USA

That is surprising. People don't wear out or damage their sails? Someone needs to teach me to sail like that!

How about Adventure Island sails? Am I going to wind up buying a new mast when I wear out my sail?

Tidalwave, you can make sails out of lots of different fabrics. Tyvec, blue tarps, old sails. Try a sail loft for those.

Come on, Tom... Quit harassing Matt. That's my job.

For those wondering:
AI Sails (only)
78509001 - wht/gry
78515001 - red/gry/wht
78516001 - turq/pap/wht
$410/ea

It's a matter of need vs the cost of stocking specific parts. There is not enough need to set up replacement sails for kayaks ... yet. We get VERY few requests (1), so making specific sku's, placing production orders and holding them for this purpose is not cost effective for me.

The Island Main is a bit different. There is a replacement sail already in the system because of the way that boat is produced and packaged.

We do have concerns about using a jib in this way on the Island. Some feel the loads on the bow handle eye are possibly a problem. When you sheet the main tight... if the jib luff is tight, you may lever a lot of load on the bow eye.

_________________
Matt Miller
Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Hobie Cat USA

Dog,

I'm your understudy in the "matt harassment" area...

Matt,

I can see how that would pop a bow eye out.

I plan to try mine only in light winds. The old junky sail I have is quite a bit bigger than the little Hobie kayak sail. I have found that the AI has plenty of power in winds above 12 knots, but I find myself trying to sail it in 6 to 10 knots of wind. It works OK across the wind, but pointing and running angles are slow. More sail area is needed at those angles on those days.

I try to limit my jib sail use to winds 10mph or less.

My uphaul line tension is easily adjusted to compensate for when the main sheet line is made taught for upwind sailing. Tensioning the main sheet, of course bends the mast back some which would tension the jib line and the bow eye.

Still, the bow eye is reasonably strong, as you pick up the boat using it. I think if the jib were used in high wind you would have a better chance of breaking the mast top over pulling the bow eye out. I don't want to find out

There are instructons on forum to adapt an Island mast cup to use the small kayak mast & sail. So if you got the full kayak sail kit you could use it for the jib sail and also to sail in "Adventure kayak" mode.

Ya, my current yellow jib was originally used to sail the Hobie Sport.

Good point on the bow eye, Yakaholic. As long as you don't pull on your jib halyard with any more force than it takes to lift the boat, and you ease it when bending the mast back, it should be able to handle the jib without popping out.

I'm also more concerned about the top of my mast. Carbon fiber is amazingly strong, but it also has the unfortunate characteristic of sudden catastrophic failure. It won't crack just a little bit. It will fail completely, or not at all.

But there's no reason to mess with a jib in over ten knots of wind. The AI sails great with that much wind. I'm just going to try to keep all jib loads on the mast below the loads experienced when tropical storm sailing earlier this year.

I received an email from Hobie about buying a 20.25 replacement sail...

They stated that they would probably have a new design/color model 20.25 sail available sometime later this fall/winter.

I was confused why Hobie wouldn't stock a replacement 20.25 sail for
the Hobie kayaks, which can be purchased with the 20.25 sail/mast kit.

I know that the AI was not designed for a jib...but like quite a few other
AI owners...I like 'putzing around' with my boats...redesigning features...

I also realize that putting a jib on the AI could overstress the boat in high winds...if I break the mast...it, of course, will be my fault.

I have installed a sail kit on my Grumman 17' sport canoe with jib.
I did some adapting on my Nacra 18' racing cat
I have a large 'parafoil' chute I got from my brother-inlaw who used it
in skydiving...I rigged it up on the bow of my 27' sailboat...boy, did it
pull going on a downwind run!...but was a devil to bring down.
I also have a medium sized parafoil kite...I am going to see if I can rig it to the AI (with the mast removed) along with a sea anchor for setting and dosing the parafoil.

I'd love to see pics of an AI tearing downwind, being pulled by a big kite. So don't forget to take pictures, Tidalwave!

Yeah!! What Tom said.

_________________
2010 Hibiscus Adventure Island

I experimented with sails too, I have a HyFly Windsurfer sail (unaltered) that I need to unload on some sucker , er lucky person. It is just taking up space in my increasingly clutter garage. billocala at gmail dot com or here ill find it eventually.

anyone try upgrading to a bigger sail (like my HyFly?) Were they ever heard from again?

I just got an email from Hobie stating that because the sail without the rest of the kit (mast and fittings) would only be $60 less than the full kit...
Hobie will ONLY sell the 20.25 sq ft sail as part of the kit.

Saves Hobie the trouble of separating the sail from the package and
book-keeping...I guess.

So if you ruin a 20.25 sail, you get to replace your mast also.

Hmmm...

Then maybe the Adventure Island needs another mast mounted forward for that sail...