Hobie Cat Forums

Has anyone brought out their GPS to measure speed? Pleaase specify MPH or Knots. Also, point of sail and estimated wind speed would be good info to add.

We've had our AI's since November. Here in Maui, We get good sailing wind many days so I started a log book Jan. 1st. to keep spec's. Here's my Max speeds in MPH
1/07 7.1
1/13 12.2
1/14 14.6
1/20 5.4
2/04 6.3
2/08 9.7
2/16 10.9
2/17 7.6
2/25 10.8
3/05 6.8
3/08 11.0
3/11 9.0
3/16 7.8
3/23 7.5
3/24 11.4
3/31 7.5
4/02 10.7
4/06 8.0
4/13 10.9
4/27 11.4
vacation
6/08 8.5
6/15 11.2
6/21 11.4
6/22 11.7

Once, last year we had perfect high winds that produced long (1/2 mile+) lines of waves. Riding the tops of those waves we got the boats planing (the whole boat vibrated). We got top speeds only that day of 22, then 23 and finally 28MPH! Scared the daylights out of us but boy it was fun. The next day we bought surfboard leashes to keep us attached to the boat!

Kayaking Bob

Wow Reconlon..
Speeds like that just made my Boo-Yang tingle
....Kepnutz

Hi Kelly and welcome to the forum.

I've hit 10.9 MPH several times; 12.8 once (but I don't necessarily believe that one). It sails in the eights and nines very easily on a close to broad reach. You can get more if you pull the daggerboard -- I usually leave mine in though.

Thanks for the Welcome! Looking foward to learning a bunch from you kayak sailors.

I've been racing bigger boats 25~35 footers for abour 6 years on LI Sound, and have been wanting to sail on th eosuth shore, but with a 6 foot draft, it wasn't possible.

I stumbled accross the AI over the winter, and finally found somwhere to rent one to try it out. First sail, 12.9 Knots. It was a blast! The only concern I had was rudder control at that speed, and after surfing around I found the answer on this website. I called the dealer, Empire Kayaks, and they are getting the rudder for me and their own boats.

I asked about the speed because I wasn't sure if the 12.9 KN was me moving the GPS or actual speed. Now I believe it.

BTW, I bought the AI as soon as I got back to shore. I pick it up this weekend. I have all next week off, and I am planning on doing A LOT of sailing on the AI.

Sail Fast,
Kelly

I've been out twice now since I bought my AI, and I think the 12.9 Knots I stated earlier was a fluke caused by me picking up the GPS. I had some good wind the past 2 sails, and I was only up around 5 to 6 knots max.

I hiked out a bit to keep her flat in the water, but I think she likes to have one rail in the water.

Getting the right reef point for increasing wind speeds will take some experimentation. The onlt thing that drives me nuts is the telltales sticking to the sail.

I found, if the telltails are stuck, then I probably don't have enough wind yet!

Do you have the new balanced rudder yet? It helps with the rudder control at speed.

If my ama goes under more than once in a while, I start reefing, as that really slows the boat down.

The largest deterrent to high speed to me is the water surface. When the wind comes up here, so do the waves. 15 knot winds = 3-5' waves, 20 knot = 5-8' waves. Hard to go fast going up and down 8' wind waves. But over 20 knot winds, if not gusty, can produce here the long waves that I got so fast riding the tops of. Other than that, some of my faster runs come when the wind just comes in before many waves form.

Happy 4th,

Kayaking Bob

I am a new owner. I went out last weekend in 20-30 mph winds on the Laguna Madre off South Padre, an area known for speed in the windsurfing community. I took my garmin 76s with me and rest all trip data prior to sailing. Upon returning, my max speed read 19 point something mph! Translated to 16.7 knots. I'm assuming this is accurate but still am not sure since I'm new to sailing. Any opinions?

I have bought a Racetech GPS unit that does speed (knots, compass heading and tells you when you get lifted etc. Since I bought it, I have not been out in a real blow, but so far seems to average 8-10 knots.

_________________
Either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!

Bikercraig, if the GPS was moving around the cockpit, it is possible it's reading a bit higher.
But even so, that was VERY fast!

I bought ball mount(s) for my Garmin(s) which fixes that problem and helps to be able to watch it from time to time while sailing.

My full sailing log starting 2007, with max speed in the right most number column is here:
http://www.kayakingbob.com/sailing-log
Best speed this year (so far) is 12.3mph

Here's a pic of my latest GPS setup.


My latest fun is downloading the tracks from the GPS and posting them (see the top 3 entries in the log under "Map Track"). Once loaded, anyone can "play" them by pressing "Replay Track" at the lower right of the map. Some good (and some irrelevant) graphs below that.

_________________

http://KayakingBob.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2007, 2009 & 2010 Hobie AIs and a 2010 TI

I have gone maybe 12-15 times since I got the boat. In northerly winds of 7-10kts the waves are small where I live. The boat will do solid 5.5kts to 6.2kts. In strong wind conditions, say 18kts and up, I have read 9.2 kts of my GPS. Of course that was going with the waves and the speed is measured over ground (SOG). My guess would be around 7kts through the water without true planing. That's pretty neat for a 16 foot boat.

Hi

was out this morning in 20 knots gusting higher (a lot higher) seas to 1.5 metres (white caps).

The best I got to was a little over 9 knots according to the GPS. I did have a couple of reefs in a lot of the time because of the strong weather helm in the gusts. The seas didn't help the seas but made for an exciting ride.posting.php?mode=reply&f=70&t=7127#

By the time I came back in the wind had moved around to directly offshore so it was a challenging tacking run in. The boat pointed surprisingly well even compared to a couple of Lasers when I got closer in. A couple of times I just added more sail and let her turn in - I was pinching to make it anyway.

One thing I'm sure of now is that you'd need to work very hard to knock one of these over. I suspect they'd break before they flip. She really is a gem of a boat.

I have a Velocitek gps puck fitted on mine. My top speed recorded to date has been around 10 knots. However that was going with the tide which will have added probably 2-3 knots to the reading in a moderate wind. Going against the tide I usually average around 5 knots, depending on the wind speed.
I haven't had a chance to get out in some really strong winds yet, where they have not been going against the tide creating lots of waves.
I am looking forward to a real blow that is going with the tide, with minimal waves. Should get to see some serious speed then!

_________________
Either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!

Fastest I ever gone was 9.8MPH recorded with my Lowrance FF M68c GPS. It was pretty scary at that speed, I can't imagine going any faster than that on the AI!

I take my GPS out everytime and tend to agree with the person who figured over several trials that the top speed of the AI is approximately 66% of the wind speed. When I first took the GPS out, I had a max of 19 mph and questioned that since it seemed quite high. Since then, I rarely ever top 10-12 mph so I question whether the 19 was accurate. I doubt it. I do know that the day I recorded it was extremely windy and I was riding some waves pretty fast.