In a recent article at Modern Kayak Fishing (formerly Yakass.net) on the “8 myths about Hobie kayaks” Josh discussed a number of issues people raise with Hobie Kayaks, including the Mirage Drives. 

“Myth 8: I Can’t do That” is to do with a belief by some people that they aren’t fit enough to use the Mirage Drive.

As Josh says;

Pedalling is a lot easier than paddaling, physically and technically.

We can certainly attest to that. On our maiden voyage we pedalled 5kms into an outgoing tide. There is no way we could have paddled that distance. With the Mirage drives however we did it and while both happy to stop, we were not completely exhausted. 

The other distinct advantage of the pedal based system over regular paddling is that it is alot less likely you will injure yourself. The shoulder joint is much less stable than the hip joint, which means its much more prone to injury. In addition, the thigh and butt muscles are the largest muscles in the body. Much stronger than the shoulder muscles they allow you to travel alot further with less fatigue.

All up, the Hobie Mirage Drive is an simple, elegant solution that makes going somewhere in your kayak so much more enjoyable and less exhausting. If you haven’t tried one before, take one for a test drive. You’ll be amazed at how simple it is compared to paddling.

Looking for inspiration for an appropriate cartoon image for the “Jinja Ninja” I came across the “Kitty Ninja” by Will Terrell. Will kindly granted permission for us to use our design, so the next step was finding someone to make it.

I contacted Joe from Professional Boat Stickers to turn it into a decal. Joe had a number of questions for us, including size and how we wanted to use it. He also pointed out the lines used in my initial drawing where too thin to create a long term decal. After a number iterations, we came up with the final product.

The end result looks terrific and really personalises our Tandem Island.

Hobie has a solution to this, it’s called the Hobie Steering Knob. This is a small round knob you screw into the already included nut in the rudder control. This gives you something more substantial to grip when controlling the rudder, especially in strong seas.

When I bought the steering knob, Mal at Sunstate Hobie was surprised that I’d had to work the rudder so much to keep her tracking in a straight line, even with the strong winds. He suggested we check there is no slack in the line when we lock the rudder down. If there is slack it’s possible the rudder could rise slightly in fast sailing, which would then contribute to vague steering.

On our first trip since installing the knob I have to say it works great. While the winds weren’t strong, the added grip works well in giving you better control. In addition you are no longer relying on just two fingers to control the rudder.

But why the Jinja Ninja?

We own two cats, one of which is a large ginger cat named “Ginger”. I know, pretty obvious, however he was named that as the day we got him he was referred to as “the ginger cat” and it seemed to fit. Ginger likes to do “ninja” sprints through the house, and is very adept at scaling his climbing toys. Once we got the sailyak, given it was large and yellow, we started referring to it as the Jinja Ninja and pretty soon others began to use that name. Sometimes naming something can be as simple as what feels right.

We decided to make it official with a decal after doing our marine radio course. During the course the instructor talked about the need to include the vessel name when radioing. Of course, as a kayak, we don’t register our boat and so have no official registration number we can use. The obvious thing to do is defer to her name. The guy taking the course suggested that if the boat had the name on it, then in an emergency, they could identify that they had located the vessel that had made the call.

So if you do have a name for your sailyak, it’s worth considering getting a decal made up for it.

We chose Manly as we had done our sailing course there with the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron and were familiar with both the harbour and close by.

Taking advantage of the Hobie Mirage Drives, we peddaled/paddled out of the mariner and headed south. Helen suggested we should get some serious peddling in to build up stamina in case we ever needed to rely soley on the peddles, so we set a course towards Wellington Point.

Surprisingly despite heading into the wind and waves, the 5kms only took us 90mins of mostly walking pace peddling. Along the way we also encountered a few rafts of jelly fish, that you could feel impacting on the turbo fins of the Mirage Drive.

We hauled up onto the sandy spit at Wellington point for a rest and something to eat. One of the problems we’d encountered along the way was that the Hobbie supplied water bottles, while fitting perfectly in the holder are a screw top, and so you run the risk of getting salt water in when drinking. This means we ended up not drinking as much as we should have. Unfortunately the other water bottle holder is too small for a standard drink bottle, so we’ll need to solve that problem later.

After a short break we unfurled the sail for the first time to see what she could do.

After some tacking, close haul and downwind sailing, we were both pleasantly surprised at how well she handled. While not very good down wind, she close hauled pretty well, but excelled on a beam reach. In the 10+ knot wind we were constantly submarining the leeward aka (outrigger)

To finish our first trip off, we decided to head over to Green Island before heading back across to Manly. We received a lot of waves and smiles from passing boaties, especially those in much larger sailing boats.

Despite some ominous storm clouds we avoided getting rained on and had a terrific first trip.

I’ve always been interested in kayaking, but it’s something Helen has quietly let slip as she’s not overly happy with the stability of a kayak. After we finished the course, Helen was looking at various boat options when she came across the Hobie Tandem Island and thought this might kill two birds with one stone.

My first reaction when she suggested I take a look at the Tandem Island (TI) was “jack of all trades, master of none”. I liked the ability to use it for both kayaking and sailing but was concerned that it might suffer when sailing. After a bit of time spent looking at videos of the Hobie TI in action, especially in some pretty extreme weather in Canada, I reassessed just how capable it might be and I started getting excited by the prospect of owning one.

The first thing to do of course was to have a look at one. So one Saturday afternoon we headed off to Sunstate Hobie in Murarrie and there she was, just as great in real life. Unfortunately we couldn’t try one out, but we could take one of the other Hobie kayaks out onto the Brisbane River to try out the stability and importantly the Hobie Mirage Drives. We were both extremely impressed with the drives even to the point of not being bothered peddling upstream against the outgoing tide of the river.

But what about trying the TI? Well the team at Sunstate Hobie will allow you to take one for a “test drive” on Lake MacDonald at their Cooroy office, so a few weeks later, off we headed for the 2 hr drive north. After a brief run down on it’s features and how to use it, they first took Helen then myself out for a sail. We were then let loose with it. We had a great time. In fact, for me, it was similar to the feeling I had when I headed off for a ride on my new motorbike. You couldn’t get the grin off my face.

Needless to say, at the beginning of the year we brought home our very own TI.

I’ve got to thank the entire team at Sunstate Hobie. They answered all our questions, helped with the important issues of who would insure it and on the day we picked her up, spent a long time making sure we not only knew how to use all the features but gave me pointers on towing and putting it in the water at a boat ramp.

Looking forward to a lot of fun trips in the bay and rivers/lakes around Brisbane and further afield.