jib for Adventure Island

A jib is a sail that goes in front of the main. When Hobie introduced the AI/TI, they said that they planned to introduce a jib shortly thereafter. That never happened, but quite a few people on the Hobie Island forum have DIY jibs. They say that a jib improves performance in light wind conditions, and it improves the ability to "point" into the wind (that is, you can go at a steeper angle into the wind). These are both obvious areas of weakness on my AI.

Btw, Hobie does have a spinnaker for the Islands. That's primarily a downwind sail. I have the spinnaker, but never found it too useful. It seems to me that the spinnaker is only useful in a very narrow range of conditions, and it definitely isn't worth the extra hassle when fishing.

After reading more about jibs on the Hobie forum, I decided to give it a try. So, I rigged one, and finally got a chance to test it on Friday. Wind conditions were light, and I was very impressed with how much power the jib added under those conditions. I didn't get a chance to test out whether it improves "pointing", as the wind was too light.

If you're interested, here's a brief video. In the first part, the wind is extremely light, yet I'd estimate that the extra sail effectively doubled my pedaling speed. In the latter 2 segments, the wind is only slightly more, and it's performing even better, with almost no pedaling effort on my part.

My GPS app flaked out, or I'd have more concrete numbers. In any case, I'm sold on the use of a jib. It was pretty great to be able to get somewhere in a (relative) hurry early in the day when the winds were so light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndn8ton9czI&feature=youtu.be

What about in high wind situation?  Love those videos!

What about in high wind situation?  Love those videos!

Ha ha! I haven't had a chance to test it out in windy conditions yet. But, for anything more than 10 knots or so, I suspect it'll be overpowered with the jib, so in those conditions I'll probably have to keep it furled.

What size/type of jib is it ?

Any way to reef in the main sail?

What size/type of jib is it ?

This is the sail that I'm currently using as the jib:

https://www.intensitysails.com/420jibs.html

The size is about right, but it has a wire luff, which is not ideal for the AI, as the main mast is so flexible. At some point, I plan to modify it to fit over an aluminum rod (or carbon fiber, if I can find one that's the right length/diameter). When that happens, I'll cut down the size slightly too.

Intensity sails sells a few others that might work, and their prices are good:

https://www.intensitysails.com

 

Any way to reef in the main sail?

Yes, I can reef the main with the jib deployed. However, you have to have a mast topper of some sort for this to work. Hobie sells a mast topper for use with the AI/TI spinnaker, but it I'm not a fan of it. Here is my post on DIY cheapo mast topper that, IMHO, works much better than Hobie's:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=93648.0