In July, I was fishing on my AI in Santa Cruz, and the DFG guys came by. Embarrassingly, I could not get my fishing license up on my phone (forgot my password, wet fingers, etc., etc.). Anyways, they wrote me a citation and said it's easy to get it dismissed (except for $25), if I actually have a license. Of course, I was able to get my license up on my phone a couple minutes after they left, which was no use.

I tried calling SC county court shortly after, but they had no info on the ticket. Today, I finally got a letter from them, and the fine is $485. The original citation does not have the "Y" or "N" box checked by the "correctable" option (that is, neither box is checked, which seems weird), and the person at the court said that means it's not correctable (which seems questionable). So, as I understand it, the options are to plead guilty/no contest and beg them to reduce the fine, or request a date to dispute it. Neither option seems that great to me. In any case, I'm just wondering if anybody has any experience with this and/or any recommendation.

It's no secret that Hobie charges a fortune for parts, so I'm always looking to DIY parts. In the past, I upgraded a couple of V2 Mirage drives to GT, which resulted in leftover V2 drums and various other parts. I'd been thinking about trying to assemble V2 drives from the leftover parts, and I was recently able to find a couple of spines for a good price ($38 each), so I got them.

The Mirage drive masts are ridiculously expensive (like $40 each), so I got these 16 inch long 7mm stainless rods and threaded them:

https://www.amazon.com/inches-405mm-Stainless-Steel-Metric/dp/B0CLGV9QJ7/?th=1

I had a 1/2" nickel rod laying around, so I used that for axle that the drums attach to (it's even more stainless than stainless), and I have a 3/8" stainless rod (not pictured) that I'll use for the other 2 metal parts (axle for the fins themselves, and axle for the roller thingy).

The turbo fins and chains are the only parts that I haven't figured out how to do on the cheap. There is a YT video of a guy who made his own fins, so I might experiment with that, but I'm stumped on the chains. If anybody has any ideas, LMK...

Other than maybe 5 miles of use last year just to test it out, today was the first time I used this fake Hobie Mirage drive chain. It failed after 1 mile of use, and I was not even pushing hard. It looks like it pulled out of the fitting, as opposed to a cable break. Lame!!!

I managed to tear 2 (of the 3 on my AI) Hobie rubber mesh pockets yesterday. It would cost nearly $50 to replace them, which seems crazy expensive, even by Hobie standards. Has anybody found an alternative (cheaper) material that works well? On the Hobie forum, somebody cut up a rubber landing net, and I'm sure that would work, but I don't have one to cut up...

I launch my AI from the SC harbor all the time. Sometimes I get a yearly launch pass, but this year, I did not (the pass is attached to a trailer, and I've been using 2 different trailers). I usually don't pay before I launch, and the attendant puts a ticket under my windshield wiper after 9:00am. I always pay that at the harbormaster office before I leave.

In the mail, I received an "Official Courtesy Notice Unpaid Parking Citation(s)", which says that I owe $49 for an unpaid ticket that was issued 06/07/2024 at 9:25am. I was not at the harbor on June 7, so I'm going to dispute it, but it seems difficult to prove that I wasn't there. I was at the harbor on June 5, June 8, June 12, etc., and I never go 2 days in a row. In fact, I covered nearly 19 miles on June 8, and there is no way I'd have enough energy to do that if I'd been on the water the day before (I'm not Mr. X!). However, I don't think that would be a persuasive argument.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

In any case, I'd suggest keeping all of your receipts when you launch at the SC harbor, as this happened to me once before. That previous one was relatively easy to dispute, as I was there and had paid.

I bought an Icom IC-M37 from West Marine about a year ago, and as of Friday, it seems to be seriously malfunctioning. I can power it up, and it shows channel 11. It seems to actually work on that channel, and I can even adjust the volume/squelch and set the hi/low. However, I cannot get it to switch to any other channel, and even the dedicated button that is suppose to switch to channel 16 does nothing.

Anybody else ever have a similar problem, preferably, that you were able to resolve?

Barring that, do you have a recommendation for a VHF, preferably one that is available at West Marine that I can get today?

I posted something about my DIY-PVC seat in a different thread, but now that it's been through several revisions, and I think I've more-or-less perfected it, I thought I'd start a separate thread.

The backstory is that on a pre-2015 AI/TI, the seat area is sure to get flooded with water, and I got tired of sitting in a puddle of water all day. So, I made a frame out of PVC pipe, and strung bungee cord over it as tight as possible. The first version worked OK, but was a bit too low in front. The second version was very comfy, but it was a bit too high. The 3rd version ended up in the trash (lots of swearing involved) as the glue set on the very last piece before the pipe was fully inserted into its fitting.

Finally, the fourth version seems to be exactly what I was looking for. The only down side is that the bottom of the main sail is now below head-height, but that's a lot less annoying than a wet butt. Some pictures are attached.

It's all 3/4" regular white PVC pipe. I glued it together (the usual PVC cement, no primer), and I'd recommend glueing it. It is possible to just put in screws to hold it together, making it easier to modify, but then it might squeak. It is a bit challenging to get everything square when gluing. Believe it or not, I found that the secret to squareness is to buy PVC pipe from Lowe's rather than Home Depot, as the pipe from Lowe's can be fully inserted into fittings and taken apart, while the pipe from Home Depot could only be inserted about half way into fittings. Being able to completely pre-assemble everything is a huge plus, as then you can square everything, and mark exactly how the pipe and fitting need to join.

Also, the extra brace across the underside is worth including, as without that, the pipe tends to bow in quite a bit under the pressure of the bungee cord (not to mention the weight of the butt). Adding a second brace would not be unreasonable. The brace was a bit tricky, as part of the inside of the fittings needs to be filed off (pipe is not supposed to slide through the middle third of a T fitting). I did that modification with a sanding pad on an angle grinder (gotta be very careful not to melt/burn the PVC too much). I didn't bother to glue the modified T onto the pipe as the bungee cord should hold it in place. Finally, the curvy piece on the front is not necessary--it's just something I happened to have lying around (or, possibly, laying around) that was the right length. Finally finally, I also plan to put some rubber feet under the bottom front pipe, since it doesn't exactly match up with the shape of the kayak. If you are really good at bending PVC pipe, it might be possible to make the pipe lay flat against the kayak, but that would be tricky, as the hull is not perfectly symmetric.

If anybody wants precise lengths of the pipes used, LMK.

When I saw this article, the first thing I thought of was the Far Side comic below...

https://www.ktvu.com/news/kite-surfer-spells-help-sand-prompts-santa-cruz-rescue