If this has been covered, somebody please paste the thread right on in...

A post about mirage drive wear/tear got me wondering about what peopleÂ’s experiences have been with drive/hull performance, specifically speed and endurance. That said, there are a lot of ways this conversation could go.

IÂ’ve always used a Hobie Outback as my primary vessel. IÂ’ve paddled a few Sit Inside hulls and have pedaled a Hobie Classic and Sport, but not really enough to be able to compare to my Outback effectively.

So I guess a few key stats of interest would include:
Top speed-
I can manage about 6.5 mph for very short bursts in FAC conditions, with no current or wind.

Sustained speed for covering distances-
About 5mph in perfect conditions for up to 1.5 hours or so. I can go at trolling speed (1-3 mph for an entire day if I have food/water)

Max mileage (again in perfect conditions)-
The most IÂ’ve done in a day was about 20 miles on lake Don Pedro one summer. Average trip is probably around 10 miles. I feel pretty burned and have wicked soreness in my knees at the end of a full day on the water.

If you have some figures you would like to share, for whatever you are paddling or pedaling, it would be sort of fun to have some data for comparison. I know the Outback is a barge, so those of you in RevoÂ’s or hulls with less drag and draft probably have way higher numbers. Looking forward to checking out any replies!

My speed/endurance “stats” are very similar to yours, and my primary kayak is also an Outback. I’ve done something north of 20 miles in a day - FF battery died at about 19.5 miles then I trolled a bit more before pedaling the ~2 miles back to Bolinas from the salmon grounds. I was definitely wiped out and sore after that. Most trips are 15 miles or less I’d say.

That said, I usually don’t venture more than about 4-5 miles from my launch spot unless I know I’ll be able to ride the wind/current home.


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I love camping out at Usal, but you’re right... It’s a very exposed beach. And as you know, if anything were to happen out there you’d largely be on your own.

If you head out there, stay safe!


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Not stoked on the build quality of the Power Box, and definitely not stoked on their customer service. Long story short, I'm back to square one and will likely just build my own box...

I like the FG knot with Rizutto finish. Probably wouldn’t tie that one on the water though...


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If you ever feel like getting grossed out, check out the Water Board’s GeoTracker tool online. You can search any area of California and see a map with most (not all) contaminated sites identifies. You can also find information about what was spilled, when, and what’s been done to investigate and/or remediate it.

The state is just peppered with sites... Old gas stations, old dry cleaners, old manufacturing hubs, semiconductor industry, etc, etc, etc... Humans have really made a mess of things.

https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov


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AlexB that's really fascinating appreciated you sharing that. 

Q: the removed source material, where does THAT end up??  Hopefully not in the south bay 

The stuff we sucked out of the ground during ERH treatment was just filthy... It was a mix of HOT groundwater, steamy soil vapor, petroleum hydrocarbons (primarily a compound called stoddard solvent - really smelly but not terribly toxic), volatile organic compounds like PCE/TCE/DCE/VC/etc, and smelly black biomass (basically the dead bodies of bacteria that had been munching on this mess until we boiled them alive).

This filthy mix then passed through an extravagant treatment system. First the mix was cooled down to a reasonable temperature, which allowed us to separate the liquid phase (heavily contaminated groundwater with a layer of hydrophobic floating chemicals on top) from the vapor phase (air and chemical vapors). The liquid phase first went through a "product separator" to remove the "free phase" chemicals (the floating portion), clay bed filter to remove small droplets of chemicals, air stripper to remove dissolved volatile compounds, activated carbon remove what the air stripper missed, and finally micro filtered to remove any contaminated activated carbon "dust" that leaked from the carbon beds. After all that, the water was quite clean, and we were able to discharge it to the EBMUD sanitary sewer system (we had a permit to do this, and were required to test the water frequently).

The vapor phase was treated in a similar manner using several very large activated carbon filters. Rather than hauling the "spent" carbon off site as a waste material each time it reached it's treatment capacity, we "regenerated" the carbon every few days by passing steam through it to strip the contaminants from the carbon. What we were left with was ~300 gallon tote after tote after tote of essentially purified/distilled chemicals we had removed from the ground. This stuff looked a lot like vegetable oil, but it would knock you right on your ass if you were to smell it (all staff working directly with that stuff wore respirators at all times).

Long story short, all of the funk we pulled from the ground was separated from the groundwater and soil vapor, concentrated into a pure liquid form, and transported to a Clean Harbors facility Aragonite, Utah where it was blended with other flammable liquieds/fuels and incinerated to generate energy. 

The whole time this was going on, we were monitoring the air quality around the perimiter of the site in real time using a mobile on-site lab (GS/MS) plumbed to ~15 different air sampling points. This ensured that we didn't put the surrounding community at risk.

I'm not saying the Bay isn't filthy, just that the AMCO site really isn't part of that equation.

When it comes to rockfish, I feel like the quality and flavor of the flesh it has a lot more to do with the size/age of the fish and what it’s been eating than the species.

Some day when it’s cool to gather in groups again it would be fun to do a true blind taste test with various sizes of various species.


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