The Dark Side Got A little Darker - Hobie Adventure Rigging

Its a great looking boat Scott. Congrats.

Yes... it is!!! 

I'm proud and flattered to see ya on a Hobie.  I love the way you intelligently rigged your boat.

Most of you know that the Hobie Adventure has been my main ride since 2006.  Now, that I've upgraded to the AI set up, I never been happier on the water.

Well the dark side is now as dark as it gets. When you ask retailers about buying an Adventure and later converting it to an Island you get a litany of reasons why you should buy the Island. Some true some BS. Here is what I was told:
1. It is really hard to do it on your own and requires precision drilling. NOT TRUE it is no more difficult than installing a fish finder. Yeah, there is a learning curve, but really no big deal.
2. You don't save any money. True it costs $50 more to make the conversion yourself. A strange pricing strategy which makes no sense.
3. You will not get the V2 kit with the Aka II and 2012 rudder. TRUE, Hobie is selling off their obsolete inventory in the form of a V1 kit on their loyal customers who couldn't afford to buy an Island. The V2 kit may be available at some point but don't hold your breath. Penny wise and pound foolish, IMHO. This is the last $ I will ever spend on a Hobie product. As I told one of their managers, real companies dump obsolete inventory on 3rd world companies not on their loyal customers.
4. The Aka II bars are a superior design as is the new rudder. Maybe, the new designs have things I don't like. The rudder performs better under some conditions but I am not racing I am fishing.

So I made the upgrade and the only challenge was reshaping the hull so it would fit the mast receiver. Yeah, you heard that right, I had to buy some new bolts to pull the hull into the right shape to fit the mast receiver. Roto-molded aren't the space shuttle.  I did some things in a different order than the directions and it resulted in a better retrofit. I won't go into the details, but If anyone owns an Adventure and wants to convert and Island, I will gladly help you. The hole saw and arbor make cutting the hole really easy. I had to re-rig my Plano box and included some pics. Now it is time to kill some salmon.

Scott

Scott,
looking forward in fishing on the dark site with you....got to love hobie!

d

Nice Scott looks like you did a great job on your conversion we need to go out and learn to sail, let me know when you want to hook up.

Pat R

Scott,
looking forward in fishing on the dark site with you....got to love hobie!

d

The product is ok but the company sucks.

Wait a minute. The Hobie Adventure isn't a "Plug and Play" upgrade to the Island? Is that just with the year model you have? I'm a little confused. The "sail mount" that comes stock on the Adventure is different than the "Mast Mount"? I'd like to imagine that Hobie would set people up to easily upgrade to the Island if they bought an Adventure. If I imagine right, don't they realize that most people who buy the Adventure can't afford the Adventure Island right off the bat? Or that someone who buys the Adventure may  want to upgrade as they become more into the fun of being on the water? I hope I'm misunderstanding this all, because this sounds just plain dumb to me. I can't understand why Hobie would make it to where you have to drill and reshape hulls and stuff to upgrade to the another version of the same kayak. I hope I misunderstood.

Wait a minute. The Hobie Adventure isn't a "Plug and Play" upgrade to the Island? Is that just with the year model you have? I'm a little confused. The "sail mount" that comes stock on the Adventure is different than the "Mast Mount"? I'd like to imagine that Hobie would set people up to easily upgrade to the Island if they bought an Adventure. If I imagine right, don't they realize that most people who buy the Adventure can't afford the Adventure Island right off the bat? Or that someone who buys the Adventure may  want to upgrade as they become more into the fun of being on the water? I hope I'm misunderstanding this all, because this sounds just plain dumb to me. I can't understand why Hobie would make it to where you have to drill and reshape hulls and stuff to upgrade to the another version of the same kayak. I hope I misunderstood.

Basically they are trying to force people into spending $2000 more to buy the Island and making excuses for doing it on your own. The stupidity of the marketing strategy is that there are hacks like you and me who don't have $4000 of cash to throw in a single payment  and have to do it over time. For our sins, we get sold obsolete parts so they can pad their bottom line. I recently bought an Eddyline kayak and have had a wonderful customer experience. Quite frankly, I am taking my business somewhere else.

Wow, so I did understand. That's weak.

Upgrade looks great Scott. If I didn't have so many projects sitting around I would've gone the same route. I really wanted a blue one to match with my Revo.

Nice Scott looks like you did a great job on your conversion we need to go out and learn to sail, let me know when you want to hook up.

Pat R

Can I join?