Hobie Pedal power boat (12' Hobie Mirage)

[Eric Esche]

This is going to be the strangest gear review - a positive gear review from someone who has no interest in ever owning one and who never has been in one yet, and from someone who has in past mostly ignored sit on tops from September to mid-June. Think of this review as Eric discovering a new recipe for crow or parsnips. I've often said if you don't like a food, you just haven't found the right recipie yet. I think Hobie is on to something.

Yesterday, I got a call from friends that they would be down here at Monte Ne in 15 minutes to paddle and did I want to go along. Still in PJ's, surfing ACC, and it's 37F outside. Sure, why not. Scramble to find warm layers already packed for a trip this weekend and roll my boat to landing. We put on at the same time.

David Dempsey had borrowed a Hobie 12 foot sit on top that has the pedel flippers mechanism to Demo from Lewis and Clark's Roger's store.

Oddity. Wierd. Probably just a useless toy for rich folks who will never use it. David paddles year round, usually 2-3 times a week if he can manage it. I had just seen a Hobie paddled weekend before last by Dustin from Lewis & Clark down Osage Creek, although without the Flipper thingy as Osage was too shallow. I knew it manueuvered pretty good and looked stable enough from seeing Dustin paddle it, but Dustin could probably look good paddleing anything, and after all - it's still just a sit on top.

Surely David can't be considering a sit on top. This is a guy who paddles a Prijon Kodiak and has an 18' Carbon fiber Epic kayak as his fast boat and a carbon fiber Epic wing paddle. Well if you dress for it, guess there isn't any reason why it can't be a year round boat if Open canoes can be, and I have and paddle an open occasionally.

Get water into tops of my wetsuit booties helping him carry it out far enough for flippers not to touch rocks. YES, I did dress for this with two layers of Polypropylene socks and Thorlo's over that in my NRS work boots, but that first ice water rinsing is never welcome. Later found out this carrying out to deeper water is totally un-necessary as the whole mechanism comes out with just a turn of two lock rings. 10 seconds if you are slow. Pedel mechanism is well built and not a flimsy thing. Looks like someone knew what they were doing, and really engineered it right.

I had heard these Hobie pedel things are slow and very limited in what they can do. Depends on if you consider 5.6 MPH peak slow or 2.6 to 3.3MPH slow for an easy and low energy impact cruise. I had no problem keeping up with them in my Carolina, but to flip that, they had no problem keeping up with me in my Carolina. I can and regularly do 2.2 miles in 24 minutes (~5.5MPH) with my Carolina and can sprint to 9MPH for very short distances, but cruise normally between 2.5 and 3.5 MPH. Patsy said the near recumbant biking motion of the Hobie probably uses 1/3 the energy of paddleing with a paddle. David said 1/2 to 1/3. Regardless of whether you are asking a big man or a smart little old lady scientist, verdict was easier than paddleing. HMMMM...... I might take David's claims with a grain of salt, but if Patsy says something, I'd bet on it. Sorry, David, I've paddled with you enough to throw away any salt. You are always totally straight and factual.

Hobie pedel mechanism has adjustments on it for stroke length, position, and the foot clips for foot size. Took a few trial and error moments to get them adjusted for each boater, but that was less than 5 minutes total and then they were optimized and didn't need to be touched again. Would have been faster if David had read the instructions, but adjustments were obvious and no tools needed as a sqeeze to the pedel shaft moves it, and the clips are spring metal. Bet a first grader could do this. I think the KISS principle was used on this boat. Don't knock it if they got it right.

I think this was David's and Patsy's first sit on top experience. As you sit higher out of the water than in most sit insides, it seems shakey at first, but the Hobie is wide enough to be really stable. Go fast boat roaring into landing gave David 10 inch waves to deal with. NO problem. Hobie just rides up and over them with its volume and David is not a small guy at 230+. (I'll get into how it handles with a smaller person later as Patsy is about half of David in size and mass.) Initially, David looked jittery and it wasn't the 39F temperature or winds. Once he started pedeling, he stopped looking jittery. Noticed the Hobie has virtually no wake to it. My Carolina at same speeds has a noticable wake. Thought my Carolina's hull had to be more efficient in the water than the Hobie which looks like most Sit On Tops - broad and bulbous, but I guess not. Noticed that I was going to have to paddle aggressively to keep up. That pedel mechanism works even if David didn't have it adjusted right at first. If it is noisey and slamming into the stops, it is not adjusted right. When adjusted properly for pedel stroke length and position, along with the seat position, you should be able to take your full pedel stroke and be quiet. Bang away with it hitting the stops and it will hurt your knees too. And when I say quiet, I mean quiet. You wouldn't hear them coming if they were behind you or in front of you on a moonless night, even if you were listening for them. Had I mentioned yet that someone might have really engineered this thing right?

We paddled/pedeled out to circle the islands across from Horseshoe Bend State Park after going through the Railroad Cut, with David stopping occasionally to try another setting. Davis also took speed readings from his GPS to compare results. He found that settings that optimized the speed also optimized the happiness of his knees. Where as he wasn't sure when he started that pedeling was a good idea with his knees, by the time we got to the main channel, I wasn't sure Patsy was ever going to get her chance to pedel the Hobie. David's smile wasn't coming from squinting at the sun.

After circleing the islands and getting nearly back to the Monte Ne arm, David let Patsy try out the Hobie for the last mile and a half. Adjustments took maybe one minute this time. Patsy, who has a recumbant trike for land and who lives in a hilly to mountainous area liked the Hobie. She had no problem with the Hobie that I could tell and even had the rudder control handled better than David did. Her speeds matched David's although she didn't try a max speed run. She seemed to like the Hobie a lot. She said she initially would have liked a better place to grab onto than the molded in handles on the sides, but i think she would have been happier still with a set of bike handles for the steering. After a while you realize that you don't need hands on steering on the water. You can literally just set your course and go, hands free. It takes some getting used to, but it doesn't appear to take long to get used to it, maybe 5 minutes, if David and Patsy are any examples. Thought I saw Patsy with her eyes closed for a bit. I do that paddleing occasionally, but I'd never do that on a bike.

The rudder raises and lowers via a bar shaped knob behind the seat on the right side. Flip the bar forward, you raise the rudder, flip it back and you lower the rudder. Raise/lower controls were a tad stiff, but boat was new. More intuitively obvious than rope knots to raise/lower the rudder on my Carolina and about the same force to move. Rudder direction was from controls with your left hand, leaving your right hand free to hold a drink, a camera, or hold a fishing rod or both hands if you are on course. Different models of the Hobie come with built in fishing rod holders, another model, the Adventure, in 16 feet can come with outriggers and a sail to make a trimeran.

David did try paddleing AND pedeling at the same time. Possible, but not practical. That semi reclined position puts your knees up where you would normally hold the paddle to paddle. Could hold it higher to paddle, but why when you are already going fast enough with less energy. it's not like you need it to balance with. I'd still carry a paddle as a spare in the built in paddle holder clip on the right side for fine maneuvering, but once you get going places, you just lean back and go using your legs.

David tried to see how fast he could go by pedeling furiously. This was before he had things adjusted correctly, but it seemed to hit a wall with his weight at 5.6MPH per the GPS. He probably could have gotten it up to 6.0 with the better setting and practice, but this boat isn't about top speed, its about effortless cruising, so he didn't try again.

David is seriously looking for his next boat and now is interested in trying out a Hobie 16 foot model Adventure models that could carry more camping gear plus his 230 pounds. The 12 foot Mirage did have two cargo compartments. The front one is a big open mouthed hatch that took David's larger than shoe box sized picnic cooler box, with room to spare for some soft sided dry bags as well if we had had them. More weight forward might have also made the boat plane better in the water although it looked pretty good to me, based on the wake lines or lack there of at all speeds. There is also a back hatch that David never used on this trip. Looked like you could get multiple 2 liter bottles through it one at a time, or several small dry bags.

Bottom line is that Hobie has a well engineered product that is a practical sit on top with a unique propulsion system. Bikers and folks without bad knees like mine should really like them. I don't fall in this catagory and I was still impressed. I'd recommend to friends who have a use for them.

I admit I have had a bit of a snobby attitude towards sit on tops in the past and had totally dismissed them to the level of inner tubes until a neighbor of mine on the lake here got one. She was fast enough with hers to make me work to catch up to her when I over took her on the lake one day. She hadn't seen me, and wasn't racing. I just assumed incorrectly that it would be nothing to catch up to her. That started my rethinking Sit On Tops. The Hobie pedel mechanism takes Sit On Tops to another dimension. It should be popular on lakes, harbors, and rivers with more than a foot of water in them for anyone.

to show that I'm working on that recipie mentioned above, I'll shout it.

IF YOU DRESS FOR IT, SIT ON TOPS CAN BE PADDLED OR PEDELED YEAR ROUND.

I'll even grant that skilled boaters could safely paddle them in class 1 through III rapids most of the time. That said, I wouldn't want to paddle or pedel a Sit On Top without a dry suit when weather conditions would make you wish for one if you swam. I'd still expect carnage shots in class IV and above, but you can get that with any water craft and the right or wrong paddlers.

[okieboater]

Not sure but seems like some years ago, New Wave made a white water sit on top that looked pretty good.

Never paddled one, but New Wave made some nice boats. I had a sleek and a big foot. both great kayaks.

[DrLewall]

Ok Eric, where are the pictures? I have heard of these boats and would like to see one in action..may have to try one out.

[SharkAttack]

A friend of mine has one of the Hobie fin paddlers. I tried it on Lake Conway & it was great for fishing. Like Eric said it did seem a little top heavy until I became used to it. I can't imagine paddling on any flowing water.

Wes